A. Thus men, whose thoughts contemplative
On situations, that they never felt,
Start up sagacious, cover'd with the dust Of dreaming study and pedantic rust, And prate and preach about what others prove, As if the world and they were hand and glove. Leave kingly backs to cope with kingly cares; They have their weight to carry, subjects theirs; Poets, of all men, ever least regret
Increasing taxes and the nation's debt.
Could you contrive the payment, and rehearse The mighty plan, oracular, in verse,
No bard, howe'er majestic, old or new,
Should claim my fix'd attention more than you.
B. Not Brindley nor Bridgewater would es
To turn the course of Helicon that way; Nor would the nine consent the sacred tide
Should purl amidst the traffic of Cheapside,
Or tinkle in Change Alley, to amuse
The leathern ears of stockjobbers and Jews.
A. Vouchsafe, at least, to pitch the key of
To themes more pertinent, if less sublime. When ministers and ministerial arts;
Patriots, who love good places at their hearts; When admirals, extoll'd for standing still, Or doing nothing with a deal of skill;
Gen'rals, who will not conquer when they may, Firm friends to peace, to pleasure, and good pay; When Freedom, wounded almost to despair, Though discontent alone can find out where; When themes like these employ the poet's tongue,
I hear as mute as if a syren sung.
you can, what pow'r maintains
A Briton's scorn of arbitrary chains;
That were a theme might animate the dead,
And move the lips of poets cast in lead.
B. The cause, though worth the search, may
Conjecture and remark, however shrewd. They take perhaps a well-directed aim, Who seek it in his climate and his frame. Lib'ral in all things else, yet Nature here With stern severity deals out the year. Winter invades the spring, and often pours 210 A chilling flood on summer's drooping flow'rs; Unwelcome vapours quench autumnal beams, Ungenial blasts attending curl the streams; The peasants urge their harvest, ply the fork With double toil, and shiver at their work; Thus with a rigour, for his good design'd, She rears her fav'rite man of all mankind. His form robust and of elastic tone,
Proportion'd well, half muscle and half bone, Supplies with warm activity and force
A mind well-lodg'd, and masculine of course.
Hence Liberty, sweet Liberty inspires,
And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires. Patient of constitutional control,
He bears it with meek manliness of soul; But, if Authority grow wanton, wo
To him, that treads upon his freeborn toe; One step beyond the bound'ry of the laws Fires him at once in Freedom's glorious cause. Thus proud Prerogative, not much rever'd, 230 Is seldom felt, though sometimes seen and heard, And in his cage, like parrot fine and gay, Is kept to strut, look big, and talk away.
Born in a climate softer far than ours, Not form'd like us, with such Herculean pow'rs, The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away; He drinks his simple bev'rage with a gust; 240 And, feasting on an onion and a crust,
We never feel th' alacrity and joy,
With which he shouts and carols Vive le Roi! Fill'd with as much true merriment and glee, As if he heard his king say-Slave, be free! Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose. Vigilant over all that he has made, Kind Providence attends with gracious aid; Bids equity throughout his works prevail, And weighs the nations in an even scale; He can encourage Slav'ry to a smile, And fill with discontent a British isle.
A. Freeman and slave then, if the case be such, Stand on a level; and you prove too much : If all men indiscriminately share
His fost'ring pow'r, and tutelary care, As well be yok'd by Despotism's hand, As dwell at large in Britain's charter'd land. B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know. 261
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