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To benefit and bless, through mightier power:
—Whether the Persian—zealous to reject
Altar and Image and the inclusive walls
And roofs of Temples built by human hands,
The loftiest heights ascending, from their tops,
With myrtle-wreathed Tiara on his brows—
Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars,
And to the winds and Mother Elements,
And the whole Circle of the Heavens, for him
A sensitive Existence, and a God,
With lifted hands invoked, and songs of praise:
Or, less reluctantly to bonds of Sense
Yielding his Soul, the Babylonian framed
For influence undefined a personal Shape;
And, from the Plain, with toil immense, upreared
Tower eight times planted on the top of Tower;
That Belus, nightly to his splendid Couch
Descending, there might rest; and, from that Height
Pure and serene, the Godhead overlook
Winding Euphrates, and the City vast
Of his devoted Worshippers, far-stretched;
With grove, and field, and garden, interspersed;
