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النشر الإلكتروني

But let eternal infamy pursue

The wretch to naught but his ambition true,
Who, for the sake of filling with one blast
The post horns of all Europe, lays her waste
Think yourself station'd on a tow'ring rock,
To see a people scatter'd like a flock,
Some royal mastiff panting at their heels,
With all the savage thirst a tiger feels:
Then view him self-proclaim'd in a gazette
Chief monster that has plagu'd the nations yet.
The globe and sceptre in such hands misplac'd,
Those ensigns of dominion, how disgrac'd!
The glass that bids man mark the fleeting hour,
And Death's own sithe would better speak his pow'r ;
Then grace the bony phantom in their stead
With the king's shoulderknot and gay cockade ;
Clothe the twin brethren in each other's dress,
The same their occupation and success.

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A. 'Tis your belief the world was made for man; Kings do but reason on the self-same plan : Maintaining yours, you cannot theirs condemn, Who think, or seem to think, man made for them. 50 B. Seldom, alas! the power of logick reigns, With much sufficiency in royal brains; Such reas'ning falls like an inverted cone, Wanting its proper base to stand upon. Man made for kings! those opticks are but dim, That tell you so-say, rather, they for him. That were indeed a king-ennobling thought,

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Could they, or would they, reason as they ought.
The diadem with mighty projects lin'd,
To catch renown by ruining mankind,

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Is worth, with all its gold and glitt'ring store,

Just what the toy will sell for, and no more.
Oh! bright occasions of dispensing good,
How seldom used, how little understood!
To pour in Virtue's lap her just reward;
Keep vice restrain'd behind a double guard;

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To see a band call'd patriot for no cause,
But that they catch at popular applause,
Careless of all the anxiety he feels,
Hook disappointment on the publick wheels;
With all their flippant fluency of tongue,
Most confident, when palpably most wrong;
If this be kingly, then farewell for me
All kingship; and may I be poor and free!
To be the Table Talk of clubs up stairs,
To which th' unwash'd artificer repairs,
T' indulge his genius after long fatigue,

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By diving into cabinet intrigue;

(For what kings deem'd a toil, as well they may,

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To him is relaxation and mere play,)

To win no praise, when well-wrought plans prevail,

But to be rudely censur'd when they fail;

To doubt the love his fav'rites may pretend,
And in reality to find no friend;

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If he indulge a cultivated taste,

His gall'ries with the works of art well grac'd,
To hear it call'd extravagance and waste;
If these attendants, and if such as these,
Must follow royalty, then welcome ease :
However humble and confin'd the sphere,
Happy the state that has not those to fear.
A. Thus men, whose thoughts contemplative have

dwelt

On situations that they never folt,
Start up sagacious, cover'd with the dust
Of dreaming study and pedantick 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;

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They have their weight to carry, subjects theirs; 175 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 majestick, old or new,
Should claim my fix'd attention more than you.
B. Not Brindley nor Bridgewater would essay
To turn the course of Helicon that way;
Nor would the Nine consent the sacred tide
Should purl amidst the traffick of Cheapside,
Or tinkle in Change Alley, to amuse
The leathern cars of stockjobbers and Jews.

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A. Vouchsafe, at least, to pitch the key of rhyme
To themes more pertinent, if less sublime.
When ministers and ministerial arts;

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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; 195 When Freedom, wounded almost to despair,

Though Discontent alone can find out where;

When themes like these emplcy the poet's tongue,
I hear as mute as if a syren sung.

Or tell me, if you can, what pow'r maintains

A Briton's scorn of arbitrary chains?

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That were a theme might animate the dead,

And move the lips of poets cast in lead.

B. The cause, tho' worth the search, may yet elude

Conjecture and remark, however shrewd.

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They take perhaps a well-directed aim,

Who seck 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
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 tcil, and shiver at their work;
Thus with a rigour, for his good design'd,
She rears her fav'rite man of all mankind.

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His form robust and of elastick tone,
Proportion'd well, half muscle and half bone,
Supplies with warm activity and force

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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

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To him that treads upon his free-born 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,

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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 powr's,

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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;

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And, feasting on an onion and a crust,

We never feel the alacrity and joy

With which he shouts and carols Vive le Roi !

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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 exteriour 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 un even scale;

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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 :

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If all men indiscriminately share

His fost'ring power, and tutelary care,
As well be yok'd by Despotism's hard,
As dwell at large in Britain's charter'd land.

B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to show, 260 That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.

The mind attains beneath her happy reign

The growth, that Nature meant she should attain ;
T'he varied fields of science, ever new,
Op'ning, and wider op'ning, on her view,

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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,

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Liberty chases all that gloom away;

The soul emancipated, unoppress'd,

Free to prove all things, and hold fast the best,

Learns much; and to a thousand list'ning minds

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peace,

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
His spirits rising as his toils increase,
Guards well what arts and industry have won,
And Freedom clai.ns 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'ners pleasing dream,
The poet's muse, his passion, and his theme;
Genius is thine, and thou art Fancy's nurse;

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Lost without thee th' ennobling pow'rs of verse;

Heroick song from thy free touch acquires
Its clearest tone, the rapture it inspires.

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