The whole. Behold! the fair contention glows,
In all that mind or body can adorn,
And form to life. Instead of barren heads,
Barbarian pedants, wrangling sons of pride,
And truth-perplexing metaphysic wits,
Men, patriots, chiefs, and citizens are form'd.
"Lo! Justice, like the liberal light of heaven,
Unpurchased shines on all; and from her beam,
Appalling Guilt, retire the savage crew
That prowl amid the darkness they themselves
Have thrown around the laws. Oppression grieves :
See how her legal Furies bite the lip,
While Yorkes and Talbots their deep snares detect,
And seize swift Justice through the clouds they raise! "See! social Labour lifts his guarded head,
And men not yield to government in vain.
From the sure land is rooted ruffian Force,
And, the lewd nurse of villains, idle Waste;
Lo! razed their haunts, down dash'd their maddening bowl,
A nation's poison! beauteous Order reigns,
Manly Submission, unimposing Toil,
Trade without guile, Civility that marks
From the foul herd of brutal slaves thy sons,
And fearless Peace. Or, should affronting war
To slow but dreadful vengeance rouse the just,
Unfailing fields of freemen I behold,
That know with their own proper arm to guard
Their own bless'd isle against a leaguing world.
Despairing Gaul her boiling youth restrains,
Dissolved her dream of universal sway.
The winds and seas are Britain's wide domain;
And not a sail but by permission spreads.
"Lo! swarming southward on rejoicing suns,
Gay colonies extend; the calm retreat
Of undeserved distress, the better home
Of those whom bigots chase from foreign lands.
Not built on rapine, servitude, and woe,
And in their turn some petty tyrant's prey;
But, bound by social freedom, firm they rise;
Such as, of late, an Oglethorpe has form'd,
And, crowding round, the charm'd Savannah sees. "Horrid with want and misery, no more
Our streets the tender passenger afflict.
Nor shivering Age, nor Sickness without friend,
Or home, or bed to bear his burning load,
Nor agonizing infant, that ne'er earn'd
Its guiltless pangs, I see.
Which British bounty has to these assign'd,
No more the sacrilegious riot swell
Of cannibal devourers. Right applied,
No starving wretch the land of freedom stains:
If poor, employment finds; if old, demands,
If sick, if maim'd, his miserable due;
And will, if young, repay the fondest care.
Sweet sets the sun of stormy life, and sweet
The morning shines, in Mercy's dews array'd.
Lo! how they rise, these families of Heaven!
That,* chief, (but why, ye bigots, why so late?)
Where blooms and warbles glad a rising age:
What smiles of praise! and, while their song ascends, 665 The listening seraph lays his lute aside.
"Hark! the gay Muses raise a nobler strain, With active nature, warm impassion'd truth, Engaging fable, lucid order, notes
Of various string, and heart-felt image fill'd.
Behold! I see the dread, delightful school
Of temper'd passions and of polish'd life
Restored. Behold! the well-dissembled scene
Calls from embellish'd eyes the lovely tear,
Or lights up mirth in modest cheeks again.
Lo! vanish'd monster-land. Lo! driven away
Those that Apollo's sacred walks profane :
Their wild creation scatter'd, where a world
Unknown to nature, chaos more confused,
O'er the brute scene its ouran-outangs + pours;
Detested forms that, on the mind impress'd,
Corrupt, confound, and barbarize an age!
"Behold all thine again the Sister-arts!
Thy Graces they, knit in harmonious dance.
Nursed by the treasure from a nation drain'd
Their works to purchase, they to nobler rouse
Their untamed genius, their unfetter'd thought;
* An Hospital for Foundlings.
A creature which, of all brutes, most resembles man.-See Dr.
Tyson's treatise on this animal.
Of pompous tyrants and of dreaming monks
The gaudy tools and prisoners no more.
'Lo! numerous domes a Burlington confess.
For kings and senates fit, the palace see;
The temple breathing a religious awe;
Even framed with elegance the plain retreat,
The private dwelling. Certain in his aim,
Taste, never idly working, saves expense.
