The warrior fetter'd, and at last resign'd, To glut the vengeance of a vanquish'd foe. Then, active still and unrestrain'd, his mind Explor'd the vast extent of ages past, And with his prifon-hours enrich'd the world, Yet found no times, in all the long research, So glorious or so base as those he prov'd, In which he conquer'd, and in which he bled. Nor can the Muse the gallant Sidney pass, The plume of War! with early laurels crown'd, The lover's myrtle, and the poet's bay, A Hampden, too, is thine, illustrious Land! Wise, strenuous, firm, of unfubmitting foul, Who stemm'd the torrent of a downward age, 1515 To flavery prone, and bade thee rise again, In all thy native pomp of freedom bold. Bright, at his call, thy age of men effulg'd, Of men on whom late time a kindling eye Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read.1520 Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew The grave where Ruffel lies, whose temper'd blood, With calmest cheerfulness for thee resign'd, Stain'd the sad annals of a giddy reign,
Aiming at lawless power, tho' meanly sunk 1525 In loofe inglorious luxury. With him His friend, the British Caffius*, fearless bled, Of high determin'd spirit, roughly brave,
By ancient learning to th' enlighten'd love Of ancient freedom warm'd. Fair thy renown 1530
In awful Sages and in noble Bards,
Soon as the light of dawning Science spread Her orient ray, and wak'd the Muses' fong. Thine is a Bacon, hapless in his choice, Unfit to stand the civil storm of state,
And thro' the smooth barbarity of courts With firm but pliant virtue forward still To urge his course; him for the studious shade Kind Nature form'd, deep, comprehenfive, clear,
Exact, and elegant; in one rich foul
Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully join'd. The great deliverer he! who from the gloom Of cloister'd monks and jargon-teaching schools Led forth the true Philofophy, there long Held in the magic chain of words, and forms, 1545 And definitions void: he led her forth, Daughter of Heaven! that flow-ascending still, Investigating fure the chain of things, With radiant finger points to heaven again. The generous Ashley * thine, the friend of man, Who scann'd his nature with a brother's eye, 1551 His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim, To touch the finer movements of the mind, And with the moral beauty charm the heart. Why need I name thy Boyle, whose pious search 1555 * Anthony-Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury.
Amid the dark recesses of his works
The great Creator fought? And why thy Locke? Who made the whole internal world his own?
Let Newton, pure intelligence! whom God To mortals lent, to trace his boundless works 1560 From laws sublimely simple, speak thy fame In all philosophy. For lofty sense, Creative fancy, and inspection keen Thro' the deep windings of the human heart, Is not wild Shakspere thine and Nature's boaft ? Is not each great, each amiable Muse Of claffic ages in thy Milton met? A genius universal as his theme, Aftonishing as chaos, as the bloom Of blowing Eden fair, as heaven sublime. Nor shall my verse that elder bard forget, The gentle Spenser, Fancy's pleasing son, Who like a copious river pour'd his fong O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground; Nor thee, his ancient master, laughing Sage, 1575 Chaucer, whose native manners-painting verse, Well-moraliz'd, shines thro' the Gothic cloud Of time and language o'er thy genius thrown. May my fong foften as thy Daughters I, Britannia! hail; for beauty is their own, The feeling heart, simplicity of life, And elegance and taste: the faultless form, Shap'd by the hand of Harmony; the cheek
Where the live crimson, thro' the native white Soft-shooting, o'er the face diffuses bloom, 1585 And every nameless grace; the parted lip, Like the red rose-bud moist with morning-dew, Breathing delight; and, under flowing jet, Or funny ringlets, or of circling brown, The neck flight-shaded, and the swelling breast; 1590 The look resistless, piercing to the foul, And by the foul inform'd, when, drest in love, She fits high-fmiling in the confcious eye.
Island of bliss! amid the subject seas That thunder round thy rocky coasts set up, 1595 At once the wonder, terror, and delight, Of diftant nations, whose remotest shores Can foon be shaken by thy naval arm; Not to be shook thyself, but all affaults
Baffling, as thy hoar cliffs the loud fea-wave. 1600 O Thou! by whose almighty nod the scale. Of empire rifes, or alternate falls,
Send forth the saving Virtues round the land In bright patrol; white Peace and social Love; The tender-looking Charity, intent On gentle deeds, and shedding tears thro' fmiles; Undaunted Truth, and Dignity of Mind; Courage compos'd and keen; found Temperance, Healthful in heart and look; clear Chastity, With blushes reddening as she moves along, 1610 Disorder'd at the deep regard she draws;
Rough Industry; Activity untir'd, With copious life inform'd, and all awake; While in the radiant front fuperior shines That first paternal virtue, Public Zeal, Who throws o'er all an equal wide survey, And, ever musing on the common weal, Still labours, glorious, with some great design.
Low walks the fun, and broadens by degrees Just o'er the verge of day. The shifting clouds, 1620 Assembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train,'". In all their pomp attend his setting throne. Air, earth, and ocean, smile immenfe. And now,
As if his weary chariot fought the bowers
Of Amphitritè and her tending nymphs (So Grecian fable fung), he dips his orb; Now half-immers'd, and now a golden curve, Gives one bright glance, then total difappears. For ever running an enchanted round Passes the day, deceitful, vain, and void, 1630 As fleets the vision o'er the formful brain, This moment hurrying wild th' impaffion'd foul, The next in nothing loft. 'Tis fo to him The dreamer of this earth, an idle blank; A fight of horror to the cruel wretch, Who all day long in fordid pleasure roll'd, Himself an useless load, has squander'd vile, Upon his scoundrel train, what might have cheer'd A drooping family of modest worth:
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