Whatever filial cares thy zeal had paid Her gross delusion when she held thee dear; How tame she follow'd thy tempestuous call, And heard thy pompous tales, and trusted all Rise from your sad abodes, ye cursed of old Yet must you one untempted vileness own, Touch'd in the sighing shade with manlier fires, To trace thy steps the love-sick youth aspires; The learn'd recluse, who oft amazed had read Of Grecian heroes, Roman patriots dead, ways, Left the tame track of these dejected days, In virtues sacred from a monarch's view, Roused by thy labours from the bless'd retreat, Where social ease and public passions meet, Thus by degrees thy cause superior grew, Of laws for which our fathers bled in vain ; While venal Faction, struck with new dis may, Shrunk at their frown, and self-abandon'd lay. Waked in the shock the public Genius rose, The city felt his call: from man to man, ran; Each crowded haunt was stirr'd beneath his power, And, murmuring, challenged the deciding hour. Lo! the deciding hour at last appears; The hour of every freeman's hopes and fears! Thou, Genius! guardian of the Roman name, Ye spirits by whose providential art own: See public Power chastised beneath her stands, With eyes intent, and uncorrupted hands! See us acquire whate'er was sought by you, 'Twas then-O shame! O trust how ill repaid! O Latium, oft by faithless sons betray'd!"Twas then-What frenzy on thy reason stole ? What spells soul ? unsinew'd thy determined Is this the man in Freedom's cause approved, The sole sad refuge of thy baffled art Forgive me, Romans, that I bear to smile, And cast their own impieties on you. For witness, Freedom, to whose sacred power My soul was vow'd from reason's earliest hour, How have I stood exulting, to survey O race erect! whose native strength of soul, Which kings, nor priests, nor sordid laws control, Bursts the tame round of animal affairs, Thence prompt alike with witty scorn to view Fastidious Grandeur lift his solemn brow, Bend the mild ear, and stretch the gracious hand: Thence large of heart, from envy far removed, When public toils to virtue stand approved, Quit with a slave the path a patriot trod, Nor let his zeal, nor let his subject fail: O long revered, and late resign'd to shame! Nor well-dress'd beggars round thy footsteps fawn ; In that still, thoughtful, solitary hour, Unlocks the breast, and lays the passions bare; Then turn thy eyes on that important scene, Which labour could not stop, nor fear control? Where the known dignity, the stamp of And where she sees the catching glimpses roll, Spreads the strong blaze, and all involves the soul; But cold restraints thy conscious fancy chill, And formal passions mock thy struggling will; Or, if thy Genius e'er forget his chain, Till, blind with smart, from truth to frenzy toss'd, And all the tenor of thy reason lost, Perhaps thy anguish drains a real tear; While some with pity, some with laughter hear. Can art, alas! or genius, guide the head, Where truth and freedom from the heart are fled ? Can lesser wheels repeat their native stroke, When the prime function of the soul is broke? But come, unhappy man! thy fates impend; Come, quit thy friends, if yet thou hast a friend; Turn from the poor rewards of guilt like thine, Renounce thy titles, and thy robes resign; To shut thee from the joys thou hast betray'd! See the dire fame of Infamy arise! Dark as the grave, and spacious as the skies; Where, from the first of time, thy kindred train, The chiefs and princes of the unjust remain. The heights surmounted, down the steep they fly. There, black with frowns, relentless Time awaits, No gleam of hope their baleful mansion cheers, No sound of honour hails their unbless'd ears; But dire reproaches from the friend be tray'd, The childless sire and violated maid; But vengeful vows for guardian laws effaced, From towns enslaved, and continents laid waste; But long posterity's united groan, And the sad charge of horrors not their own, For ever through the trembling space resound, And sink each impious forehead to the ground. Ye mighty foes of liberty and rest, Give way, do homage to a mightier guest! Ye daring spirits of the Roman race, See Curio's toil your proudest claims efface! Awed at the name, fierce Appius rising bends, And hardy Cinna from his throne attends: "He comes," they cry, "to whom the fates assign'd With surer arts to work what we design'd, From year to year the stubborn herd to sway, Mouth all their wrongs, and all their rage obey; Till own'd their guide, and trusted with their power, He mock'd their hopes in one decisive hour; Then, tired and yielding, led them to the chain, And quench'd the