CXLV. "While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls the World." From our own land Thus spake the pilgrims o'er this mighty wall In Saxon times, which we are wont to call 50 Ancient; and these three mortal things are still On their foundations, and unalter'd all; Rome and her Ruin past Redemption's skill, The World, the same wide den — of thieves, or what ye will. [THE COLISEUM BY MOONLIGHT.] MANFRED, ACT III., SCENE 4. THE stars are forth, the moon above the tops Beautiful! I linger yet with Nature, for the night I learn'd the language of another world. When I was wandering― upon such a night 5 10 15 20 Appear'd to skirt the horizon, yet they stood And twines its roots with the imperial hearths, 25 But the gladiators' bloody Circus stands, A noble wreck in ruinous perfection! While Cæsar's chambers, and the Augustan halls, 30 And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon All this, and cast a wide and tender light, Of rugged desolation, and fill'd up, As 'twere anew, the gaps of centuries; 35 Leaving that beautiful which still was so, And making that which was not, till the place The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule 40 'Twas such a night! 'Tis strange that I recall it at this time; But I have found our thoughts take wildest flight [ST. PETER'S.] CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO IV. CLIII. BUT lo! the dome the vast and wondrous dome, To which Diana's marvel was a cell Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb! Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell 5 The hyæna and the jackal in their shade; I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have survey'd Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem pray'd; CLIV. But thou, of temples old, or altars new, Standest alone with nothing like to thee- Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled CLV. Enter its grandeur overwhelms thee not; Has grown colossal, and can only find CLVI. Thou movest but increasing with the advance, Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise, Vastness which grows - but grows to harmonize All musical in its immensities; Rich marbles richer painting-shrines where flame 10 15 20 25 30 In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame Sits on the firm-set ground — and this the clouds must 35 claim. CLVII. Thou seest not all; but piecemeal thou must break, That ask the eye-so here condense thy soul 40 Thy thoughts until thy mind hath got by heart The glory which at once upon thee did not dart, 45 CLVIII. Not by its fault — but thine: Our outward sense That what we have of feeling most intense 50 Fools our fond gaze, and greatest of the great Till, growing with its growth, we thus dilate Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate. CLIX. Then pause, and be enlighten'd; there is more 55 Of art and its great masters, who could raise What former time, nor skill, nor thought could plan; 60 Its depth, and thence may draw the mind of man [THE OCEAN.] CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO IV. ૦૬ CLXXVIII. THERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 5 CLXXIX. -- Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean - roll! 10 ད་ CLXXX. His steps are not upon thy path-thy fields, Are not a spoil for him-thou dost ari e And shake him from thee; the slle drength be welda For earth's destruction thou dost all despie, Spurning him from thy boson to* And send'st him. Hiering in And howling, to his Gods, where |