Page images
PDF
EPUB

And gives the charter, by which life indeed
Becomes of price, a glory to be man.

"Through this and through succeeding reigns

affirm'd

These long-contested rights, the wholesome winds
Of opposition* hence began to blow,
And often since have lent the country life.
Before their breath corruption's insect blights,
The darkening clouds of evil counsel, fly;
Or, should they sounding swell, a putrid court,
A pestilential ministry, they purge,

And ventilated states renew their bloom.

By counsels weak and wicked, easy rous'd
To paltry schemes of absolute command,
To seek their splendor in their sure disgrace,
And in a broken ruin'd people wealth:
When such o'ercast the state, no bond of love,
No heart, no soul, no unity, no nerve,
Combin'd the loose disjointed public, lost
To fame abroad, to happiness at home.

"But when an Edward and an Henry* breath'd
Through the charm'd whole one all-exerting soul:
Drawn sympathetic from his dark retreat,
When wide-attracted merit round them glow'd:

"Though with the temper'd monarchy here mix'd When counsels just, extensive, generous, firm,

when

Amid the maze of state, determin'd kept
Some ruling point in view: when, on the stock
Of public good and glory grafted, spread
Their palms, their laurels; or, if thence they stray'd
Swift to return, and patient of restraint:
When legal state, pre-eminence of place,
[left They scorn'd to deem pre-eminence of ease,
To be luxurious drones, that only rob
The busy hive: as in distinction, power,
Indulgence, honor, and advantage, first;
When they too claim'd in virtue, danger, toil,
Superior rank; with equal hand, prepar'd
To guard the subject, and to quell the foe:
When such with me their vital influence shed,
No mutter'd grievance, hopeless sigh, was heard;
No foul distrust through wary senates ran,
Confin'd their bounty, and their ardor quench'd:
On aid, unquestion'd, liberal aid was given:
Safe in their conduct, by their valor fir'd,
Fond where they led victorious armies rush'd;
And Cressy, Poitiers, Agincourtt proclaim
What kings supported by almighty love,
And people fir'd with liberty, can do.

Aristocratic sway, the people still,
Flatter'd by this or that, as interest lean'd,
No full perfection knew. For me reserv'd,
And for my commons, was that glorious turn.
They crown'd my first attempt,† in senates rose,
The fort of freedom! slow till then, alone,
Had work'd that general liberty, that soul,
Which generous Nature breathes, and which,
By me to bondage was corrupted Rome,
I through the northern nations wide diffus'd.
Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rush'd
From the rude iron regions of the North,
To Libyan deserts, swarm protruding swarm,
And pour'd new spirit through a slavish world.
Yet, o'er these Gothic states, the king and chiefs
Retain'd the high prerogative of war,
And with enormous property engross'd
The mingled power. But on Britannia's shore
Now present, I to raise my reign began
By raising the democracy, the third disclos'd
And broadest bulwark of the guarded state.
Then was the full, the perfect plan disclos'd
Of Britain's matchless constitution, mixt
Of mutual checking and supporting powers,
King, lords, and commons; nor the name of free
Deserving, while the vassal-many droop'd:
For since the moment of the whole they form,
So, as depress'd or rais'd, the balance they
Of public welfare and of glory cast.
Mark from this period the continual proof.

"When kings of narrow genius, minion-rid,
Neglecting faithful worth for fawning slaves;
Proudly regardless of their people's plaints,
And poorly passive of insulting foes;
Double, not prudent, obstinate, not firm,
Their mercy fear, necessity their faith;
Instead of generous fire, presumptuous, hot,
Rash to resolve, and slothful to perform;
Tyrants at once, and slaves, imperious, mean,
To want rapacious joining shameful waste;

[blocks in formation]

"Be veil'd the savage reigns, when kindred rage
The numerous once Plantagenets devour'd,
A race to vengeance vow'd! and when, oppress'd
By private feuds, almost extinguish'd lay
My quivering flame. But, in the next, behold!
A cautious tyrants lent it oil anew.

