Of Apostolic power. The poet's bays

The painter's mimic skill—the graceful art

Of those who curious wrought-the minstrel's lays !

To all !-to all would Leo1 still impart

A flood of glory from his noble heart.

XI.

Say, Science, where didst thou again arise?
Where did that meteor blaze who could achieve
To bring within his scope, from distant skies,

Those heavenly orbs, which now we can conceive,
Their motions calculate, their disks perceive!

In Rome! yes, Galileo 2, thou, the seer

Whom Jesuit wrath could cruelly deceive;

1 Leo X. was son of the famous Lorenzo de Medici and Clarissa Ursini, and inherited all the noble virtues of his father, proving one of the most illustrious pontiffs that ever sat on the Papal throne. Humane, generous, affable and enlightened; and, as Russel says, "the patron of every art, and the friend of every virtue,” under him the sciences greatly flourished. He contributed to their advancement, and deserved that the age in which he lived should be distinguished by his name.

2 This very celebrated astronomer and natural philosopher was born at Pisa in 1564, and died at Acetri in 1641, whence his body was car

K

Leo X.

Science awakes.

Would with their heaviest vengeance force to fear :

Thy, fate was mourn'd with many a generous tear!

XII.

What the

reward for all Italy has

done.

What the reward of all that thou hast done

For this so beauteous earth, which, but for thee,
Had seem'd almost a world without a sun,
We wretched wanderers in obscurity?
Thy very conquests made oppression fly;
And when, as all must fall, you greatly fell,

And ruffian, northern, clouds obscur'd the sky,
The hallow'd touch of thy redeeming spell,

Brought day from deepest night-a heaven from hell!

ried to Florence, and buried in the Church of the Holy Cross. His great discoveries are well known, as are his persecutions by the Inquisition, on account of his opposition to the notions of Aristotle, and from his adopting the belief, according to Copernicus, that the sun remains immoveable in the centre of the universe. Having, while at Venice in 1606, heard of the discoveries of Metiers and Jansens, he turned his attention to the telescope, and so wonderfully improved that instrument, as to be able by it to discover mountains in the moon. He was also the first who observed the four satellites of Jupiter, to which he gave the name of Medicean Stars, in honour of his patron Cosmo II.

XIII.

What the reward? Why, ages of sad strife,
Each ravenous realm, ambitious of increase,
Prey'd on the vitals of expiring life,

The dying embers of a second Greece !

Religion, too, which came the child of peace,
From where the bless'd Redeemer taught and died,
Was made a cloak, through Papal artifice,
For worldly power, and pomp, and empty pride.
See Henry 1, suppliant, kneel by Gregory's side.

Ages of strife and rapine.

Religion made a cloak.

XIV.

Torn and distracted by incessant broil,

Great Otho (courted has been rumour'd) came,

I It was soon after Otho, King of Germany, had made himself master of Italy, A. D. 962, and which continued to be a part of the German empire for three hundred years, that the popes became actually temporal princes and sovereigns of Rome, and, on various occasions, assumed the most despotic sway. In 1074 Gregory VII. disputed certain claims with Henry IV. of Germany, and, three years later, obliged that monarch to debase himself, by standing before him, stripped of his clothes, wrapt in

Selfish policy.

And claim'd, through his o'erwhelming rule, as spoil,

1

A regal diadem, and Pavian Dame 1!

Crown'd by the Pope, who hasten'd to proclaim
A German Monarch, by his high decree,

And gave him still a more exalted name

sackcloth, and so to remain for three days, before he would permit him to kiss the feet of his holiness.-Muller's Universal History, vol. ii. pages 150, 151.

1 Otho the Great of Germany, the most powerful monarch since the time of Charlemagne, reunited the kingdom of Italy to the German dominions. After the death of Count Hugo, who had reigned over Italy very much against the will of the nation for sixteen years (931), Berangar the Second sprung from the house of the Counts of Ivrea, obtained possession of the empire, and exercised a still more tyrannical government. Such were the circumstances which induced Adelaide of Pavia, widow of Lothaire, son of Hugo, and who had been imprisoned by Berangar, to invite Otho to her assistance. He came and received at once the hand of Ade. laide and the crown of Italy. (A. D. 945.)

That thou might'st govern, by ungovern'd sway,
How many mitr❜d heads hast thou dismay'd?
Against thy very Church to lift the blade!

And in the lapse of years there potent rose

That Rudolph', none dar'd question or upbraid. Imperial Austria ! thy story shows

How he made quail thy most audacious foes:

XVI.

How he made loyal all who own'd his power.
And chief of all, as still most hard to rule,

The Mountain Swiss, who chose him as a tower
Had but that haughty fool,

Of strength and might.

That Albert, let me rather say, that mule!

1 Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, for some time exercised the office of Grand Marshal of Ottocarus, King of Bohemia, A. D. 1273, and was raised to the imperial dignity on account of his military talent. He became a most powerful and enlightened prince, behaving with so much liberality, justice, and moderation, that he won the hearts of all men, and established the grandeur of his family in Austria. Albert, his successor, made himself as much detested as Rudolph had been loved, and brought nearly all Germany into confusion and revolt. He was assassinated by his nephew John Duke of Suabia in 1308.

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