Her unrelenting train: informers, spies,
Blood-hounds, that sturdy freedom to the grove
Pursue; projectors of aggrieving schemes
Commerce to load for unprotected seas,*
To sell the starving many to the few,t
And drain a thousand ways th' exhausted land.
Ev'n from that healing place, whence peace should
flow,

And gospel truth, inhuman bigots shed
Their poison round; and on the venal bench,
Instead of justice, party held the scale,
And violence the sword. Afflicted years,
Too patient, felt at last their vengeance full.
Mid the low murmurs of submissive fear
And mingled rage, my Hampden rais'd his voice,
And to the laws appeal'd; the laws no more
In judgment sate, behov'd some other ear.
When instant from the keen resentive North,
By long oppression by religion rous'd,

The guardian army came. Beneath its wing
Was called, though meant to furnish hostile aid,
The more than Roman senate. There a flame
Broke out, that clear'd, consum'd, renew'd the land.
In deep emotion hurl'd, nor Greece, nor Rome,
Indignant bursting from a tyrant's chain,
While, full of me, each agitated soul
Strung every nerve, and flam'd in every eye,
Had e'er beheld such light and heat combin'd!
Such heads and hearts! such dreadful zeal, led on
By calm majestic wisdom, taught its course
What nuisance to devour; such wisdom fir'd
With unabating zeal, and aim'd sincere
To clear the weedy state, restore the laws,
And for the future to secure their sway.

"This then the purpose of my mildest sons.
But man is blind. A nation once inflam'd
(Chief, should the breath of factious fury blow
With the wild rage of mad enthusiasts swell'd)
Not easy cools again. From breast to breast,
From eye to eye, the kindling passions mix
In heighten'd blaze; and, ever wise and just,
High Heaven to gracious ends directs the storm.
Thus, in one conflagration Britain wrapt,
And by confusion's lawless sons despoil'd,
King, lords, and commons, thundering to the ground,
Successive rush'd-Lo! from their ashes rose,
Gay-beaming radiant youth, the Phoenix-state.§

The grievous yoke of vassalage, the yoke
Of private life, lay by those flames dissolv'd;
And, from the wasteful, the luxurious king.
Was purchas'd that which taught the young
bend.¶

Stronger restor'd, the commons tax'd the whole,
And built on that eternal rock their power.
The crown, of its hereditary wealth
Despoil'd, on senates more dependent grew,
And they more frequent, more assur'd. Yet liv'd,
And in full vigor spread that bitter root,
The passive doctrines, by their patrons first
Oppos'd ferocious, when they touch themselves.

This wild delusive cant; the rash cabal
Of hungry courtiers, ravenous for prey;
The bigot, restless in a double chain
To bind anew the land; the constant need
Of finding faithless means, of shifting forms,
And flattering senates, to supply his waste;
These tore some moments from the careless prince,
And in his breast awak'd the kindred plan.
By dangerous softness long he min'd his way;
By subtle arts, dissimulation deep;
By sharing what corruption shower'd, profuse;
By breathing wide the gay licentious plague,
And pleasing manners, fitted to deceive.

"At last subsided the delirious joy,
On whose high billow, from the saintly reign
The nation drove too far. A pension'd king,
Against his country brib'd by Gallic gold;
The port* pernicious sold, the Scylla since,
And fell Charybdis of the British seas;
Freedom attack'd abroad,t with surer blow
To cut it off at home; the savior leaguet
Of Europe broke; the progress ev'n advanc'd
Of universal sway, which to reduce
Such seas of blood and treasure Britain cost;
The millions, by a generous people given,
Or squander'd vile, or to corrupt, disgrace,
And awe the land with forces not their own,||
Employ'd; the darling church herself betray'd;
All these, broad-glaring, op'd the general eye,
And wak'd my spirit, the resisting soul.

'Mild was, at first, and half asham'd, the check Of senates, shook from the fantastic dream

Of absolute submission, tenets vile!

Which slaves would blush to own, and which, reduc'd

To practice, always honest Nature shock.

