Those mouldering edifices, which the plough Breaks through in shapeless masses, once they were Circuses, strong palaces, and theatres; Proud arches, costly baths, and sepulchres; Where thou mayst hear perchance, for so ’tis said, In the deep silence of the gloomy shade, A funeral lament, they only tell The glory of the people of Quirinus. And this to future races but remains The mistress of the world, illustrious Rome! This and no more remain’d? of all her arts And dreaded power? What could not aught avail Her virtue, wisdom, valour, all conjoin’d, With such her opulence, the law severe To mitigate, or stay the blows of fate? Alas! if all is mortal--if to Time Alike the strong wall and the tender flower Must yield--if that will bronze and porphyry break, Destroying them and burying in dust, For whom so guards unhappy Avarice His treasuries untouch’d? for whom foretells Immortal fame, the adulation vile That crimes and violence traitorous exalts? For what so hastening to the tomb runs on The human race, revengeful, envious, And haughty? Why, if all that e’er exists, And what man sees is all but ruins? all. For never to return the hours fly past Precipitate, and to their end but lead, Of the most lofty empires of the earth, The perishable splendour. The Deity, That hidden animates the universe, Alone eternal lives, and He alone Is powerful and great. V. JUAN BAUTISTA DE ARRIAZA. In the history of the literature of every country, it is interesting to observe with what noiseless steps true genius generally proceeds to win popular favour, compared with the means to which mediocrity resorts for whatever share of notice it can attain. There are some writers who, with great talent, have some counterbalancing deficiency, respecting whose merits more discussion will be consequently excited, than respecting the superior qualities of others, not liable to the same observations. To obtain that kind of notoriety, it is often requisite to belong to some school or party, whose praise will give a temporary importance to works written, according to their taste or system, while those out of their pale will be passed over with at best only cold commendations. In Spain, as elsewhere, poetry has had its classical and romantic schools, and the merits of all writers, belonging to one or the other of them, were fully set forth by their respective partisans; while, if there happened to be one who could not be claimed by either, like Arriaza, he was allowed to pass comparatively unnoticed by the critics of the day.