spirit we provoked in vain." But thou, Supreme, by whose eternal hands "Let virtue, if she can, my baits withstand!" Though bolder now she urge the accursed claim, And goads their footsteps to the guilty Gay with her trophies raised on Curio's gates; And still he asks them of their unknown aims, Evolves their secrets, and their guilt proclaims; And still his hands despoil them on the road Of each vain wreath, by lying bards bestow'd, Break their proud marbles, crush their festal cars, And rend the lawless trophies of their wars. Where, ever arm'd with adamantine chains, shame; Yet some there are who scorn her impious mirth, Who know what conscience and a heart are worth. O friend and father of the human mind, Whose art for noblest ends our frame design'd! If I, though fated to the studious shade And snatch the fainting patriot back to fame; Perhaps by worthy thoughts of human kind, Akenside.-Born 1721, Died 1770. 904. THE PROGRESS OF LOVE. Pope, to whose reed beneath the beachen shade The nymphs of Thames a pleased attention paid; While yet thy Muse, content with humbler praise, Warbled in Windsor's grove her sylvan lays; Though now, sublimely borne on Homer's wing, Of glorious wars and godlike chiefs she sing: To the green margin of a lonely wood, Whose pendent shades o'erlook'd a silver flood, Young Damon came, unknowing where he stray'd, Full of the image of his beauteous maid: At length the thoughts, within his bosom pent, Forced his unwilling tongue to give them "Ah, luckless day! when first with fond surprise On Delia's face I fix'd my eager eyes! And every wish, and thought, and care, was gone, But what my heart employ'd on her alone. Then too she smiled: can smiles our peace destroy, Those lovely children of Content and Joy? How can soft pleasure and tormenting woe From the same spring at the same moment flow? Unhappy boy! these vain inquiries cease, Thought could not guard, nor will restore, thy peace: Indulge the frenzy that thou must endure, And soothe the pain thou know'st not how to cure. Come, flattering Memory! and tell my heart How kind she was, and with what pleasing art She strove its fondest wishes to obtain, By none but her my brows with ivy bound: The world, that Damon was her choice, believed, The world, alas! like Damon, was deceived. lie, Feels not so keen a pang of grief as I. Or did you only nurse my growing love, Sure guilty treachery no place could find among Could ne'er have learnt the art of courts so young: No; let me rather think her anger feign'd, Still let me hope my Delia may be gain'd; "Twas only modesty that seem'd disdain, And her heart suffer'd when she gave me pain." Pleased with this flattering thought, the love-sick boy Felt the faint dawning of a doubtful joy; Say, dearest friend, how roll thy hours away? Their empire stretch'd from Atlas to the Till wealth and conquest into slaves refined The proud luxurious masters of mankind? Dost thou in letter'd Greece each charm admire, Each grace, each virtue, Freedom could inspire; Yet in her troubled state see all the woes, And all the crimes, that giddy Faction knows ; Till, rent by parties, by corruption sold, To guide the passions, and to mend the heart? Taught by her precepts, hast thou learnt the end To which alone the wise their studies bend; Happy who thus his leisure can employ ! main. So Locke the days of studious quiet spent ; Far from court-flattery, far from party-rage; O generous warmth! O sanctity divine! Seek not to spread the law of love by fear. The priest who plagues the world can never mend: No foe to man was e'er to God a friend. Me other cares in other climes engage, Cares that become my birth, and suit my age; In various knowledge to improve my youth, And conquer prejudice, worst foe to truth; By foreign arts domestic faults to mend, Enlarge my notions, and my views extend; The useful science of the world to know, Which books can never teach, or pedants show. A nation here I pity and admire, Whom noblest sentiments of glory fire, Yet taught, by custom's force and bigot fear, To serve with pride, and boast the yoke they bear: Whose nobles, born to cringe and to command (In courts a mean, in camps a generous band), From each low tool of power content receive Those laws, their dreaded arms to Europe give. Whose people (vain in want, in bondage blest ; Though plunder'd, gay; industrious, though opprest) With happy follies rise above their fate, Yet here the Muses deign'd awhile to sport In the short sunshine of a favouring court: Here Boileau, strong in sense and sharp in wit, Who, from the ancients, like the ancients writ, Permission gain'd inferior vice to blame, ease. |