HAIL! INDEPENDENCE, hail! HEAVEN'S next best
To that of life and an immortal foul!
The life of life! that to the banquet high
And fober meal gives taste; to the bow'd roof
Fair dream'd repofe, and to the cottage charms.
Of public Freedom, hail, thou fecret Source!
Whose streams, from every quarter confluent, form 130
My better Nile, that nurses human life.
By rills from thee deduc'd, irriguous, fed,
The private field looks gay, with Nature's wealth
Abundant flows, and blooms with each delight.
That Nature craves. Its happy master there,
The ONLY FREE-MAN, walks his pleasing round:
Sweet-featur'd Peace attending; fearless Truth;
Firm Refolution; Goodness, bleffing all
That can rejoice; Contentment, fureft friend;.
And, ftill fresh stores from Nature's book deriv'd, 140
Philofophy, companion ever-new.
These chear his rural, and fuftain or fire,
When into action call'd, his busy hours.
Meantime, true-judging moderate desires,
Oeconomy and Taste, combin'd, direct
His clear affairs, and from debauching fiends-
Secure his little kingdom. Nor can those
Whom Fortune heaps, without these Virtues, reach ›
That truce with pain, that animated ease,
That felf-enjoyment fpringing from within;
That INDEPENDENCE, active, or retir'd,
Which make the foundest blifs of man below:
But, loft beneath the rubbish of their means,
And drain'd by wants to Nature all unknown,
A wandering, taftelefs, gaily-wretched train,
Tho' rich, are beggars, and tho' noble, flaves...
Lo! damn'd to wealth, at what a gross expence They purchase disappointment, pain and shame. Instead of hearty hospitable chear,
See how the hall with brutal riot flows;
While in the foaming flood, fermenting steep'd,
The country maddens into party-rage.
Mark! those difgraceful piles of wood and stone;
Those parks and gardens, where, his haunts betrimm'd,
And Nature by prefumptuous Art opprefs'd, 165
The woodland genius mourns. See! the full board
That fteams disgust, and bowls that give no joy :
No truth invited there, to feed the mind;
Nor Wit, the wine rejoicing reafon quaffs.
Hark! how the dome with Infolence resounds,
With those retain'd by Vanity to feare
Repose and friends. To tyrant Fashion, mark!
The coftly worship paid, to the broad gaze
Of fools. From ftill delufive day to day,
Led an eternal round of lying hope,,
See! felf-abandon'd, how they roam adrift,
Dash'd o'er the town, a miserable wreck!
Then to adore fome warbling eunuch turn'd,
With Midas' ears they croud; or to the buzz
Of masquerade unblushing: or, to show
Their scorn of Nature, at the tragic scene.
They mirthful fit, or prove the comic true.
But, chief, behold! around the ratling board,
The civil robbers rang'd ; and even the fair,
The tender fair, each sweetness laid aside,
As fierce for plunder as all-licens❜d troops
In fome fack'd city. Thus diffolv'd their wealth,
Without one generous luxury diffolvid, -
Or quarter'd on it many a needless want,
At the throng'd levee bends the venal tribe:-
With fair but faithless fmiles each varnish'd o'er,
Each smooth as those that mutually deceive,
And for their falfhood each despifing each;
"Till fhook their patron by the wintry winds,
Wide flies the withered shower, and leaves him bare.
O far fuperior Afric's fable fons,
By merchant pilfer'd, to these willing Slaves!,
And rich, as unfqueez'd favourite, to them,
As he who can his Virtue boast alone!
BRITONS! be firm !-nor let Corruption fly 200
Twine round your heart indiffoluble chains!
The steel of BRUTUS burft the groffer bonds
By Caefar caft o'er ROME; but ftill remain'd
The foft enchanting fetters of the mind,
And other Caefars rofe. Determin'd, hold
Your INDEPENDENCE; for, that once destroy'd,
Unfounded, FREEDOM is a morning dream,
That fleets aërial from the spreading eye.!.
