PIO NONO'S contribution is his taste for Revolution;
"RUSSELL on the Constitution," tumbles from its author's hand;
DISRAELI flings away his projects to relieve the land;
Engineers let fall a shower of statements that the tractive power
Of steam, just fifteen miles an hour cannot possibly exceed;
SUGDEN his determination quits, the due acceleration
Of amended legislation, by mere quibbles to impede,
_Pelham_ and _Paul Clifford_ BULWER drops, and climbs with greater speed.
Now small hillocks round us lying mark the spots where others, trying
Feats beyond their strength, sank dying, ere the summit they could gain.
LUTHER'S love of toleration perished _here_ by congelation;
_There_ the too great elevation turned NAPOLEON'S seething brain;
_Here_ a whirlwind caught DESCARTES and swept him downward to the plain.
And the day is well nigh ended, as against the steep extended,
Each by each in turn befriended, each to each for succour clings;
While the tempest, well nigh brushing us away sweeps down, and gushing
From our very path come rushing mighty rivers' snow-fed springs,
And the avalanche's roar through far off glens and valleys rings;
But, a glimpse sometimes espying, through the clouds beneath us flying,
Of the plain all peaceful lying, of the paths by which we came,
Or, along the road before us, of the fame close hanging o'er us--
Where the high celestial chorus greeting every one by name,
Sings; "O! Hasten, favoured mortals! Hasten to the House of Fame!"--
Pressing upwards at a pace, meant for success, we reach the basement.
Shattered is each door and casement; ruined are the lower halls,
Not a word by us is spoken, seeing statues long so broken
That of what they were no token yet remains, and crumbling walls
Whence the mouldering tablet, carved with long-forgotten letters, falls.
Through these chambers sadly wending, and to other halls ascending,
Newer they appear, though tending slowly to a like decay;
ARISTOTLE'S, PLATO'S pages, which, through long succeeding ages,
O'er the minds of other sages held so absolute a sway;
Panels, which APELLES used, with all the colours worn away;
Witty jests of PERIANDER; bulletins of ALEXANDER;
Systems of ANAXIMANDER; fossil _Pterodactyles_ found
In the old Homeric strata; speeches that could once create a
New soul in a dying state, or burst the chains a tyrant bound;
Once loved arts and cherished customs; mou