Unviolated, him the virgin fings:
And him the fmiling mother to her train.
Of him the fhepherd, in the peaceful dale,
Chaunts; and, the treasures of his labour fure,
The husbandman of him, as at the plough,
Or team, he toils. With him the failor fooths,
Beneath the trembling moon, the midnight wave; 140
And the full city, warm, from ftreet to street,
And fhop to fhop, refponfive, fings of him;
Nor joys one land alone; his praise extends
Far as the fun rolls the diffufive day;
Far as the breeze can bear the gifts of peace,
Till all the happy nations catch the fong.
What would not, Peace! the patriot bear for thee?
What painful patience? what inceffant care?
What mixt anxiety? what fleepless toil!
Ev'n from the rash protected what reproach?
For he thy value knows; thy friendship he
To human nature: but the better thou,
The richer of delight, sometimes the more
Inevitable war; when ruffian force
Awakes the fury of an injur'd state.
Ev'n the good patient man, whom reafon rules,
Rouz'd by bold infult, and injurious rage,
With fharp and fudden check, th' aftonish'd fons
Of violence confounds; firm as his caufe
His bolder heart; in aweful justice clad;
His eyes effulging a peculiar fire;
And, as he charges through the proftrate war,
His keen arm teaches faithlefs men, no more
To dare the facred vengeance of the juft.
And what, my thoughtless fons, should fire you more, Than when your well-earn'd empire of the deep The least beginning injury receives!
What better caufe can call your lightning forth?
Your thunder wake? your deareft life demand?
What better cause, than when your country sees
The fly destruction at her vitals aim'd?
For, oh, it much imports you, 'tis your all,
To keep your trade intire, intire the force,
And honour of your fleets: o'er that to watch,
Ev'n with a hand fevere, and jealous eye.
In intercourse be gentle, generous, just,
By wisdom polish'd, and of manners fair;
But on the fea be terrible, untam'd,
Unconquerable ftill; let none escape,
Who fhall but aim to touch your glory there.
Is there the man, into the lion's den
Who dares intrude, to fnatch his young away?
And is a Briton feiz'd? and feiz'd beneath
The flumbering terrors of a British fleet?
Then ardent rife! Oh, great in vengeance rife!
O'erturn the proud, teach rapine to restore:
And as you ride fublimely round the world,
Make every veffel stoop, make every ftate
At once their welfare and their duty know.
This is your glory; this your wisdom; this
The native power for which you were defign'd
By Fate, when Fate defign'd the firmest state,
That e'er was feated on the subject fea;
A ftate, alone, where Liberty should live,
In thefe late times, this evening of mankind,
When Athens, Rome, and Carthage are no more,
The world almost in flavish floth diffolv'd.
For this, thefe rocks around your coaft were thrown,
For this, your oaks, peculiar harden'd, shoot
Strong into sturdy growth; for this, your hearts 200
Swell with a fullen courage, growing ftill
As danger grows; and ftrength, and toil for this
Are liberal pour'd o'er all the fervent land.
Then cherish this, this unexpensive power,
Undangerous to the public, ever prompt,
By lavish Nature thrust into your hand:
And, unincumber'd with the bulk immenfe
Of conqueft, whence huge empires rofe, and fell
Self-crush'd, extend your reign from fhore to shore,
Wheree'er the wind your high behefts can blow;
And fix it deep on this eternal base.
For fhould the fliding fabrick once give way,
Soon flacken'd quite, and past recovery broke,
It gathers ruin as it rolls along,
Steep rufhing down to that devouring gulph,
Where many a mighty empire buried lies.
And should the big redundant flood of trade,
In which ten thousand thousand labours join
Their feveral currents, till the boundless tide
Rolls in a radiant deluge o'er the land;
Should this bright stream, the least inflected, point
Its course another way, o'er other lands
The various treasure would refiftlefs pour,
Ne'er to be won again; its ancient tract
Left a vile channel, defolate, and dead,
With all around a miferable wafte.
Not Egypt, were, her better heaven, the Nile
Turn'd in the pride of flow; when o'er his rocks,
And roaring cataracts, beyond the reach
Of dizzy vision pil'd, in one wide flash
An Ethiopian deluge foams amain
(Whence wondering fable trac'd him from the sky);
Ev'n not that prime of earth, where harvefts crowd
On untill'd harvests, all the teeming year,
If of the fat o'erflowing culture robb'd,
Were then a more uncomfortable wild,
Steril, and void; than, of her trade depriv'd,
Britons, your boasted isle: her princes funk;
Her high-built honour moulder'd to the dust;
Unnerv'd her force; her fpirit vanish'd quite;
With rapid wing her riches fled away;
Her unfrequented ports alone the sign
Of what she was; her merchants scatter'd wide;
Her hollow fhops fhut up; and in her ftreets,
Her fields, woods, markets, villages, and roads, 245 The chearful voice of labour heard no more.
Oh, let not then wafte Luxury impair
That manly foul of toil, which strings your nerves,
And your own proper happiness creates !
Oh, let not the foft, penetrating plague
Creep on the free-born mind; and working there,
With the fharp tooth of many a new-form'd want,
Endlefs, and idle all, eat out the heart
Of Liberty; the high conception blast ;
The noble fentiment, th' impatient fcorn
Of base subjection, and the fwelling wish
For general good, erazing from the mind:
While nought fave narrow selfishness fucceeds,
And low defign, the fneaking paffions all
Let loose, and reigning in the rankled breast.
Induc'd at last, by fcarce-perceiv'd degrees,
Sapping the very frame of government,
And life, a total diffolution comes;
$loth, ignorance, dejection, flattery, fear.
Oppreffion raging o'er the wafte he makes;
The human being almoft quite extinct;
And the whole ftate in broad corruption finks.
Oh, fhun that gulph: that gaping ruin shun!
And countless ages roll it far away
From you, ye heaven-belov'd! may Liberty,
The light of life, the fun of human-kind!
Whence heroes, bards, and patriots borrow flame,
Ev'n where the keen depreffive north descends,
Still spread, exalt, and actuate your powers!
While flavish southern climates beam in vain!
And may a public fpirit from the throne,
Where every virtue fits, go copious forth
Live o'er the land, the finer arts inspire,
Make thoughtful Science raise his penfive head,
Blow the fresh bay, bid Industry rejoice,
And the rough fons of lowest Labour fmile.
As when, profuse of spring, the loosen'd west
up the pining year, and balmy breathes
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