"Proud, dark, suspicious, brooding o'er his gold
As how to fix his throne he jealous cast
His crafty views around; pierc'd with a ray,
Which on his timid mind I darted full,
He mark'd the barons of excessive sway,
At pleasure making and unmaking kings; ||
And hence, to crush these petty tyrants, plann'd
A law, that let them, by the silent waste
Of luxury, their landed wealth diffuse,
And with that wealth their implicated power.
By soft degrees a mighty change ensued,
Ev'n working to this day. With streams, deduc'd
From these diminish'd floods, the country smil'd.
As when impetuous from the snow-heap'd Alps,
To vernal suns relenting, pours the Rhine;
While undivided, oft, with wasteful sweep,

He foams along; but, through Batavian meads,

* Edward III. and Henry V.

† Three famous battles, gained by the English over the

French.

† The Commons are generally thought to have been first represented in parliament towards the end of Henry the Third's reign. To a parliament called in the year 1264, each county was ordered to send four knights, as representatives of their respective shires; and to a parlia. ment called in the year following, each county was ordered to send, as their representatives, two knights, and each city and borough as many citizens and burgesses. § Henry VII. Till then, history makes no mention of them; whence a very strong argument may be drawn, to fix the original of the House of Commons to that era.

During the civil wars betwixt the families of York and Lancaster.

The famous Earl of Warwick, during the reigns of Henry VL and Edward IV., was called the King-maker. Permitting the barons to alienate their lands.

Branch'd into fair canals, indulgent flows;
Waters a thousand fields; and culture, trade,
Towns, meadows, gliding ships, and villas mix'd,
A rich, a wondrous landscape rises round.

"His furious son* the soul-enslaving chain,
Which many a doting venerable age
Had link by link strong-twisted round the land,
Shook off. No longer could be borne a power,
From Heaven pretended, to deceive, to void
Each solemn tie, to plunder without bounds,
To curb the generous soul, to fool mankind;
And, wild at last, to plunge into a sea
Of blood, and horror. The returning light,

Meantime, peace, plenty, justice, science, arts,
With softer laurels crown'd her happy reign.

" As yet uncircumscrib'd, the regal power,
And wild and vague prerogative remain'd,
A wide voracious gulf, where swallow'd oft
The helpless subject lay. This to reduce
To the just limit was my great effort.

"By means that evil seem to narrow man,
Superior beings work their mystic will:
From storm and trouble thus a settled calm,
At last, effulgent, o'er Britannia smil'd.

"The gathering tempest, Heaven-commission'd

came,

That first through Wickliff streak'd the priestly Came in the prince,* who, drunk with flattery, dreamt,

gloom,

Now burst in open day. Bar'd to the blaze,
Forth from the haunts of superstition crawl'd
Her motley sons, fantastic figures all;
And, wide-dispers'd, their useless fetid wealth
In graceful labor bloom'd, and fruits of peace.

His vain pacific counsels rul'd the world;
Though scorn'd abroad, bewilder'd in a maze
Of fruitless treaties; while at home enslav'd,
And by a worthless crew insatiate drain'd,
He lost his people's confidence and love;
Irreparable loss! whence crowns become
An anxious burden. Years inglorious pass'd:
Triumphant Spain the vengeful draught enjoy'd
Abandon'd Frederickt pin'd, and Raleigh bled.
But nothing that to these internal broils,
That rancor, he began; while lawless sway
He, with his slavish doctors, tried to rear
On metaphysic, on enchanted ground,‡
And all the mazy quibbles of the schools:
As if for one, and sometimes for the worst,
Heaven had mankind in vengeance only made.
Vain the pretence! not so the dire effect,
The fierce, the foolish discord thence deriv'd,§

