Genius of ancient Greece, whose faithful steps 690 Have led us to these awful solitudes Of Nature and of Science; nurse revered Of generous counsels and heroic deeds; Oh! let some portion of thy matchless praise Dwell in my breast, and teach me to adorn This unattempted theme. Nor be my thoughts Presumptuous counted, if, amid the calm Which Hesper sheds along the vernal heaven, If I, from vulgar Superstition's walk, Impatient steal, and from the unseemly rites 700 Of splendid Adulation, to attend With hymns thy presence in the sylvan shade, By their malignant footsteps unprofaned. Come, O renowned power; thy glowing mien Such, and so elevated all thy form, As when the great barbaric lord, again And yet again diminish'd, hid his face Among the herd of satraps and of kings; And, at the lightning of thy lifted spear, Crouch'd like a slave. Bring all thy martial spoils, 710 Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal songs, Thy smiling band of Arts, thy godlike sires Of civil wisdom, thy unconquer'd youth, After some glorious day rejoicing round Their new-erected trophy. Guide my feet Through fair Lyceum's walk, the olive shades Of Academus, and the sacred vale Haunted by steps divine, where once, beneath That ever living platane's ample boughs, Ilissus, by Socratic sounds detain'd, 720 On his neglected urn attentive lay; While Boreas, lingering on the neighbouring steep With beauteous Orithyia, his love tale In silent awe suspended. There let me With blameless hand, from thy unenvious fields, Transplant some living blossoms, to adorn My native clime; while, far beyond the meed Of Fancy's toil aspiring, I unlock The springs of ancient wisdom; while I add (What cannot be disjoin'd from Beauty's praise) 730 Thy name and native dress, thy works beloved And honour'd; while to my compatriot youth I point the great example of thy sons, And tune to Attic themes the British lyre. [Footnote 2: Truth is here taken, not in a logical, but in a mixed and popular sense, or for what has been called the truth of things; denoting as well their natural and regular condition, as a proper estimate or judgment concerning them.] [Footnote 3: 'Dyson:' see _Life_.] BOOK II. 1765. ARGUMENT.