Not ev'n the mask remov'd, and the fierce front
Of tyranny disclos'd; nor trampled laws;

Nor seiz'd each badge of freedom through the

land;¶

The raging high-church sermons of these times, inspiring at once a spirit of slavish submission to the court, and of bitter persecution against those whom they call Church and State Puritans.

§ At the Restoration.

| Charles II.

Court of wards.

To spring. Straight from his country, Europe sav'd,

* Dunkirk.

The war, in conjunction with France, against the Dutch.

The triple alliance.

§ Under Lewis XIV.

A standing army, raised without the consent of par liament.

T The charters of corporations.

** James II.

To save Britannia, lo! my darling son.
Than hero more, the patriot of mankind!
Immortal Nassau came. I hush'd the deep,
By demons rous'd, and bade the listed winds,*
Still shifting, as behov'd, with various breath,
Waft the deliverer to the longing shore.

See! wide alive, the foaming Channelt bright
With swelling sails, and all the pride of war.
Delightful view! when Justice draws the sword:
And, mark! diffusing ardent soul around,

And sweet contempt of death, my streaming flag.t
Ev'n adverse navies bless'd the binding gale,
Kept down the glad acclaim, and silent joy'd.
Arriv'd, the pomp, and not the waste of arms
His progress mark'd. The faint opposing host ||
For once, in yielding, their best victory found,
And by desertion prov'd exalted faith;
While his the bloodless conquest of the heart,
Shouts without groan, and triumph without war.
"Then dawn'd the period destin'd to confine
The surge of wild prerogative, to raise
A mound restraining its imperious rage,
And bid the raving deep no farther flow.

Nor were, without that fence, the swallow'd state
Better than Belgian plains without their dykes,
Sustaining weighty seas. This, often sav'd
By more than human hand, the public saw,

With starving labor pampering idle waste.
To clothe the naked, feed the hungry, wipe
The guiltless tear from lone affliction's eye;
To raise hid merit, set th' alluring light
Of virtue high to view; to nourish arts,
Direct the thunder of an injur'd state,
Make a whole glorious people sing for joy,
Bless human-kind, and through the downward depth
Of future times to spread that better sun
Which lights up British soul: for deeds like these,
The dazzling fair career unbounded lies;
While (still superior bliss!) the dark abrupt
Is kindly barr'd, the precipice of ill.
Oh, luxury divine! Oh, poor to this,
Ye giddy glories of despotic thrones!
By this, by this indeed, is imag'd Heaven,
By boundless good, without the power of ill
And now behold! exalted as the cope
That swells immense o'er many-peopled earth
And like it free, my fabric stands complete,
The Palace of the Laws. To the four Heavens
Four gates impartial thrown, unceasing crowds,
With kings themselves the hearty peasant mix'd
Pour urgent in. And though to different ranks
Responsive place belongs, yet equal spreads
The sheltering roof o'er all; while plenty flows,
And glad contentment echoes round the whole.

yield

Destructive power, a wise heroic prince**

Ev'n lent his aid. Thrice happy! did they know
Their happiness, Britannia's bounded kings.
What though not theirs the boast, in dungeon glooms
To plunge bold freedom; or, to cheerless wilds,
To drive him from the cordial face of friend;
Or fierce to strike him at the midnight hour,
By mandate blind, not justice, that delights
To dare the keenest eye of open day.
What though no glory to control the laws,
And make injurious will their only rule,
They deem it! what though, tools of wanton power,
Pestiferous armies swarm not at their call!
What though they give not a relentless crew
Of civil furies, proud oppression's fangs!
To tear at pleasure the dejected land,

Nor outward tempest, nor corrosive time, Nought but the felon undermining hand Of dark corruption, can its frame dissolve, And lay the toil of ages in the dust."

THE PROSPECT

BEING THE FIFTH PART OF

LIBERTY,

A POEM.

The Contents of Part V.

