Chapter VI: Canto IV: CXLV

Anon he led the trooping crowd, right glad
His steps to follow on discovery bent,
For he had soothed their drooping spirits sad,
As with enchanter’s wand, where’er they went;
The hours with them were golden visions blent;
Aladdin’s lamp could not enchant them more,
Or fairy spell ywove to circumvent
The soul enchained, when wrapt in legend’s lore
Of dreams Hesperia’s grove, or some peace rippling shore.

CXLVI.

At length they reach that rugged steep ascent
And entrance fair, that led to Learning’s bow’rs,
Unfading laurels its habiliment.
The summit gained, sprung up eternal flow’rs,
Where zephyrs balmy breathed Aonian hours;
There dwell those virgins pure, the “sacred Nine,”
And mental vigour grows with all its pow’rs,
The mind’s unclouded seat, and sweet sunshine,
Where she may sit and muse, and bask in thought divine.

CXLVII.

On each side yonder arch Corinthian stood
Two noble pillars Parian marble white;
Its sculptured façade proud adornment show’d
The lyre, and oaten pipe and ploughshare bright;
Caduceus’ rod, Medusa direful sight;
Show’d far-famed ægis of Minerva dread;
Toga, and scroll, and wisdom’s owl of night;
The olive, and the lamp nocturnal shed,
Symbol of student’s toil, were here decyphered.

CXLVIII.

On pedestal, half raised on either side,
Two lovely statues, virgin nymphs, there stood;
A thoughtful air did on each brow abide,
As tho’ they mused in silent solitude:
Th’ historic muse was one, that did o’erbrood
On history’s page, fair Clio virgin hight;
And Calliope with eloquence endued,
Muse of heroic verse, her rapt delight;
’Bove all, Mæonides surmounted caught the sight.

CXLIX.

Nor cared they linger long that company,
For they impatient burned to enter there;
Their eye it caught its walks of pleasantry,
Its winding groves, and plots of green so cheer;
At once they enter, glad enough to peer
That sacred sweet enclosure fairy ground,
To which the sons of song, enticed near,
Do hail the spot, and learned ones abound,
Who here resort for lore, in happy groups were found.

CL.

“Ye grov’ling souls, whose only heed and care
Is pleasure’s wiles, or love of greedy gain,
Who ply your task with dull and leaden stare,
And to this clod of earth would still remain;
Who hug your chains of ignominy and pain,
The soul encaged like some poor silly bird,
That careth not its freedom to attain,
Or force its prison cage, so strongly wir’d;
Your bonds ye love too well ’gainst them to be conspir’d.

CLI.

“My pleasure ’tis a lovelier path to show,
That leads to more enduring happiness
Than your dull life, who grovel here below
Deep sunk in sordid low pursuit, I guess.
Your abject state is one of sad distress;
A higher destiny awaits you here,
More kin to minds whom nobler objects press,
To climb the steep ascent and proud career
Of knowledge nobly won in learning’s hemisphere.

CLII.

“Oh! that I could impart the same delight
I too have felt in this, the Muse’s seat,
To walk as tho’ by heav’nly radiance bright;
Such, such is knowledge in its gain, I weet--
Food of the gods, so sung is not more sweet,
Or that Hesperian fruit fabled of old;
Here only found in Pallas’ calm retreat,
Its dear delights, fond task to you untold,
Of which it doth partake of pleasures manifold.”

CLIII.

All rife with gladsome joy, the gather’d throng
Their leader crowd around where he may guide,
To saunter, if they will, green alleys ’mong,
Where thoughtful student, lull’d by streamlet’s glide,
Doth lonely haunt its margent banks beside,
To list sweet notes of Philomela’s lay,
Or Luna pale to watch, night’s lovely bride,
High ’bove the blue vault soar in bright array,
About her gems of stars that beautify her way.

CLIV.

There they beheld, in deep seclusion’s walk,
Embow’ring groves beloved by sage of yore,
Th’ “Athenian Bee,” so famed for wisdom’s talk,
Who here discoursed on theme of learned lore,
From his mind’s cell of philosophic store,
Instructive heard; in that Academy
In “Dialogues” its master did outpour
From lips all bland with sweet serenity,
And words of mild appeal enforced he did apply.

CLV.

From hence they did emerge from wood’s wild glade,
As travellers eke some opening bright are shown,
Right glad to quit the forest’s gloomy shade
For Sol’s blest beam, that thro’ the welkin shone;
A brawling stream thro’ valley wended lone,
A lovely dell, I ween, with villas crowned,
That overshaded was with dark trees grown,
And mountains swelling ’bove the clouds around--
A spot of lavish grace liken to fairy ground.

CLVI.

Retreat like this did Roman eloquence
Invite his guests his charming villa view,
Whose landscape did them fully recompense,
Who hither sought and did its bounds pursue,
Where solemn groves in rich luxuriance grew;
The willow there it kiss’d the laving stream,
As low it drooped to see its image true,
Thus calm reflected in that twilight gleam,
A shady haunt, I ween, dreamt of in airy dream.

CLVII.

And there, oft heard, the roar of ocean’s waves
Fall on the ear in sullen murmurs deep;
Chafed in its fury, madly wild it raves,
Its bosom restless that can never sleep;
The screaming petrel doth its surface sweep,
With joyous wing exulting in its flight,
As far it roams, or scales the rocky steep;
On such lone sounding shore, with wild delight,
Demosthenes declaimed ’bove foaming billows might.

CLVIII.