"Trade, join'd to these, on every sea display'd
A daring canvas, pour'd with every tide
A golden flood. From other worlds || were roll'd
The guilty glittering stores, whose fatal charms,
By the plain Indian happily despis'd,
Yet work'd his woe; and to the blissful groves,
Where Nature liv'd herself among her sons,
And innocence and joy for ever dwelt,
Drew rage unknown to Pagan climes before,
The worst the zeal-inflam'd barbarian drew.
Be no such horrid commerce, Britain, thine!
But want for want, with mutual aid, supply.
"The commons thus enrich'd, and powerful grown, That tears the country still, by party-rage

Against the barons weigh'd. Eliza then,
Amid these doubtful motions, steady, gave
The beam to fix. She! like the secret eye
That never closes on a guarded world,
So sought, so mark'd, so seiz'd the public good,
That self-supported, without one ally,

She aw'd her inward, quell'd her circling foes.
Inspir'd by me, beneath her sheltering arm,
In spite of raging universal sway,
And raging seas repress'd, the Belgic states,
My bulwark on the Continent, arose.
Matchless in all the spirit of her days!
With confidence, unbounded, fearless love
Elate, her fervent people waited gay,
Cheerful demanded the long-threaten'd fleet,**
And dash'd the pride of Spain around their isle.
Nor ceas'd the British thunder here to rage:
The deep, reclaim'd, obey'd its awful call;
In fire and smoke Iberian ports involv'd,
The trembling foe ev'n to the centre shook
Of their new-conquer'd world, and skulking stole
By veering winds their Indian treasure home.

[blocks in formation]

And ministerial clamor kept alive.
In action weak, and for the wordy war
Best fitted, faint this prince pursu'd his claim :
Content to teach the subject herd, how great,
How sacred he! how despicable they!

"But his unyielding son || these doctrines drank,
With all a bigot's rage (who never damps
By reasoning his fire;) and what they taught
Warm and tenacious, into practice push'd.
Senates, in vain, their kind restraint applied :
The more they struggled to support the laws,
His justice-dreading ministers the more
Drove him beyond their bounds. Tir'd with the

[blocks in formation]

Her unrelenting train: informers, spies,
Blood-hounds, that sturdy freedom to the grove
Pursue; projectors of aggrieving schemes
Commerce to load for unprotected seas,*
To sell the starving many to the few,t
And drain a thousand ways th' exhausted land.
Ev'n from that healing place, whence peace should

flow,

And gospel truth, inhuman bigots shed
Their poison round; and on the venal bench,
Instead of justice, party held the scale,
And violence the sword. Afflicted years,
Too patient, felt at last their vengeance full.

"Mid the low murmurs of submissive fear
And mingled rage, my Hampden rais'd his voice,
And to the laws appeal'd; the laws no more
In judgment sate, behov'd some other ear.
When instant from the keen resentive North,
By long oppression by religion rous'd,
The guardian army came. Beneath its wing
Was called, though meant to furnish hostile aid,
The more than Roman senate. There a flame
Broke out, that clear'd, consum'd, renew'd the land.
In deep emotion hurl'd, nor Greece, nor Rome,
Indignant bursting from a tyrant's chain,
While, full of me, each agitated soul
Strung every nerve, and flam'd in every eye,
Had e'er beheld such light and heat combin'd!
Such heads and hearts! such dreadful zeal, led on
By calm majestic wisdom, taught its course
What nuisance to devour; such wisdom fir'd
With unabating zeal, and aim'd sincere
To clear the weedy state, restore the laws,
And for the future to secure their sway.

