Pursue the present and the past restore,
And Nature's purpose in her steps explore.

Nor you, my Friend, admiring Rome, disdain Th' Iberian fields and Lusitanian Spain. While Italy, obscured in tawdry blaze, A motley, modern character displays, And languid trims her long exhausted store; Iberia's fields with rich and genuine ore Of ancient manners woo the traveller's eye; And scenes untraced in every landscape lie. Here every various dale with lessons fraught Calls to the wanderer's visionary thought What mighty deeds the lofty hills of Spain Of old have witness'd-From the evening main Her mountain tops the Tyrian pilots saw In lightnings wrapt, and thrill'd with sacred awe Thro' Greece the tales of Gorgons, Hydras spread, And Geryon dreadful with the triple head; The stream of Lethe, and the dread abodes Of forms gigantic, and infernal gods. But soon, by fearless lust of gold impell'd, They mined the mountain, and explored the field; 'Till Rome and Carthage, fierce for empire, strove, As for their prey two famish'd birds of Jove. The rapid Durius then and Boetis' flood Were dyed with Roman and with Punic blood, While oft the lengthening plains and mountain sides Seem'd moving on, slow rolling tides on tides,

When from Pyrene's summits Afric pour'd
Her armies, and o'er Rome destruction lour'd.

Here while the Youth revolves some Hero's fame,

If patriot zeal his British breast inflame,
Here let him trace the fields to freedom dear
Where low in dust lay Rome's invading spear;
Where Viriatus proudly trampled o'er
Fasces and Roman eagles steept in gore;
Or where he fell, with honest laurels crown'd,
The awful victim of a treacherous wound;
A wound still bathed in Honor's generous tear;
While Freedom's wounds the brave and good revere;
Still pouring fresh th' inexpiable stain
O'er Rome's patrician honor false and vain!

Or should the pride of bold revolt inspire,
And touch his bosom with unhallowed fire;
If merit spurn'd demand stern sacrifice,
O'er Ev'ra's fields let dread Sertorius rise.
Dyed in his country's blood, in all the pride
Of wrongs revenged, illustrious let him ride
Enshrined, o'er Spain, in Victory's dazzling rays,
'Till Rome look pale beneath the mounting blaze.
But let the British wanderer thro' the dales
Of Ev'ra stray, while midnight tempest wails :
There as the hoary villagers relate
Sertorius, Sylla, Marius, weep their fate,
Their spectres gliding on the lightning blue,

Oft doom'd their ancient stations to renew;

Sertorious bleeding on Perpenna's knife,
And Marius sinking in ambition's strife;
As forest boars entangled in a chain,

Dragg'd on, as stings each Leader's rage or pain;
And each the furious Leader in his turn,

'Till low they lie, a ghastly wreck forlorn.

And say, ye tramplers on your country's mounds, Say who shall fix the swelling torrent's bounds t Or who shall sail the pilot of the flood? Alas, full oft some worthless trunk of wood Is whirl'd into the port, blind Fortune's boast, While noblest vessels, founder'd, strew the coast!

If wars of fairer fame and old applause,
That bear the title of our country's cause,
To humanise barbarians, and to raise
Our country's prowess, their asserted praise;
If these delight, Hispania's dales display
The various arts and toils of Roman sway.
Here jealous Cato laid the cities waste,
And Julius here in fairer pride replaced,
'Till ages saw the labors of the plough
By every river, and the barren bough
Of laurel shaded by the olive's bloom,
And grateful Spain the strength of lordly Rome;
Hers mighty bards, and hers the sacred earth
That gave the world a friend in Trajan's birth.

When Rome's wide empire, a luxurious prey,

Debased in false refinement nerveless lay,
The northern hords on Europe's various climes
Planted their ruling virtues and their crimes.

Cloister'd by Tyber's stream the slothful staid,
To Seine and Loire the gay and friv'lous stray'd,
A sordid groupe the Belgian marshes pleased,
And Saxony's wild forests Freedom seized,
There held her juries, poised the legal seales;
And Spain's romantic hills and lonely dales
The pensive Lover sought; and Spain became
The land of gallantry and amorous flame.
Hail, favor'd clime! whose lone retreats inspire
The softest dreams of languishing desire,
Affections trembling with a glow all holy,
Wildly sublime, and sweetly melancholy;
'Till rapt devotion to the Fair, refine
And bend each passion low at Honor's shrine,
So felt the iron Goth when here he brought
His worship of the Fair with valor fraught :
Soon as Iberia's mountains fixt his home,
He rose a character unknown to Rome;
His manners wildly color'd as the flowers
And flaunting plumage of Brazilian bowers :
New to the world as these, yet polish'd more
Than e'er the pupil of the Attic lore
Might proudly boast. On man's bold arm robust
The tender Fair reclines with fondest trust:
With Nature's finest touch exulting glows

The manly breast which that fond aid bestows:
That first of generous joys on man bestow'd,
In Gothic Spain in all its fervor glow'd.
Then high burn'd honor; and the dread alarms
Of danger then assumed the dearest charms.
What for the Fair was dared or suffered, bore
A saint-like merit, and was envied more;
'Till led by love-sick Fancy's dazzled flight,
From Court to Court forth roam'd Adventure's

Knight;

And tilts and tournaments, in mimic wars,
Supplied the triumphs and the honor'd scars
Of arduous battles for their country fought,
'Till the keen relish of the marvellous wrought
All wild and fever'd; and each peaceful shade,
With batter'd armour deckt, its Knight display'd,
In soothing transport, listening to the strain
Of dwarfs and giants, and of monsters slain;
Of spells all horror, and enchanters dire,
And the sweet banquet of the amorous fire,
When Knights and Ladies chaste, relieved from thrall,
Hold Love's high holiday in bower and hall.

'Twas thus, all pleasing to the languid thought,
With magic power the tales of magic wrought;
Till by the Muses armed, in all the ire
Of wit, resistless as electric fire,

Forth rode La Mancha's Knight; and sudden filed
Goblins and beauteous nymphs, and pagans dread,