Ye bind the deep with your secret zone, And mountains exult where the wave hath been. But why do ye plant, 'neath the billows dark, With mouldering bones the deeps are white, Ye build ye build - but ye enter not in, Like the tribes whom the desert devour'd in their sin, From the land of promise ye fade and die, Ere its verdure gleams forth on your every eye, Ye slumber unmark'd 'mid the desolate main, your works remain. MRS. SIGOURNEY. DIOCLESIAN AT SALONA, 1 TAKE back these vain insignia of command, Though laurel-wreath'd, war's desolating brand. And leisure for good deeds 2, thoughtfully plann'd. False widow of departed liberty! I scorn thy base caresses. Welcome the roll Between us, of my own bright Adrian sea! Welcome these wilds, from whose bold heights my soul Looks down on your degenerate Capitol! SIR AUBREY DE VERE. On being solicited by Maximian to re-assume the imperial purple, Dioclesian rejected the offer with a smile of pity, calmly observing, that if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power. "And leave us leisure to be good." — Gray THE ALPS. ABOVE me are the Alps, The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls The avalanche the thunderbolt of snow! All that expands the spirit, yet appals, Gather around these summits, as to show How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man below. BYRON. TO THE MOON. SWEET Moon, if, like Crotona's sage', And write my thoughts, my wishes there; How many a friend, whose careless eye Now wanders o'er that starry sky, And all my heart and soul would send MOORE. 1 Pythagoras, who was supposed to have the power of writing upon the moon by the means of a magic mirror. THE FAMILY PICTURE. WITH work in hand, perchance some fairy cap SUMMONS OF THE ETRUSCAN LEAGUE.' EAST and west and south and north The messengers ride fast, And tower and town and cottage Have heard the trumpet's blast. 1 Etruria was divided into twelve principal states, all situated between the Arno and the Tiber, and named after its principal city. Each of these states formed an independent community, governed by its own prince, called in the Etruscan language Lucumo, but they all leagued together for the general good, and submitted to the authority of one supreme sovereign, as in the case of Porsena of Clusium. The cities that formed the Etruscan league were Volscinii, Clusium, Cortona, Perusia, Arretium, Falerii, Tarquinii, Volaterræ, Rusellæ, Vetulonii, Cære, and Veii: others omit some of the above list, and substitute Luna, Fæsula, and Populonium.. Shame on the false Etruscan Who lingers in his home, Is on the march for Rome. The horsemen and the footmen Which, hid by beech and pine, Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest From lowly Volaterræ 2, Where scowls the far-fam'd hold Pil'd by the hands of giants For godlike kings of old; From sea-girt Populonia 3, Whose sentinels descry 1 Clusium, now called Chiusi, is built upon a hill above the valley of the Clanis (the modern Chiana), and was one of the most distinguished of the Etruscan cities. 2 Volaterra-now called Volterra, near Sienna, celebrated for its ancient walls, most of the stones of which are six feet in length, and are set without mortar, in horizontal layers. Populonia stood on a high promontory that, projecting far into the sea, formed a kind of peninsula. It had a commodious harbour, a quay, and a well-furnished arsenal, and was consequently of great importance to the Etruscans, and a place of great trade. Large quantities of copper were imported from the island of Elba, and the people of Populonia ́ made implements of copper and brass in the earliest ages. Afterwards, when the copper mines began to fail, and iron was discovered in large quantities in Elba, they fabricated arms and utensils of iron. The ruins of Populonia, consisting of a part of the wall, are to be seen to the north of Piombino the port is called Porto Baratto. |