“But yon Athenian pile our steps invite--
Sacred enclosure, where the studious mind
Doth there resort, and find therein delight
To pore o’er records, annals of mankind,
Proud names of glorious memory consigned,
Long since lone dwellers of the silent tomb,
Whose works survive, a new existence find;
Beauties, long hid, fresh burst from Time’s dark womb,
So sparkling gem illumes with sudden light the gloom.”

CLIX.

So spake their guide with glow of ardent love,
For he whiloime had passed a winsome hour
Of dear delight, the studious soul can prove
Who oft hath felt its soft bewitching pow’r;
When syren poesy’s lov’d charms allure,
Its influence sweet doth feel like placid lake,
When the sun peers thro’ clouds that passing lower;
The world shut out, he doth indeed forsake
Its noisy clamour loud, and quiet study take.

CLX.

With feelings thus attuned he led the throng
To lofty entrance famed for Doric grace,
Thro’ which they glided quick, nor linger’d long
Its cupola to gaze and frieze-work trace,
But enter’d straight that learning’s pleasant place;
A noble fair apartment ’twas, I ween,
Rich mouldings skilful wrought it did embrace,
Pillars of porphyry polished bright were seen
In graceful rows, that gave a beauty to the scene.

CLXI.

Here busts of noble names surmounted stood,
Illustrious sons renowned in classic lore,
Those whom th’ immortal sisters ardent woo’d,
Or poured from intellect its richest store,
The treasury of mind’s electric pow’r;
’Mong men the chief divinest Shakespeare seen;
Milton, tho’ blind, sublimity his dower;
Hesiod and Homer in their glories sheen;
Bacon, Locke, Newton great, and Mantuan bard serene.

CLXII.

On num’rous shelves, arranged pile above pile,
Ten thousand volumes met the student’s eye,
Unique and scarce, black letter’s olden style,
Rare manuscripts, and missals could descry,
And pond’rous tomes of noble ancestry
Heraldic, and the illuminated page,
The tourney field, and martial chivalry,
In costly colours drawn, did them engage,
With many quaint device accordant with the age.

CLXIII.

In various wide compartments classified,
Man’s hist’ry handed down from age to age;
Geology, with strata-earth described;
Arts, science, and the biographic page;
With great discoveries of the olden sage;
Or modern ingenuity and skill,
Inventions new, and projects that engage
This ever restless era’s movements still,
That rolls its progress forth like waves’ resistless will.

CLXIV.

And there arranged were works of classic lore,
Deep physical, or structure of man’s frame;
The bibliopist’s and theologian’s store,
Whereas none nobler, or hath higher aim;
Ethics and science did assert their claim,
And jurisprudence with its code of laws;
With tomes of burning thought’s consuming flame--
Time’s test, and not ephemeral applause;
Writers of truth divine, who own a First Great Cause.

CLXV.

And poesy’s immortal gems were there,
Heroic, pastoral, and descriptive verse,
Elegiac and the lyric, moving tear,
Eclogue and lofty ode, I could rehearse,
As Petrarch’s sonnet, Laura’s heart to pierce;
All witching words, all thoughts of burning glow,
The soul’s rich mine extracted from its source,
Whose treasured heaps like golden ore did show
What hidden stores were there, th’ unquench’d spirit’s flow.

CLXVI.

Oh! poesy divine, enchanting maid,
What spell is thine, what ardour kindling soul!
What piercing sight, tho’ dark as owlet’s shade,
Can stay thy glance, thy pinion’s flight control?
The past and future o’er thy vista roll,
The mind’s creative pageantry sublime,
That forms th’ ideal shape and living whole,
Thy wizard wand can raise with charmed rhyme,
O’ersweep the bounds of space, and outstrip panting Time.

CLXVII.

No seat of learning gave a goodlier show,
Or Gottingen, or Upsall’s city famed,
Or Newton’s college, where bright Cam doth flow,
Or library famous Radcliffe’s donor named,
That oft th’ aspiring breast of student flamed,
Where Isis’ silvery stream doth murm’ring play,
And genius’ sons her studious cloister claimed,
So like in this academy might stray
All who for knowledge thirst, or marvels pleasant way.

CLXVIII.

And longer had they gazed, the wistful throng,
That studious nook and bookworm’s dormit’ry,
Where lone in thought his life did glide along,
In loop-hole sweet of marvellous story,
Nor cared in this retreat for aught to sigh
Save chronicle of what the great have writ,
Revered works of sage to glorify,
Repast that fed on gave new appetite,
Delectable when found, increasing man’s delight.

CLXIX.

And they no cared to quit its classic shade,
Had not their guide and beck’ning cicerone
First led the way to seek that sylvan glade,
Where four ways branched forth, the last unknown;
Nature, and art, and learning, he had shown,
It only now remained that science porch
(For man’s regard the loftiest, I must own)
Should straight engage their inmost souls’ research,
Upward to light the mind, as with a burning torch.

CANTO V.

ARGUMENT.

The Bard leads the way to the Entrance Porch of Science--Discourses
by the way--The Porch, and its Description--The Entrance and
Prospect--Sunrise--The Eagle, Falcon, and
Vulture--Noon--Sunset--The Nightly Tower--Its Ascent--Astronomers,
Galileo, &c.--Heathen Philosophers, Plato, &c.--A View of the
Starry Heavens--The Moon--A Moonlight Scene--The Vault of
Night--Planets--Milky Way--Harmony of the Earth’s Evolution, and
her attendant Planet--Reflections on the Immensity of the Universe.