Alone she mourn'd her once unrivall'd weal,

Nor claim'd the pity she could never feel.
What were the virtues of the Roman school?
Deep systems to oppress, destroy, and rule; 130
Ambition, pride, and tyranny, combin'd,

To raise themselves, and plunder all mankind.'

NUMA POMPILIUS.

No objects Numa to the muse supplies, But temples, priests, and pious mysteries.

134

He check❜d Bellona's rage; and dove-ey'd peace Saw superstition rise, and slaughter cease.

This is no morose character of the Romans considered as a people. Sallust says, "Mihi multa agitanti, constabat, paucorum civium egregiam virtutem cuncta patravisse." It is true of such men as Cincinnatus, Camillus, Fabricius, the Decii, the Scipios, and some others. The victories of Pompey too added territories and glory to Rome. Marius, Sylla, and Cæsar, conquered for themselves, and brought inexpressible miseries upon their country. Let the reader consult Montesquieu's admirable volume, particularly the sixth chapter: he will there see the Roman policy in its true colours; a system, profound, invariable, and completely iniquitous.

For sacred ends, was sacred truth forgot,
And hence the fiction of the Egerian grot ;'
That Numa's holy visions might persuade,

139

To the meek king descends the inspiring maid: ↑ None, to believe or to obey, repine,

When human wisdom speaks by aid divine.

Credulity, an easy yielding soil,

Brought up new plants of faith with slender toil;
A tale once told, the weak enquir'd no more, 145
But fools believ'd what craft impos'd before.
The pagan creed, with motley legends full,
Amus'd the enlighten'd, and amaz'd the dull;
A monstrous fable clumsily devis'd,

149

Procession, pageants, pomp, and noise disguis'd; While sound and show the pleas'd attention kept, The senses only wak'd, and reason slept.

3-simulat sibi cum dea Egeria congressus nocturnos esse.

Liv. 1.i. c. xix.

+ Omnium primum, rem ad multitudinem imperitam, et illis seculis rudem, efficacissimam, deorum metum injiciendum ratus est.

Wisdom with joy the kind delusion saw,
And turn'd the vulgar blindness into awe;
So, by an engine which herself disdain’d,
Dominion o'er the publick mind she gain'd:

155

As serv'd her cause she play'd the mummery o'er,
And left the crowd to wonder and adore.

Salian and Fecial Flamens thus began,

And Vestals, sacred from the embrace of man; "
Their task to quench the flame of love's desire,

159

And unextinguish'd keep pale Vesta's fire.
Sad institution! which austerely draws
The female heart from nature's genial laws;
Strangles heaven's bounty, and converts to woe 165
The plenteous source whence joy and life should flow:
As if the tree, whose pregnant boughs might yield
The richest honours of Pomona's field,
Should turn, perverted by the spoiler's hand,
To the vile office of a smoky brand.

170

5 -virginesque Vestæ legit;-virginitate aliisque ceremoniis venerabiles ac sanctas fecit. Liv. 1. i. c. xx.

Inhuman

+ So Worship moulded by the Statesman's art
The Head debas'd, yer purified the Heaar,

A detail of all the barbarities practised by the present race of French
Reformers in the suppression of religious houses, particularly of those
occupied by Women, well
assured woud be more than sufficient
to fill large Volume. Every refinement of cruelty was exercised,
excess of outrage indulged in the persecution of Persons utterly
fenceless and unoffending. Their savage fury was doubly roused by

every

Inhuman law! where reason must confess

The sanction, not the breach, was wickedness."
The maid, thus torn from the best joys of life,
Denied to charm, a mistress, or a wife,

To bless the sweetness of her infant's smile,

175

Or the fond clasps which matron cares beguile,
If mutual passion fired her to impart

The illicit rapture of her glowing heart,

• That a state of celibacy should be acceptable to the abundant Giver of all things, seems to be one of the most unaccountable notions that ever proceeded from the visions of enthusiasm ; and the horrible penalties annexed to a violation of chastity in the persons of those unhappy females set apart for certain purposes of religion, shew very strongly both the absurdity and wickedness of the institution. A Vestal's being buried alive for a breach of her vows or a neglect of her duty, is frequently mentioned by Livy and other ancient writers, with the indifference of any ordinary ceremony. The bigotry of modern Rome, called Christian, adopted this Order from the heathen superstition of the ancients; and both must have been conscious (though perhaps frail Nuns are not literally buried alive) that such ordinances were directly repugnant to the most general and irresistible impulse of human nature, and in itself innocent, else they would not have attempted to counteract it by restraints fo unnatural.

Grim

ce.

the view of objects which woud naturally remind men of the reverence due to morality and religion. Pretending first only to shake off the trammels of Superstition, they soon came to deny the superintending Providence of the Deity, then easy transition to question his existence Thus were the faculties given by the great Creator employed to degrade him beneath the supine and listless Jupiter of Epicurus. Inquities cumparalleled in other age of nation, the wildest ruin, and scenes of the most horrible devastation quickly followed in the reas of this frantic and impieg Philosophy; yet infe.er they glorified God by their misdeeds while they dared to profané his Attributes by their atheistical doctiines.

wildestruin,

Grim death, and priests more grim, with Stygian

gloom

179

Plung❜d the warm breathing creature in the tomb.
By such preposterous punishment they strove
To avert the wrath her crime provok'd above.
Had thunder crush'd the holy murderers round,
Had earthquakes swallow'd the devoted ground,
The righteous doom true sanctity had pleas'd; 185
So truth had been reveal'd, and heav'n appeas'd.
Go on, insensate law-makers! proceed;
Frame statutes worse than the transgressor's deed;
Wrest from Jove's hand the slow-avenging rod,
And doubly die the sanguinary code;
Ordain, coerce, prohibit at your will;

190

Nature shall brave them all, and triumph still.

Though no fierce combat on the ensanguin'd plain,

Or added soil distinguish'd Numa's reign,

A fairer palm his bloodless annals boast;

195

Rome gain'd in virtue what in fame she lost.

Not viol tun'd, or melting song, so finds

The magick way to fierce untutor❜d minds,

Not