"This then the purpose of my mildest sons. But man is blind. A nation once inflam'd (Chief, should the breath of factious fury blow With the wild rage of mad enthusiasts swell'd) Not easy cools again. From breast to breast, From eye to eye, the kindling passions mix In heighten'd blaze; and, ever wise and just, High Heaven to gracious ends directs the storm. Thus, in one conflagration Britain wrapt, And by confusion's lawless sons despoil'd, King, lords, and commons, thundering to the ground, Successive rush'd-Lo! from their ashes rose, Gay-beaming radiant youth, the Phoenix-state.$

This wild delusive cant; the rash cabal
Of hungry courtiers, ravenous for prey;
'The bigot, restless in a double chain
To bind anew the land; the constant need
Of finding faithless means, of shifting forms,
And flattering senates, to supply his waste;
These tore some moments from the careless prince,
And in his breast awak'd the kindred plan.
By dangerous softness long he min'd his way;
By subtle arts, dissimulation deep;
By sharing what corruption shower'd, profuse;
By breathing wide the gay licentious plague,
And pleasing manners, fitted to deceive.

"At last subsided the delirious joy,
On whose high billow, from the saintly reign
The nation drove too far. A pension'd king,
Against his country brib'd by Gallic gold;
The port* pernicious sold, the Scylla since,
And fell Charybdis of the British seas;
Freedom attack'd abroad,t with surer blow
To cut it off at home; the savior leagueț
Of Europe broke; the progress ev'n advanc'd
Of universal sway, which to reduce
Such seas of blood and treasure Britain cost;
The millions, by a generous people given,
Or squander'd vile, or to corrupt, disgrace,
And awe the land with forces not their own,||
Employ'd; the darling church herself betray'd;
All these, broad-glaring, op'd the general eye,
And wak'd my spirit, the resisting soul.

"Mild was, at first, and half asham'd, the check
Of senates, shook from the fantastic dreans
Of absolute submission, tenets vile!
Which slaves would blush to own, and which, reduc'd
To practice, always honest Nature shock.
Not ev'n the mask remov'd, and the fierce front
Of tyranny disclos'd; nor trampled laws;
Nor seiz'd each badge of freedom through the

land;

Nor Sidney bleeding for the unpublish'd page;
Nor on the bench avow'd corruption plac'd,
And murderous rage itself, in Jeffries' form;
Nor endless acts of arbitrary power,
Cruel and false, could raise the public arm.
Distrustful, scatter'd, of combining chiefs
Devoid, and dreading blind rapacious war,
The patient public turns not, till impell'd
To the near verge of ruin. Hence I rous'd
The bigot king,** and hurried fated on
His measures immature. But chief his zeal,

"The grievous yoke of vassalage, the yoke Of private life, lay by those flames dissolv'd ; And, from the wasteful, the luxurious king,ll Was purchas'd that which taught the young to Out-flaming Rome herself, portentous scar'd

bend.T

[blocks in formation]

The troubled nation: Mary's horrid days
To fancy bleeding rose, and the dire glare
Of Smithfield lighten'd in his eyes anew.
Yet silence reign'd. Each on another scowl'd

Rueful amazement, pressing down his rage:
As, mustering vengeance, the deep thunder frowns,

Awfully still, waiting the high command

To spring. Straight from his country, Europe sav'd,

[blocks in formation]

** James II.

To save Britannia, lo! my darling son,
Than hero more, the patriot of mankind!
Immortal Nassau came. I hush'd the deep,
By demons rous'd, and bade the listed winds,*
Still shifting, as behov'd, with various breath,
Waft the deliverer to the longing shore.

See! wide alive, the foaming Channelt bright
With swelling sails, and all the pride of war.
Delightful view! when Justice draws the sword:
And, mark! diffusing ardent soul around,
And sweet contempt of death, my streaming flag.‡
Ev'n adverse navies 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 ||
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,

With starving labor pampering idle waste.
To clothe the naked, feed the hungry, wipe
The guiltless tear from lone affliction's eye;
To raise hid merit, set th' 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 depth
Of future times to spread that better sun
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.
Oh, luxury divine! Oh, 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.

