Lib'ral in all things elfe, yet nature here
With ftern severity deals out the year.
Winter invades the fpring, and often pours

A chilling flood on fummer's drooping flow'rs,
Unwelcome vapours quench autumnal beams,
Ungenial blafts attending, curl the streams,
The peasants urge their harveft, ply the fork
With double toil, and shiver at their work;
Thus with a rigor, for his good defign'd,
She rears her fav'rite man of all mankind.
His form robuft and of elaftic tone,
Proportion'd well, half mufcle and half bone,
Supplies with warm activity and force

A mind well lodg'd, and mafculine of course.
Hence liberty, fweet liberty infpires,

And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires.
Patient of conftitutional controul,

He bears it with meek manliness of foul,
But if authority grow wanton, woe

To him that treads upon his free-born toe,

One

One step beyond the bound'ry of the laws
Fires him at once in freedom's glorious caufe.
Thus proud prerogative, not much rever'd,

Is feldom felt, though fometimes feen and heard
fine and gay,

And in his cage, like

parrot

Is kept to ftrut, look big, and talk away.

Born in a climate fofter far than our's,

Not form'd like us, with fuch Herculean pow'rs,
The Frenchman, eafy, debonair and brisk,

Give him his lafs, his fiddle and his frifk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the fenfe of mis'ry far away.
He drinks his fimple bev'rage with a gust,
And feasting on an onion and a crust,
We never feel th' alacrity and joy

With which he shouts and carols, Vive le Roy,
Fill'd with as much true merriment and glee,
As if he heard his king say-Slave be free.
Thus happiness depends, as nature shews,
Lefs on exterior things than most fuppofe.

Vigilant

Vigilant over all that he has made,

Kind Providence attends with gracious aid,
Bids equity throughout his works prevail,

And weighs the nations in an even scale ;
He can encourage flav'ry to a smile,

And fill with difcontent a British ifle.

A. Freeman and slave then, if the cafe be fuch, Stand on a level, and you prove too much. If all men indifcriminately share,

His foft'ring pow'r, and tutelary care,

As well be yok'd by defpotifim's hand,

As dwell at large in Britain's charter'd land.

B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to fhow,

That flaves, howe'er contented, never know.

The mind attains beneath her happy reign,

The growth that nature meant she should attain.
The varied fields of science, ever new,
Op'ning and wider op'ning on her view,
She ventures onward with a profp❜rous force,
While no base fear impedes her in her course.

Religion

Religion, richest favour of the skies,

Stands most reveal'd before the freeman's eyes;

No fhades of fuperftition blot the day,

Liberty chaces all that gloom away;

The foul, emancipated, unoppress'd,

Free to prove all things and hold fast the best,
Learns much, and to a thoufand lift'ning minds,
Communicates with joy the good she finds.

Courage in arms, and ever prompt to fhow
His manly forehead to the fierceft foe;
Glorious in war, but for the sake of peace,
His fpirits rifing as his toils increase,

Guards well what arts and industry have won,
And freedom claims him for her first-born fon.
Slaves fight for what were better caft away,
The chain that binds them, and a tyrant's fway,
But they that fight for freedom, undertake
The nobleft caufe mankind can have at ftake,
Religion, virtue, truth, whate'er we call
A bleffing, freedom is the pledge of all.

Oh

Oh liberty! the pris'ner's pleafing dream,
The poet's mufe, his paffion and his theme,
Genius is thine, and thou art fancy's nurfe,

Loft without thee th' ennobling powers of verse,
Heroic fong from thy free touch acquires

Its clearest tone, the rapture it inspires ;

Place me where winter breathes his keeneft air,
And I will fing if liberty be there;

And I will fing at liberty's dear feet,

In Afric's torrid clime or India's fierceft heat.

A. Sing where you please, in fuch a cause I grant An English Poet's privilege to rant,

But is not freedom, at least is not our's

Too apt to play the wanton with her pow'rs,

Grow freakish, and o'erleaping ev'ry mound
Spread anarchy and terror all around?

B. Agreed. But would you fell or flay your horse For bounding and curvetting in his course;

Or if, when ridden with a careless rein,

He break away, and feek the diftant plain?

No.