"See sylvan scenes, where Art alone pretends
To dress her mistress, and disclose her charms !
Such as a Pope in miniature has shown,
A Bathurst o'er the widening forest* spreads;
And such as form a Richmond, Chiswick, Stowe.
August, around, what public works I see!
Lo, stately streets! lo, squares that court the breeze!
In spite of those to whom pertains the care,
Engulfing more than founded Roman ways,
Lo, ray'd from cities o'er the brighten❜d land,
Connecting sea to sea, the solid road!
Lo! the proud arch (no vile exactor's stand)
With easy sweep bestrides the chafing flood.
See long canals and deepen'd rivers join
Each part with each, and with the circling main
The whole enliven'd isle. Lo! ports expand,
Free as the winds and waves, their sheltering arms.
Lo! streaming comfort o'er the troubled deep,
On every pointed coast the lighthouse towers;
And, by the broad imperious mole repell'd,
Hark how the baffled storm indignant roars!"
As thick to view these varied wonders rose, Shook all my soul with transport, unassured The vision broke; and on my waking eye Rush'd the still ruins of dejected Rome.
* Okely Woods, near Cirencester.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD TALBOT,
LATE CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN :
WHILE, with the public, you, my lord, lament
A friend and father lost; permit the Muse,
(The Muse assign'd of old a double theme,-
To praise dead worth, and humble living pride;
Whose generous task begins where interest ends,)
Permit her on a Talbot's tomb to lay
This cordial verse sincere, by Truth inspired,
Which means not to bestow, but borrow, fame.
Yes, she may sing his matchless virtues now:
Unhappy that she may!-But where begin?
How from the diamond single out each ray,
Where all, though trembling with ten thousand hues,
Effuse one dazzling undivided light?
Let the low-minded of these narrow days
No more presume to deem the lofty tale
Of ancient times, in pity to their own,
Romance. In Talbot we united saw
The piercing eye, the quick enlighten'd soul,
The graceful ease, the flowing tongue of Greece,
Join'd to the virtues and the force of Rome.
Eternal Wisdom, that all-quickening sun,
Whence every life in just proportion draws
Directing light and actuating flame,
Ne'er with a larger portion of its beams
Awaken'd mortal clay. Hence steady, calm,
Diffusive, deep, and clear, his reason saw
With instantaneous view the truth of things;
Chief what to human life and human bliss
Pertains,-that noblest science, fit for man:
And hence, responsive to his knowledge, glow'd
His ardent virtue. Ignorance and vice,
In consort foul, agree, each heightening each;
While virtue draws from knowledge brighter fire.
What grand, what comely, or what tender sense,
What talent, or what virtue, was not his?
What that can render man or great or good,
Give useful worth or amiable grace?
Nor could he brook in studious shade to lie,
In soft retirement, indolently pleased
With selfish peace. The syren of the wise,
(Who steals the' Aonian song, and, in the shape
Of Virtue, woos them from a worthless world,)
Though deep he felt her charms, could never melt
His strenuous spirit, recollected, calm
As silent night, yet active as the day.
The more the bold, the bustling, and the bad,
Press to usurp the reins of power, the more
Behoves it Virtue, with indignant zeal,
To check their combination. Shall low views
Of sneaking interest or luxurious vice,
The villain's passions, quicken more to toil,
And dart a livelier vigour through the soul,
Than those that, mingled with our truest good,
With present honour and immortal fame,
Involve the good of all? An empty form
Is the weak Virtue that amid the shade
Lamenting lies, with future schemes amused,
While Wickedness and Folly, kindred powers,
Confound the world. A Talbot's, different far,
Sprung ardent into action, that disdain'd
To lose in deathlike sloth one pulse of life
That might be saved; disdain'd, for coward Ease
And her insipid pleasures, to resign
The prize of glory, the keen sweets of toil,
And those high joys that teach the truly great
To live for others, and for others die.
Early, behold, he breaks benign on life. Not breathing more beneficence, the Spring
|