IV.

I care not that in Arno's plain,
Or on the sportive banks of Seine,
From public themes the Muse's quire
Content with polish'd ease retire.
Where priests the studious head command,
Where tyrants bow the warlike hand
To vile Ambition's aim,

Say, what can public themes afford,
Save venal honours to an hateful lord,

Reserv'd for angry Heaven, and scorn'd of honest

Fame?

But here, where Freedom's equal throne To all her valiant sons is known; Where all are conscious of her cares, And each the power, that rules him, shares; Here let the Bard, whose dastard tongue Leaves public arguments unsung, Bid public praise farewell : Let him to fitter climes remove, Far from the hero's and the patriot's love, And lull mysterious monks to slumber in their cell.

O Hastings, not to all

Can ruling Heaven the same endowments lend : Yet still doth Nature to her offspring call,

That to one general weal their different powers they bend,

Unenvious. Thus alone, though strains divine Inform the bosom of the Muse's son;

Though with new honours the patrician's line Advance from age to age; yet thus alone They win the suffrage of impartial Fame.

The poet's name
He best shall prove,

Whose lays the soul with noblest passions move.
But thee, O progeny of heroes old,
Thee to severer toils thy fate requires:
The fate which form'd thee in a chosen mould,

The grateful country of thy sires,
Thee to sublimer paths demand;
Sublimer than thy sires could trace,
Or thy own Edward teach his race,
Though Gaul's proud genius sank beneath his hand.

V.

From rich domains and subject farms,
They led the rustic youth to arms;
And kings their stern achievements fear'd;
While private Strife their banners rear'd.
But loftier scenes to thee are shown,
Where Empire's wide-establish'd throne
No private master fills :

Where, long foretold, the people reigns: Where each a vassal's humble heart disdains; And judgeth what he sees; and, as he judgeth, wills.

Here be it thine to calm and guide
The swelling democratic tide;

To watch the state's uncertain frame, And baffle Faction's partial aim : But chiefly, with determin'd zeal, To quell that servile band, who kneel To Freedom's banish'd foes; That monster, which is daily found Expert and bold thy country's peace to wound ; Yet dreads to handle arms, nor manly counsel knows.

'T is highest Heaven's command,

That guilty aims should sordid paths pursue; That what ensnares the heart should maim the

hand,

And Virtue's worthless foes be false to Glory too. But look on Freedom. See, through every age, What labours, perils, griefs, hath she disdain'd! What arms, what regal pride, what priestly rage, Have her dread offspring conquer'd or sustain'd! For Albion well have conquer'd. Let the strains

Of happy swains,
Which now resound

Where Scarsdale's cliffs the swelling pastures

bound,

Bear witness. There, oft let the farmer hail The sacred orchard which imbowers his gate, And show to strangers passing down the vale, Where Ca'ndish, Booth, and Osborne sate; When, bursting from their country's chain, Even in the midst of deadly harms, Of papal snares and lawless arms

They plann'd for Freedom this her noblest reign.

VI.

This reign, these laws, this public care,
Which Nassau gave us all to share,
Had ne'er adorn'd the English name,
Could Fear have silenc'd Freedom's claim.
But Fear in vain attempts to bind
Those lofty efforts of the mind

Which social Good inspires;

Where men, for this, assault a throne, Each adds the common welfare to his own; And each unconquer'd heart the strength of all ac

quires.

Say, was it thus, when late we view'd Our fields in civil blood imbrued? When Fortune crown'd the barbarous host, And half the astonish'd isle was lost? Did one of all that vaunting train, Who dare affront a peaceful reign, Durst one in arms appear? Durst one in counsels pledge his life? Stake his luxurious fortunes in the strife? Or lend his boasted name his vagrant friends to

cheer?

Yet, Hastings, these are they Who challenge to themselves thy country's love; The true; the constant: who alone can weigh, What Glory should demand, or Liberty approve!

But let their works declare them. Thy free powers, The generous powers of thy prevailing mind, Not for the tasks of their confederate hours, Lewd brawls and lurking slander, were design'd. Be thou thy own approver. Honest praise

Oft nobly sways
Ingenuous youth :

But, sought from cowards and the lying mouth,
Praise is reproach. Eternal God alone
For mortals fixeth that sublime award.
He, from the faithful records of his throne,
Bids the historian and the bard

Dispose of honour and of scorn;
Discern the patriot from the slave ;
And write the good, the wise, the brave

For lessons to the multitude unborn.

HYMN TO THE NAIADS.
1746.

Argument.

The nymphs, who preside over springs and rivulets, are addressed at day-break, in honour of their several functions, and of the relations which they bear to the natural and to the moral world. Their origin is deduced from the first allegorical deities, or powers of Nature; according to the doctrine of the old mythological poets, concerning the generation of the gods and the rise of things. They are then successively considered, as giving motion to the air and exciting summer-breezes; as nourishing and beautifying the vegetable creation ; as