The mind attains beneath her happy reign

The growth, that Nature meant she should attain;

The varied fields of science, ever new,

Op'ning and wider op'ning on her view,
She ventures onward with a prosp'rous force,

While no base fear impedes her in her course.
Religion, richest favour of the skies,

Stands most reveal'd before the freeman's eyes;

No shades of superstition blot the day,
Liberty chases all that gloom away;
The soul, emancipated, unoppress'd,

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Free to prove all things and hold fast the best,
Learns much; and to a thousand list'ning minds
Communicates with joy the good she finds;
Courage in arms, and ever prompt to show
His manly forehead to the fiercest foe;
Glorious in war, but for the sake of peace,
His spirits rising as his toils increase,

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Guards well what arts and industry have won,

And Freedom claims him for her first-born son.

Slaves fight for what were better cast away--
The chain that binds them and a tyrant's sway;
But they, that fight for freedom, undertake
The noblest cause mankind can have at stake:
Religion, virtue, truth, whate'er we call
A blessing-freedom is the pledge of all.
O Liberty! the pris'ner's pleasing dream,
The poet's muse, his passion, and his theme;
Genius is thine, and thou art Fancy's nurse; 290
Lost without thee th' ennobling pow'rs of verse;
Heroic song from thy free touch acquires

It's clearest tone, the rapture it inspires.

Place me where Winter breathes his keenest air,

And I will sing, if Liberty be there;

And I will sing at Liberty's dear feet,

In Afric's torrid clime, or India's fiercest heat.

A. Sing where you please; in such a cause I grant An English poet's privilege to rant ;

But is not Freedom-at least is not ours

Too apt to play the wanton with her pow'rs,

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Grow freakish, and, o'erleaping every mound,
Spread anarchy and terrour all around?

B. Agreed. But would you sell or slay your

horse

For bounding and curvetting in his course?
Or if, when ridden with a careless rein,

He break away, and seek the distant plain?

No. His high mettle, under good control,

Gives him Olympic speed, and shoots him to the goal.

Let Discipline employ her wholesome arts;

Let magistrates alert perform their parts,
Not skulk or put on a prudential mask,

As if their duty were a desp'rate task;
Let active Laws apply the needful curb,
To guard the Peace, that Riot would disturb;
And Liberty, preserv'd from wild excess,
Shall raise no feuds for armies to suppress.
When Tumult lately burst his prison door,

And set plebeian thousands in a roar,

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When he usurp❜d Authority's just place,

And dar'd to look his master in the face;

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When the rude rabble's watchword was-de

stroy,

And blazing London seem'd a second Troy; Liberty blush'd, and hung her drooping head, Beheld their progress with the deepest dread; Blush'd, that effects like these she should produce, Worse than the deeds of galley-slaves broke loose. She loses in such storms her very name,

And fierce Licentiousness should bear the blame.

Incomparable gem! thy worth untold;

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Cheap, though blood-bought, and thrown away

when sold;

May no foes ravish thee, and no false friend

Betray thee, while professing to defend:
Prize it, ye ministers; ye monarchs, spare;
Ye patriots, guard it with a miser's care.

A. Patriots, alas! the few that have been found, Where most they flourish, upon English ground,

The country's need have scantily supplied,

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And the last left the scene, when Chatham died.
B. Not so-the virtue still adorns our age,
Though the chief actor died upon the stage.
In him Demosthenes was heard again;
Liberty taught him her Athenian strain;
She cloth'd him with authority and awe,
Spoke from his lips, and in his looks gave
His speech, his form, his action, full of grace,
And all his country beaming in his face,
He stood, as some inimitable hand

law.

Would strive to make a Paul or Tully stand.
No sycophant or slave, that dar'd oppose
Her sacred cause, but trembled when he rose;
And ev'ry venal stickler for the yoke
Felt himself crush'd at the first word he spoke.

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Such men are rais'd to station and command, When Providence means mercy to a land.

He speaks, and they appear; to him they owe Skill to direct, and strength to strike the blow;