But now with all these proud desires
For dauntless truth and honest fame;
With that strong master of our frame,
The' inexorable judge within,
What can be done? Alas, ye fires
Of love; alas, ye rosy smiles,
Ye nectar'd cups from happier soils,
-Ye have no bribe his grace to win.

TO THE RIGHT REV.

BENJAMIN LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

1754.
I. 1.

FOR toils which patriots have endur'd,
For treason quell'd and laws secur'd,
In every nation Time displays

The palm of honourable praise.
Envy may rail; and Faction fierce

May strive: but what, alas! can those
(Though bold, yet blind and sordid foes,)
To gratitude and love oppose,
To faithful story and persuasive verse?

I. 2.

O nurse of Freedom, Albion, say, Thou tamer of despotic sway, What man, among thy sons around, Thus heir to glory hast thou found? What page, in all thy annals bright, Hast thou with purer joy survey'd Than that where truth, by Hoadly's aid, Shines through imposture's solemn shade, Through kingly and through sacerdotal night?

I. 3.

To him the Teacher bless'd,

Who sent religion, from the palmy field
By Jordan, like the morn to cheer the west,
And lifted up the veil which Heaven from earth
conceal'd,

To Hoadly thus his mandate he address'd :--
'Go thou, and rescue my dishonour'd law
From hands rapacious and from tongues impure:
Let not my peaceful name be made a lure
Fell persecution's mortal snares to aid:
Let not my words be impious chains to draw
The free-born soul in more than brutal awe,
To faith without assent, allegiance unrepaid.'
II. 1.

No cold or unperforming hand

Was arm'd by Heaven with this command.
The world soon felt it: and, on high,
To William's car with welcome joy
Did Locke' among the blest unfold
The rising hope of Hoadly's name,
Godolphin then confirm'd the fame;
And Somers, when from earth he came,
And generous Stanhope the fair sequel told.

II. 2.

Then drew the lawgivers around,
(Sires of the Grecian name renown'd)

2 Mr. Locke died in 1704, when Mr. Hoadly was beginning to distinguish himself in the cause of civil and religious liberty: Lord Godolphin in 1712, when the doctrines of the Jacobite faction were chiefly favoured by those in power: Lord Somers in 1716, amid the practices of the nonjuring clergy against the protestant establishment; and Lord Stanhope in 1721, during the controversy with the lower house of convocation.

And listening ask'd, and wondering knew,
What private force could thus subdue
The vulgar and the great combin'd;
Could war with sacred folly wage;
Could a whole nation disengage
From the dread bonds of many an age,
And to new habits mould the public mind.

II. 3.

For not a conqueror's sword,

Nor the strong powers to civil founders known, Were his but truth by faithful search explor'd, And social sense, like seed, in geniál plenty sown. Wherever it took root, the soul (restored

To freedom) freedom too for others sought.
Not monkish craft the tyrant's claim divine,
Not regal zeal the bigot's cruel shrine
Could longer guard from reason's warfare sage;
Not the wild rabble to sedition wrought,

Nor synods by the papal genius taught,
Nor St. John's spirit loose, nor Atterbury's rage.
III. 1.

But where shall recompence be found?
Or how such arduous merit crown'd?
For look on life's laborious scene :
What rugged spaces lie between
Adventurous Virtue's early toils
And her triumphal throne! The shade
Of death, mean time, does oft invade
Her progress; nor, to us display'd,

Wears the bright heroine her expected spoils.

III. 2.

Yet born to conquer is her power:
-O Hoadly, if that favourite hour

On earth arrive, with thankful awe
We own just Heaven's indulgent law,
And proudly thy success behold;
We' attend thy reverend length of days
With benediction and with praise,
And hail thee in our public ways
Like some great spirit fam'd in ages old.

III. 3.

While thus our vows prolong

Thy steps on earth, and when by us resign'd Thou join'st thy seniors, that heroic throng Who rescued or preserv'd the rights of human kind, O! not unworthy may thy Albion's tongue Thee still, her friend and benefactor, name: O! never, Hoadly, in thy country's eyes, May impious gold, or pleasure's gaudy prize, Make public virtue, public freedom, vile; Nor our own manners tempt us to disclaim That heritage, our noblest wealth and fame, Which thou hast kept entire fron force and factious guile.

IF rightly tuneful bards decide,
If it be fix'd in love's decrees,
That beauty ought not to be tried
But by its native power to please,
Then tell me, youths and lovers, tell,
What fair can Amoret excel?

Behold that bright unsullied smile,
And wisdom speaking in her mien:

Yet (she so artless all the while,
So little studious to be seen,)

We nought but instant gladness know, Nor think to whom the gift we owe.

But neither music, nor the powers

Of youth and mirth and frolic cheer, Add half that sunshine to the hours,

Or make life's prospect half so clear, As memory brings it to the eye From scenes where Amoret was by.

Yet not a satirist could there
Or fault or indiscretion find;
Nor any prouder sage declare

One virtue, pictur'd in his mind, Whose form with lovelier colours glows Than Amoret's demeanour shows.

This sure is beauty's happiest part:
This gives the most unbounded sway:
This shall enchant the subject heart
When rose and lily fade away;
And she be still, in spite of time,
Sweet Amoret in all her prime.

AT STUDY.

WHITHER did my fancy stray?
By what magic drawn away

Have I left my studious theme?

From this philosophic page,
From the problems of the sage,
Wandering through a pleasing dream?