And strength is lord of all; but gentle, kind, By culture tamed, by liberty refresh'd, And all her fruits by radiant truth matured. War and the chase engross the savage whole; War follow'd for revenge, or to supplant The envied tenants of some happier spot: The chase for sustenance, precarious trust! His hard condition with severe constraint Binds all his faculties, forbids all growth Of wisdom, proves a school, in which he learns Sly circumvention, unrelenting hate,
Mean self-attachment, and scarce aught beside. Thus fare the shivering natives of the north; And thus the rangers of the western world, Where it advances far into the deep, Towards the antarctic. E'en the favour'd isles So lately found, although the constant sun Cheer all their seasons with a grateful smile, Can boast but little virtue; and, inert Through plenty, lose in morals what they gain In manners-victims of luxurious ease. These therefore I can pity, placed remote From all that science traces, art invents, Or inspiration teaches; and enclosed In boundless oceans, never to be pass'd By navigators uninform'd as they,
Or plough'd perhaps by British bark again. But far beyond the rest, and with most cause, Thee, gentle savage*! whom no love of thee Or thine, but curiosity perhaps,
Or else vainglory prompted us to draw Forth from thy native bowers, to show thee here With what superior skill we can abuse
The gifts of Providence, and squander life. The dream is pass'd; and thou hast found again Thy cocoas and bananas, palms and yams, [found And homestall thatch'd with leaves. But hast thou Their former charms? And, having seen our state, Our palaces, our ladies, and our pomp
Of equipage, our gardens, and our sports, And heard our music; are thy simple friends, Thy simple fare, and all thy plain delights As dear to thee as once? And have thy joys Lost nothing by comparison with ours? Rude as thou art (for we return'd thee rude And ignorant, except of outward show), I cannot think thee yet so dull of heart And spiritless as never to regret Sweets tasted here, and left as soon as known. Methinks I see thee straying on the beach, And asking of the surge that bathes thy foot, If ever it has wash'd our distant shore.
I see thee weep, and thine are honest tears, A patriot's for his country: thou art sad At thought of her forlorn and abject state, From which no power of thine can raise her up. Thus Fancy paints thee, and, though apt to err Perhaps errs little, when she paints thee thus. She tells me too, that duly every morn Thou climb'st the mountain top, with eager eye
Exploring far and wide the watery waste, For sight of ship from England. Every speck Seen in the dim horizon turns thee pale With conflict of contending hopes and fears. But comes at last the dull and dusky eve, And sends thee to thy cabin, well prepared To dream all night of what the day denied. Alas! expect it not. We found no bait To tempt us in thy country. Doing good, Disinterested good, is not our trade.
We travel far 'tis true, but not for nought; And must be bribed to compass Earth again By other hopes and richer fruits than yours.
But though true worth and virtue in the mild And genial soil of cultivated life
Thrive most, and may perhaps thrive only there, Yet not in cities oft: in proud, and gay, And gain-devoted cities. Thither flow, As to a common and most noisome sewer, The dregs and feculence of every land. In cities foul example on most minds Begets its likeness. Rank abundance breeds, In gross and pamper'd cities, sloth and lust And wantonness and gluttonous excess. In cities vice is hidden with most ease,
Or seen with least reproach; and virtue, taught By frequent lapse, can hope no triumph there Beyond the' achievement of successful flight. I do confess them nurseries of the arts,
In which they flourish most; where, in the beams
Of warm encouragement, and in the eye
Of public note, they reach their perfect size. Such London is, by taste and wealth proclaim'd The fairest capital of all the world,
By riot and incontinence the worst.
There, touch'd by Reynolds, a dull blank becomes A lucid mirror, in which Nature sees
All her reflected features. Bacon there Gives more than female beauty to a stone, And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips. Nor does the chisel occupy alone
The powers of Sculpture, but the style as much; Each province of her art her equal care. With nice incision of her guided steel
She ploughs a brazen field, and clothes a soil So steril with what charms soe'er she will, The richest scenery and the loveliest forms. Where finds Philosophy her eagle eye, With which she gazes at yon burning disk Undazzled, and detects and counts his spots? In London: where her implements exact, With which she calculates, computes, and scans All distance, motion, magnitude, and now Measures an atom, and now girds a world? In London. Where has commerce such a mart, So rich, so throng'd, so drain'd, and so supplied As London-opulent, enlarged, and still Increasing London? Babylon of old
Not more the glory of the Earth than she, A more accomplish'd world's chief glory now.
She has her praise. Now mark a spot or two, That so much beauty would do well to purge; And show this queen of cities, that so fair May yet be foul; so witty, yet not wise. It is not seemly, nor of good report,
That she is slack in discipline; more prompt To' avenge than to prevent the breach of law: That she is rigid in denouncing death
On petty robbers, and indulges life
And liberty and, ofttimes, honour too To peculators of the public gold:
That thieves at home must hang; but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The wealth of Indian provinces escapes. Nor is it well, nor can it come to good, That, through profane and infidel contempt Of holy writ, she has presumed to' annul And abrogate, as roundly as she may, The total ordinance and will of God; Advancing Fashion to the post of Truth, And centring all authority in modes And customs of her own, till sabbath rites Have dwindled into unrespected forms, And knees and hassocks are wellnigh divorced. God made the country, and man made the town. What wonder then that health and virtue, gifts That can alone make sweet the bitter draught That life holds out to all, should most abound And least be threaten'd in the fields and groves? Possess ye therefore, ye who, borne about
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