Forbid it HEAVEN! that ever I need urge
INTEGRITY IN OFFICE on MY fons;
Inculcate common honour- -not to rob-
And whom?-the gracious, the confiding hand,
That lavishly rewards; the toiling poor,
Whose cup with many a bitter drop is mixt;
The guardian public; every face they fee,
And every friend; nay, in effect themselves.
As in familiar life, the villain's fate
Admits no cure; fo, when a desperate age
At this arrives, I the devoted race
Andignant spurn, and hopeless foar away.
But, ah too little known to modern times!
Be not the nobleft paffion paft unfung;
That ray peculiar, from UNBOUNDED LOVE
Effus'd, which kindles the heroic foul ;
DEVOTION TO THE PUBLIC. Glorious Blame! 225
Celestial ardor! in what unknown worlds,
Profufely scatter'd thro' the blue immense,
Haft thou been bleffing myriads, fince in ROME,
Old virtuous ROME, so many deathless names
From Thee their luftre drew? fince, taught by Thee,
Their poverty put fplendor to the blufh,
Pain grew luxurious, and even death delight?
O wilt thou ne'er, in thy long period, look,
With blaze direct, on this my last retreat?
'Tis not enough, from Self right understood
Reflected, that thy rays inflame the heart:
Tho' VIRTUE not disdains appeals to Self,
Dreads not the trial; all her joys are true,
Nor is there any real joy fave her's.
Far lefs the tepid, the declaiming race,
Foes to Corruption, to its wages friends,
Or those whom private paffions, for a while,
Beneath My standard lift, can they fuffice
To raise and fix the glory of My Reign?
An active flood of univerfal Love
Muft fwell the breast. First, in effufion wide,
The restless fpirit roves creation round,
And seizes every being stronger then
It tends to Life, whate'er the kindred search
Of blifs allys: then, more collected still,
It urges
At laft, the central Parent-public calls
Human-kind: a paffion grown,
Its utmost effort forth, awakes each fenfe,
The comely, grand and tender. Without this,
This awful pant, hook from fublimer powers
Than those of Self, this HEAVEN-infus'd delight,
This moral gravitation, rufhing prone
To prefs the public Good, MY fyftem foon,
Trayerfe, to several selfish centres drawn,
Will reel to ruin: while for ever shut
Stand the bright portals of desponding Fame.
From fordid Self fhoot up no fhining deeds,
None of those ancient lights, that gladden earth,
Give grace to being, and arouze the Brave
To juft Ambition, VIRTUE's quickening fire!
Life tedious grows, an idly-bustling round,
Fill'd up with actions animal and
mean,
A dull gazette! Th' impatient reader fcorns
The poor historic page; till kindly comes
Oblivion, and redeems a people's fhame.
Not fo the times when, emulation-stung,
GREECE fhone in Genius, Science, and in Arts,
And ROME in Virtues dreadful to be told!
To live was glory then! and charm'd mankind,
Thro' the deep periods of devolving time,
Thofe, raptur'd copy; thefe, aftonish'd, read.
True, a corrupted state, with every vice
And every meanness foul, this passion damps.
Who can, unshock'd, behold the cruel eye?
The pale inveigling fmile? the ruffian front?
The wretch abandon'd to relentless felf,
Equally vile if miser or profuse?
Powers not of GOD, affiduous to corrupt?
The fell deputed Tyrant, who devours
The poor, the weak, * at distance from redrefs? 285
Delirious Faction bellowing loud My name ?
The falfe fair-feeming patriot's hollow boast?
A race refolv'd on bondage, fierce for chains,
* Lord MOLESWORTH in his account of Denmark says, It is obferved, that in limited monarchies and commonwealths, a neighbourhood to the seat of the government is advantageous to the fubjects; whilst the distant provinces are less thri ving, and more liable to oppreffion. Ff
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