From the crowd some intervening pine-trees now our band are screening, Yet they shout, their praises meaning for the quacks we leave below. We, with bated breath, slow creeping up the sharply rising steep, in Indian file our course must keep in paths that faint and fainter grow-- Only by the spoils of those who went before, the track we know. For in crevice, nook, and cranny peering, we perceive that many Of our predecessors any loads they liked not, here threw down. LOYOLA'S whole knightly armour, and the ploughshare of the farmer HAMPDEN; SOUTHEY'S early drama of _Wat Tyler_; CODRUS' crown; Stout ARCHBISHOP BLACKBURN'S cutlass; JOAN OF ARC'S plain hodden gown; GALILEO'S _early_ notion of the Sun's diurnal motion; BECKET'S slily feigned devotion to his Royal Master's sway; LOPE'S, CALDERON'S, CERVANTES' swords, exchanged for pens, and DANTE'S (When as force could not supplant his foes, he took a surer way); BRUTUS' simulated weakness; strewn about the mountain, lay. On these relics as we trample, fired by such a good example, Some of our men leave an ample share upon the flinty strand; PIO NONO'S contribution is his taste for Revolution; "RUSSELL on the Constitution," tumbles from its author's hand; DISRAELI flings away his projects to relieve the land; Engineers let fall a shower of statements that the tractive power Of steam, just fifteen miles an hour cannot possibly exceed; SUGDEN his determination quits, the due acceleration Of amended legislation, by mere quibbles to impede, _Pelham_ and _Paul Clifford_ BULWER drops, and climbs with greater speed. Now small hillocks round us lying mark the spots where others, trying Feats beyond their strength, sank dying, ere the summit they could gain. LUTHER'S love of toleration perished _here_ by congelation; _There_ the too great elevation turned NAPOLEON'S seething brain; _Here_ a whirlwind caught DESCARTES and swept him downward to the plain. And the day is well nigh ended, as against the steep extended, Each by each in turn befriended, each to each for succour clings; While the tempest, well nigh brushing us away sweeps down, and gushing From our very path come rushing mighty rivers' snow-fed springs, And the avalanche's roar through far off glens and valleys rings; But, a glimpse sometimes espying, through the clouds beneath us flying, Of the plain all peaceful lying, of the paths by which we came, Or, along the road before us, of the fame close hanging o'er us-- Where the high celestial chorus greeting every one by name, Sings; "O! Hasten, favoured mortals! Hasten to the House of Fame!"-- Pressing upwards at a pace, meant for success, we reach the basement. Shattered is each door and casement; ruined are the lower halls, Not a word by us is spoken, seeing statues long so broken That of what they were no token yet remains, and crumbling walls