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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Nor stain your country with her children's gore! And thou, the first, lay down thy lawless claim, Thou, of my blood, who bearist the Julian name! Another comes, who shall in triumph ride, And to the Capitol his chariot guide, From conquer'd Corinth, rich with Grecian spoils. And yet another, fam'd for warlike toils, On Argos shall impose the Roman laws, And on the Greeks revenge the Trojan cause; Shall drag in chains their Achillean race; Shall vindicate his ancestors' disgrace, And Pallas, for her violated place. Great Cato there, for gravity renown'd, And conqu'ring Cossus goes with laurels crown'd. Who can omit the Gracchi? who declare The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war, The double bane of Carthage? Who can see Without esteem for virtuous poverty, Severe Fabricius, or can cease t' admire The plowman consul in his coarse attire? Tir'd as I am, my praise the Fabii claim; And thou, great hero, greatest of thy name, Ordain'd in war to save the sinking state, And, by delays, to put a stop to fate! Let others better mold the running mass Of metals, and inform the breathing brass, And soften into flesh a marble face; Plead better at the bar; describe the skies, And when the stars descend, and when they rise. But, Rome, 't is thine alone, with awful sway, To rule mankind, and make the world obey, Disposing peace and war by thy own majestic way; To tame the proud, the fetter'd slave to free: These are imperial arts, and worthy thee." He paus'd; and, while with wond'ring eyes they view'd The passing spirits, thus his speech renew'd: "See great Marcellus! how, untir'd in toils, He moves with manly grace, how rich with regal spoils! He, when his country, threaten'd with alarms, Requires his courage and his conqu'ring arms, Shall more than once the Punic bands affright; Shall kill the Gaulish king in single fight; Then to the Capitol in triumph move, And the third spoils shall grace Feretrian Jove." |
