A

Or whether, mounted on cherubic wing,

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Thy fwift career is with the whirling orbs, Comparing things with things, in rapture loft, And grateful adoration, for that light So plenteous ray'd into thy mind below,. From LIGHT himself; Oh look with pity down On human kind, a frail erroneous race!” Exalt the spirit of a downward world! O'er thy dejected country, chief prefide, And be her Genius call'd! her studies raise, Correct her manners, and inspire her youth: For, tho' deprav'd and funk, fhe brought thee forth, And glories in thy name; she points thee out To all her fons, and bids them eye thy star: While in expectance of the second life, When time shall be no more, thy facred duft Sleeps with her kings, and dignifies the scener

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BRITANNIA.

BRITANNIA.

A

POEM.

-Et tantas audetis tollere moles?

Quos ego-fed motos praeftat componere fluctus.
Poft mihi non fimili poena commiffa luetis.
Maturate fugam, regique haec dicite veftro:
Non illi imperium pelagi, saevumque tridentem,
Sed mihi forte datum.-

VIRGIL.

BRIT A NNIA,

PO

O

E

E M.

S on the fea-beat shore Britannia sat, :
Of her degenerate fons the faded fame,

Deep in her anxious heart, revolving fad:
Bare was her throbbing bofom to the gale,

That hoarfe, and hollow, from the bleak furge blew;

Loose flow'd her treffes; rent her azure robe:

6

ΤΟ

Hung o'er the deep, from her majestic brow
She tore the laurel, and the tore the bay
Nor ceas'd the copious grief to bathe her cheek;
Nor ceas'd her fobs to murmur to the main.
Peace difcontented nigh, departing, ftretch'd
Her dove-like wings: and War, tho' greatly rouz'd,
Yet mourn'd his fetter'd hands. While thus the queen
Of nations fpoke; and what she said the Mufe
Recorded, faithful, in unbidden verfe.

Even not yon fail, that, from the sky-mix'd wave,
Dawns on the fight, and wafts the ROYAL YOUTH *,
A freight of future glory to my fhore;
Even not the flattering view of golden days,
And rifing periods yet of bright renown, i
Beneath the PARENTS, and their endless line
Thro' late revolving time, can foothe my rage;
* Frederic prince of Wales, then lately arrived.
VOL. I.

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While,