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710

For which their wisdom plann'd, their councils glow'd,
And their veins bled through many a toiling age! 105
Oh, first of human bleffings! and fupreme!
Fair Peace! how lovely, how delightful thou!
By whose wide tie, the kindred fons of men
Like brothers live, in amity combin'd,
And unfufpicious faith; while honest toil
Gives every joy, and to those joys a right,
Which idle, barbarous rapine but ufurps.
Pure is thy reign; when, unaccurs'd by blood,
Nought, fave the sweetness of indulgent showers,
Trickling distils into the vernant glebe;
Inftead of mangled carcaffes, fad-feen,

When the blithe fheaves lie scatter'd o'er the field;
When only fhining fhares, the crooked knife,
And hooks imprint the vegetable wound;
When the land blushes with the rose alone,
The falling fruitage and the bleeding vine.
Oh, Peace! thou fource, and foul of social life;
Beneath whose calm inspiring influence,
Science his views enlarges, Art refines,
And fwelling Commerce opens all her ports;
Bleft be the man divine, who gives us thee !

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Who bids the trumpet hush his horrid clang,
Nor blow the giddy nations into rage;

Who fheaths the murderous blade; the deadly gun
Into the well-pil'd armory returns;

And, every vigour from the work of death,
To grateful industry converting, makes
The country flourish, and the city smile.

130

B 3

Unviolated,

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[graphic]

But foon, regardless of the cumberous pomp,
My dauntless Britons came, a gloomy few,
With tempest black, the goodly scene deform'd,
And laid their glory wafte. The bolts of Fate
Refiftlefs thunder'd through their yielding fides ;
Fierce o'er their beauty blaz'd the lurid flame;
And seiz'd in horrid grafp, or shatter'd wide,
Amid the mighty waters deep they funk.
Then too from every promontory chill,

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Rank fen, and cavern where the wild wave works,
I fwept confederate winds, and fwell'd a form.
Round the glad ifle, fnatch'd by the vengeful blast, $5
The scatter'd remnants drove; on the blind shelve,
And pointed rock, that marks th' indented fhore,
Relentless dafh'd, where loud the northern main
Howls through the fractur'd Caledonian ifles.

Such were the dawnings of my watery reign;
But fince how vaft it grew, how abfolute,
Ev'n in thofe troubled times, when dreadful Blake
Aw'd angry nations with the British name,
Let every humbled ftate, let Europe say,
Suftain'd, and balanc'd, by my naval arm.
Ah, what must those immortal spirits think

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Of your poor fhifts? Thofe, for their country's good Who fac'd the blackest danger, knew no fear, No mean fubmiffion, but commanded peace. Ah, how with indignation must they burn! (If aught, but joy, can touch etherial breasts With shame! with grief! to see their feeble fons hrink from that empire o'er the conquer'd feas,

For

For which their wisdom plann'd, their councils glow'd,
And their veins bled through many a toiling age! 105
Oh, first of human bleffings! and fupreme!
Fair Peace! how lovely, how delightful thou!
By whose wide tie, the kindred fons of men
Like brothers live, in amity combin'd,
And unfufpicious faith; while honest toil
Gives every joy, and to those joys a right,
Which idle, barbarous rapine but ufurps.
Pure is thy reign; when, unaccurs'd by blood,
Nought, fave the sweetness of indulgent showers,
Trickling distils into the vernant glebe;

Inftead of mangled carcaffes, fad-feen,

When the blithe fheaves lie fcatter'd o'er the field;
When only shining shares, the crooked knife,
And hooks imprint the vegetable wound;
When the land blushes with the rofe alone,
The falling fruitage and the bleeding vine.
Oh, Peace! thou fource, and foul of focial life;
Beneath whose calm inspiring influence,
Science his views enlarges, Art refines,
And fwelling Commerce opens all her ports;
Bleft be the man divine, who gives us thee!
Who bids the trumpet hush his horrid clang,
Nor blow the giddy nations into rage;

Who fheaths the murderous blade; the deadly gun
Into the well-pil'd armory returns;

And, every vigour from the work of death,
To grateful industry converting, makes
The country flourish, and the city smile.

B 3

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130

Unviolated,

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