MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, 1837
IV. AT ROME–REGRETS–IN ALLUSION TO NIEBUHR AND OTHER MODERN HISTORIANS
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, 1837
THOSE old credulities, to nature dear, Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock Of History, stript naked as a rock ‘Mid a dry desert? What is it we hear? The glory of Infant Rome must disappear, Her morning splendours vanish, and their place Know them no more. If Truth, who veiled her face With those bright beams yet hid it not, must steer Henceforth a humbler course perplexed and slow; One solace yet remains for us who came 10 Into this world in days when story lacked Severe research, that in our hearts we know How, for exciting youth’s heroic flame, Assent is power, belief the soul of fact.