And seiz'd the white-wing'd moment. Pleas'd to Ye floods, descend! ye winds, confirming, blow!

yield

Destructive power, a wise heroic prince**
Ev'n lent his aid. Thrice happy! did they know
Their happiness, Britannia's bounded kings.
What though not theirs the boast, in dungeon glooms
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 control the laws,
And make injurious will their only rule,
They deem it! what though, tools of wanton power,
Pestiferous armies swarm not at their call!
What though they give not a relentless crew
Of civil furies, proud oppression's fangs!
To tear at pleasure the dejected land,

* The Prince of Orange, in his passage to England, though his fleet had been at first dispersed by a storm, was afterwards extremely favored by several changes of wind.

†Rapin, in his History of England. "The third of November the flect entered the Channel, and lay between Calais and Dover, to stay for the ships that were behind. Here the Prince called a council of war. It is not easy to imagine what a glorious show the fleet made. Five or six hundred ships in so narrow a channel, and both the English and French shores covered with numberless spectators, are no common sight. For my part, who was then on board the fleet, I own it struck me extremely."

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."

THE PROSPECT:

BEING THE FIFTH PART OF

LIBERTY,

A POEM.

The Contents of Part V.

The author addresses the goddess of Liberty, mark-
ing the happiness 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 establishment there.
Recommends, as its last ornament and finishing,
sciences, fine arts, and public works. The en-
couragement 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 de-
scribed by the author, as it passes in vision before
him.

HERE interposing, as the goddess paus'd!-
Thou guardian of mankind! whence spring, alone,

‡ The Prince placed himself in the main body, carrying "Oh, blest Britannia! in thy presence blest, a flag with English colors, and their highnesses' arms surrounded with this motto: "The Protestant Religion All human grandeur, happiness, and fame: and the Liberties of England:" and underneath the mot- For toil, by thee protected, feels no pain; to of the House of Nassau, Je Maintiendrai, I will main- The poor man's lot with milk and honey flows; tain.-Rapin.

[blocks in formation]

And, gilded with thy rays, ev'n death looks gay.
Let other lands the potent blessings boast
Of more exalting suns. Let Asia's woods,
Untended, yield the vegetable fleece:

And let the little insect-artist form,
On higher life intent, its silken tomb.
Let wondering rocks, in radiant birth, disclose
The various-tinctur'd children of the Sun.
From the prone beam let more delicious fruits
A flavor drink, that in one piercing taste
Bids each combine. Let Gallic vineyards burst
With floods of joy; with mild balsamic juice
The Tuscan olive. Let Arabia breathe
Her spicy gales, her vital gums distil.

Whate'er high fancy, sound judicious thought,
An ample generous heart, undrooping soul,
And firm tenacious valor, can bestow.
Great nurse of fruits, of flocks, of commerce, she!
Great nurse of men! By thee, O goddess, taught,
Her old renown I trace, disclose her source
Of wealth, of grandeur, and to Britons sing
A strain the Muses never touch'd before

Turbid with gold let southern rivers flow :

"But how shall this thy mighty kingdom stand? On what unyielding base? how finish'd shine?" At this her eye, collecting all its fire,

And orient floods draw soft, o'er pearls, their maze. Beam'd more than human; and her awful voice,

Let Afric vaunt her treasures; let Peru

Majestic, thus she rais'd-" To Britons bear
This closing strain, and with intenser note
Loud let it sound in their awaken'd ear.

