His thorns with ftreamers of continual praise ? We too are friends to loyalty. We love
The king who loves the law; refpects his bounds, And reigns content within them: him we serve Freely and with delight, who leaves us free; But recollecting still that he is man,
We trust him not too far, King though he be, And king in England too, he may be weak, And vain enough to be ambitious still May exercise amifs his proper pow'rs, Or covet more than freemen chuse to grant: Beyond that mark is treason. He is ours, T'administer, to guard, t' adorn the state, But not to warp or change it. We are his, To ferve him nobly in the common cause, True to the death, but not to be his slaves. Mark now the diff'rence, ye that boast your love Of kings, between your loyalty and ours. We love the man; the paltry pageant you. We the chief patron of the commonwealth ;
You the regardless author of its woes.
We, for the fake of liberty, a king;
You chains and bondage, for a tyrant's fake. Our love is principle, and has its root
In reafon, is judicious, manly, free;
Yours, a blind inftinct, crouches to the rod, And licks the foot that treads it in the dust. Were kingship as true treasure as it seems, Sterling, and worthy of a wife man's wifh, I would not be a king to be belov'd Causeless, and daub'd with undiscerning praise, Where love is mere attachment to the throne, Not to the man who fills it as he ought.
Whofe freedom is by fuff'rance, and at will Of a fuperior, he is never free.
Who lives, and is not weary of a life Expos'd to manacles, deferves them well,
The state that strives for liberty, though foil'd, And forc'd t' abandon what she bravely fought,
Deferves at least applaufe for her attempt,
And pity for her lofs. But that's a caufe
Not often unfuccessful: pow'r ufurp'd
Is weakness when oppos'd; confcious of wrong, 'Tis pufillanimous and prone to flight.
But flaves that once conceive the glowing thought
Of freedom, in that hope itfelf poffefs
All that the conteft calls for; fpirit, ftrength,
The fcorn of danger, and united hearts,
The fureft prefage of the good they feek.*
Then fhame to manhood, and opprobrious more To France than all her loffes and defeats,
Old or of later date, by fea or land,
*The author hopes that he fhall not be cenfured for unneceffary warmth upon fo interesting a fubject. He is aware that it is become almost fashionable to ftigmatize such sentiments as no better than empty declamation; but it is an ill fymptom, and peculiar to modern times.
Her house of bondage, worse than that of old Which God aveng'd on Pharaoh-the Bastile. Ye horrid tow'rs, th' abode of broken hearts, Ye dungeons and ye cages of defpair, That monarchs have fupplied from age to age With mufic fuch as fuits their fov'reign ears, The fighs and groans of miferable men!
There's not an English heart that would not leap To hear that ye were fall'n at laft; to know That ev❜n our enemies, fo oft employ'd
In forging chains for us, themselves were free. For he who values liberty, confines His zeal for her predominance within
No narrow bounds; her caufe engages him Wherever pleaded. 'Tis the cause of man. There dwell the most forlorn of human kind, Immur'd though unaccus'd, condemn'd untry'd, Cruelly fpar'd, and hopeless of escape.
There, like the vifionary emblem seen By him of Babylon, life ftands a stump,
And filletted about with hoops of brass,
Still lives, though all its pleasant boughs are gone. To count the hour-bell and expect no change;
And ever, as the fullen found is heard,
Still to reflect, that though a joyless note To him whose moments all have one duil pace, Ten thousand rovers in the world at large Account it mufic; that it fummons fome To theatre, or jocund feast or ball; The wearied hireling finds it a release From labor; and the lover, who has chid
Its long delay, feels ev'ry welcome stroke Upon his heart-strings, trembling with delight— To fly for refuge from diftracting thought To fuch amusements as ingenious woe Contrives, hard-shifting, and without her tools- To read engraven on the mouldy walls, In ftagg'ring types, his predeceffor's tale, A fad memorial, and fubjoin his own- To turn purveyor to an overgorg'd
« PreviousContinue » |