Dar'd to suppose the subject had a choice,

He was a traitor by the gen'ral voice.

O slave! with pow'rs thou didst not dare exert,
Verse cannot stoop so low as thy desert;
It shakes the sides of splenetic Disdain,
Thou self-entitled ruler of the main,
To trace thee to the date when yon
That clips thy shores, had no such charms for

thee;

fair sea,

When other nations flew from coast to coast,

550

And thou hadst neither fleet nor flag to boast.
Kneel now,
and lay thy forehead in the dust;
Blush if thou canst; not petrified, thou must;

Act but an honest and a faithful part;

Compare what then thou wast with what thou

art;

And God's disposing providence confess'd,

Obduracy itself must yield the rest—

Then thou art bound to serve him, and to prove,

Hour after hour, thy gratitude and love.

561

Has he not hid thee, and thy favour'd land,
For ages safe beneath his shelt'ring hand,

Giv'n thee his blessing on the clearest proof,
Bid nations leagu'd against thee stand aloof,
And charg'd Hostility and Hate to roar,

Where else they would, but not upon thy shore?
His pow'r secur'd thee, when presumptuous Spain
Baptiz'd her fleet invincible in vain;}

Her gloomy monarch, doubtful and resign'd
To ev'ry pang that racks an anxious mind,
Ask'd of the waves, that broke upon his coast,
What tidings? and the surge replied-All lost!
And when the Stuart leaning on the Scot,

570

Then too much fear'd, and now too much

forgot,

Pierc❜d to the very centre of the realm,

And hop'd to seize his abdicated helm,

'Twas but to prove, how quickly with a frown

He that had rais'd thee could have pluck'd thee

down.

Peculiar is the grace by thee possess❜d,

Thy foes implacable, thy land at rest;

Thy thunders travel over earth and seas,
And all at home is pleasure, wealth, and ease.
"Tis thus, extending his tempestuous arm,
Thy Maker fills the nations with alarm,

580

While his own Heav'n surveys the troubl'd scene,
And feels no change, unshaken and serene.
Freedom, in other lands scarce known to shine,
Pours out a flood of splendour upon thine;
Thou hast as bright an int'rest in her rays,

500

As ever Roman had in Rome's best days.
True freedom is where no restraint is known,
That Scripture, Justice, and good Sense disown,
Where only Vice and Injury are tied,

And all from shore to shore is free beside.
Such freedom is-and Windsor's hoary tow'rs
Stood trembling at the boldness of thy pow'rs,
That won a nymph on that immortal plain,
Like her the fabled Phoebus woo'd in vain:

He found the laurel only--happier you,

Th' unfading laurel and the virgin too!

600

Now think, if Pleasure have a thought to spare; If God himself be not beneath her care; If Bus'ness, constant as the wheels of time, Can pause an hour to read a serious rhime; If the new mail thy merchants now receive, Or expectation of the next give leave; O think, if chargeable with deep arrears For such indulgence gilding all thy years, How much, though long neglected, shining yet The beams of heav'nly truth have swell'd the debt. When persecuting zeal made royal sport

With tortur'd innocence in Mary's court,

And Bonner, blithe as shepherd at a wake,

Enjoy'd the show, and danc'd about the stake; The sacred book, it's value understood,

Receiv'd the seal of martyrdom in blood.

C

612

Alluding to the grant of Magna Charta, which was extorted from king John by the barons at Runymede near Windsor.

Those holy men, so full of truth and

Seem to reflection of a diff'rent race,

grace,

Meek, modest, venerable, wise, sincere,

620

In such a cause they could not dare to fear; They could not purchase Earth with such a prize, Or spare a life too short to reach the skies.

From them to thee convey'd along the tide,

Their streaming hearts pour'd freely when they

died

Those truths which neither use nor years impair,
Invite thee, woo thee, to the bliss they share.
What dotage will not Vanity maintain?

What web too weak to catch a modern brain?
The moles and bats in full assembly find,

On special search, the keen-ey'd eagle blind.
And did they dream, and art thou wiser now!
Prove it-if better, I submit and bow.

630

Wisdom and Goodness are twin born, one heart
Must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
So then as darkness overspread the deep,
Ere Nature rose from her eternal sleep,