Thy joyous youth began—but not to fade.—
When all the sister planets have decayed;
When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow,
And Heaven’s last thunder shakes the world below;
Thou, undismayed, shalt o’er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at Nature’s funeral pile.
[21] “Sacred to Venus is the myrtle shade.”—Dryden.
[22] Falconer, who calls himself Arion in “The Shipwreck” (Canto III.)
[23] See Schiller’s tragedy of “The Robbers,” Scene 5.
[24] The carnage occasioned by the wars of Julius Cæsar has been usually estimated at two millions of men.