Deep in her bowels her own ruin breed,
The yellow traitor that her bliss betray'd,-
Unequall'd bliss!-and to unequall'd rage!
Yet nor the gorgeous East, nor golden South,
Nor, in full prime, that new-discover'd world,
Where flames the falling day, in wealth and praise,
Shall with Britannia vie, while, goddess, she
Derives her praise from thee, her matchless charms,
Her hearty fruits the hand of freedom own,
And, warm with culture, her thick-clustering fields
Prolific teem. Eternal verdure crowns

Her meads; her gardens smile eternal spring.
She gives the hunter-horse, unquell'd by toil,
Ardent, to rush into the rapid chase:
She, whitening o'er her downs, diffusive, pours
Unnumber'd flocks: she weaves the fleecy robe,
That wraps the nations: she to lusty droves
The richest pasture spreads; and, hers, deep-wave
Autumnal seas of pleasing plenty round.
These her delights: and by no baneful herb,
No darting tiger, no grim lion's glare,
No fierce-descending wolf, no serpent roll'd
In spires immense progressive o'er the land,
Disturb'd. Enlivening these, add cities, full
Of wealth, of trade, of cheerful toiling crowds;
Add thriving towns; add villages and farms,
Innumerous sow'd along the lively vale,
Where bold unrivall'd peasants happy dwell:
Add ancient sects, with venerable oaks
Embosom'd high, while kindred floods below

"On virtue can alone my kingdom stand.
On public virtue, every virtue join'd.
For, lost this social cement of mankind,
The greatest empires, by scarce-felt degrees,
Will moulder soft away, till, tottering loose,
They prone at last to total ruin rush.
Unblest by virtue, government a league
Becomes, a circling junto of the great,
To rob by law; religion mild a yoke
To tame the stooping soul, a trick of state
To mask their rapine, and to share the prey.
What are without it senates, save a face
Of consultation deep and reason free,
While the determin'd voice and heart are sold?
What boasted freedom, save a sounding name?
And what election, but a market vile

Of slaves self-barter'd? Virtue! without thee,
There is no ruling eye, no nerve, in states;
War has no vigor, and no safety peace:
Ev'n justice warps to party, laws oppress,
Wide through the land their weak protection fails,
First broke the balance, and then scorn'd the sword
Thus nations sink, society dissolves:
Rapine and guile and violence break loose,
Everting life, and turning love to gall;
Man hates the face of man, and Indian woods
And Libya's hissing sands to him are tame.

"By those three virtues be the frame sustain'd

Wind through the mead; and those of modern hand, Of British Freedom: independent life;
More pompous, add, that splendid shine afar.

Need I her limpid lakes, her rivers name,

Where swarm the finny race? Thee, chief, O

Integrity in office; and, o'er all

Supreme, a passion for the common-weal.

"Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best

Thames!

gift,

On whose each tide, glad with returning sails,

To that of life and an immortal soul!

Flows in the mingled harvest of mankind?

And thee, thou Severn, whose prodigious swell,
And waves, resounding, imitate the main?

The life of life! that to the banquet high,
And sober meal, gives taste; to the bow'd roof
Fair-dream'd repose, and to the cottage charms.

Why need I name her deep capacious ports,

Of public freedom, hail, thou secret source !

That point around the world? and why her seas? Whose streams, from every quarter confluent, form

All ocean is her own, and every land

To whom her ruling thunder ocean bears.

She too the mineral feeds: th' obedient lead,
The warlike iron, nor the peaceful less,
Forming of life art-civiliz'd the bond;

And what the Tyrian merchant sought of old,*
Not dreaming then of Britain's brighter fame,
She rears to freedom an undaunted race:
Compatriot, zealous, hospitable, kind,
Hers the warm Cambrian: hers the lofty Scot,
To hardship tam'd, active in arts and arms,
Fir'd with a restless, an impatient flame,
That leads him raptur'd where ambition calls:
And English merit hers; where meet, combin'd,

* Tin.

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 freeman, walks his pleasing round:
Sweet-featur'd Peace attending; fearless Truth ;
Firm Resolution; Goodness, blessing all
That can rejoice; Contentment, surest friend;
And, still fresh stores from Nature's book deriv'd,
Philosophy, companion ever new.

These cheer his rural, and sustain or fire,
When into action call'd, his busy hours.
Meantime true judging moderate desires,
Economy and taste, combin'd, direct
His clear affairs, and from debauching fiends

« EelmineJätka »