Delightful view! when justice draws the sword:
And mark! diffusing ardent soul around,
And sweet contempt of death, My streaming flag 89.
Even adverse navies 9° bless'd the binding gale,
Kept down the glad acclaim, and silent joy'd.
Arriv'd the pomp, and not the waste of arms
His progress mark'd. The faint opposing host 91
For once, in yielding their best victory found,
And by desertion prov'd exalted faith;
While his the bloodless conquest of the heart,
Shouts without groan, and triumph without war.
Then dawn'd the period destin❜d to confine
The surge of wild prerogative, to raise
A mound restraining its imperious rage,
And bid the raving deep no farther flow.
Nor were, without that fence, the swallow'd state
Better than Belgian plains without their dykes,
Sustaining weighty seas. This, often sav'd
By more than human hand, the public saw,
And seiz'd the white-wing'd moment. Pleas'd 92 to
Destructive power, a wise heroic 93 prince [yield
Even lent his aid-Thrice happy! did they know
Their happiness, Britannia's bounded kings.
What though not theirs the boast, in dungeon
glooms,
89 The prince placed himself in the main body, carrying a flag with English colours, and their highnesses' arms surrounded with this motto, "The Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England;" and underneath the motto of the house of Nassau," Je Maintiendrai, I will maintain." Rapin. 90 The English fleet.
92 By the Bill of Rights, and the Act of Succession. 93 William III.
To plunge bold freedom; or, to cheerless wilds,
To drive him from the cordial face of friend;
Or fierce to strike him at the midnight hour,
By mandate blind, not justice, that delights
To dare the keenest eye of open day.
What though no glory to controul the laws,
And make injurious will their only rule,
They deem it. What though, tools of wanton
Pestiferous armies swarm not at their call. [power,
What though they give not a relentless crew
Of civil furies, proud oppression's fangs!
To tear at pleasure the dejected land,
With starving labour pampering idle waste.
To clothe the naked, feed the hungry, wipe
The guiltless tear from lone affliction's eye;
To raise hid merit, set the' alluring light
Of virtue high to view; to nourish arts,
Direct the thunder of an injur'd state,
Make a whole glorious people sing for joy,
Bless human kind, and through the downward
Of future times to spread that better sun
[depth Which lights up British soul: for deeds like these,
The dazzling fair career unbounded lies;
While (still superior bliss!) the dark abrupt
Is kindly barr'd, the precipice of ill.
O luxury divine! O poor to this,
Ye giddy glories of despotic thrones!
By this, by this indeed, is imag'd heaven,
By boundless good without the power of ill.
And now behold! exalted as the cope
That swells immense o'er many-peopled earth,
And like it free, my fabric stands complete,
The palace of the laws. To the four heavens
Four gates impartial thrown, unceasing crowds,
With kings themselves the hearty peasant mix'd,
Pour urgent in. And though to different ranks
Responsive place belongs, yet equal spreads
The sheltering roof o'er all; while plenty flows,
And glad contentment echoes round the whole.
Ye floods descend! Ye winds, confirming, blow!
Nor outward tempest, nor corrosive time,
Nought but the felon undermining hand
Of dark Corruption, can its frame dissolve,
And lay the toil of ages in the dust."
Author addresses the Goddess of Liberty, marking the hap-
piness and grandeur of Great Britain, as arising from her
influence. She resumes her discourse, and points out the
chief virtues which are necessary to maintain her esta-
blishment there. Recommends, as its last ornament and
finishing, Sciences, Fine Arts, and Public Works. The
encouragement of these urged from the example of
France, though under a despotic government. The whole
concludes with a Prospect of future times, given by the
Goddess of Liberty: this described by the author, as it
passes in Vision before him.
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