The author addresses the goddess of Liberty, marking the happiness and grandeur of Great Britain, as arising from her influence. She resumes her discourse, and points out the chief virtues which are necessary to maintain her establishment there. Recommends, as its last ornament and finishing, sciences, fine arts, and public works. The encouragement of these urged from the example of France, though under a despotic government. The whole concludes with a prospect of future times, given by the goddess of Liberty: this described by the author, as it passes in vision before him.

HERE interposing, as the goddess paus'd!

All human grandeur, happiness, and fame:
For toil, by thee protected, feels no pain;
The poor man's lot with milk and honey flows;
And, gilded with thy rays, ev'n death looks gay.
Let other lands the potent blessings boast
Of more exalting suns. Let Asia's woods,

| Untended, yield the vegetable fleece:

And Narre W resum ̈tnous art innress J.
The wwwland ren, a nourra. See he full board
That streams isgat u ovis that gre soov.
No truth av ted here. u feed he mud,
Nor wit, he mine-regolenz renson Tuada.
Hark how he force vs nanience resounds.
With those retain d by vanity to ware
Repose and friends. To vrant fashion mark
The mstly worship ad. o he road maze
of fools. From still telosive lay o jay,
Led internal round of ring tone,
See: self-abandon 1. how her mam trift,
Dash der the town, 1 miserable wreck.
Then to adorn some "varbing eunuch turn'd.
With Midas ears her crowd or the muzz
Of masquerade inbushing: w. 'o show
Their scorn of Nature, at the rage wese
They mirthful at or prove the comic true.
But, chief, behold around the ruling ward.
The civil mobers rang 1: and evn the fair.
The tender fair, each sweetness and side,
As Serce for plunder all-cens i troops

In some sack 1 city. Tans fissolv i their wealth.
Without one generons Luxury dissolv i,
Or quarter'd on it many a needless want.
At the throng 1 levee bends the venal tribe:
With fair but faithless smiles each varnish ́i o'er,
Each smooth as those that mutually fecerve,
And for their falsehood each despising each;
Til shook their patron by the wintry winds,
Wide dies the witherd shower, and leaves him bare.
O. far superior Ainc's able sons.

By merchant pilfer 4, to these willing slaves!
And, nch, as insqueez'd favorite, to them,
Is he who can his virtue boast alone!

"Britons' be firm'-nor let earruption siy
Twine mund your heart indissoluble chains!
The steel of Brutus burst the grosser bonds
By Cæsar cast o'er Rome; but still remain i
The soft-enchanting fetters of the mind.
And other Cæsars rose. Determin', hoid
Your Independence! for, that once destroy'd,
Enfounded, freedom is a morning dream.
That tits aerial from the spreading eye.
"Forbid it. Heaven! that ever I need urge
Integrity in office on my sons!
fnenlcate common honor-not to rob-
And whom -The gracious, the confiding hand,
That lavishly rewards; the toiling poor.
Whose cup with many a butter drop is mixt;

sety scatter i mugh he lue mmense. Hast bou been lessing avrads, since in Rome, Oki urcons Rʊme, so many teath.ess lames From bee teir ustre trew

Geir "overty 41 süvefjur o Se also.
Pun grew ILrous, inú ar a lenih denght"
L. WHI 2011 je ·r, ¡n av ong end. 005.
With Laze freet. in hus my ast refrent
Ts not enough, from seit night inderstood.
Reflected. bat hy ave riame he heart
Thonza Virtue tot istairs i;reas to set£
Dreads not be mu
erovs are rue,

Nors bere my renov ave lers.
Far less the reçid, he ieclaiming race.
Foes to corrction. Dis wages remis.
Or those whom private passions for a while
Beneath my standard st in ther suffice
To mise and it be zery of my eight
An active food iniversal ¿ve
Must swet he reast. First, in effision wade,
The restless spint roves creaton round.
And seizes every being stronger then
It tends to lie, water he andred searra
Of bliss alles then, core merted s
it irzes human-cra 2 assion grown
At last, the central parent-puidue aus
its

most effort orth, awakes each sense.
The comely, grand, and render. Without his
Thus wini pant, shook from subner werg
Than those of self this heaven-intis a delight
This morni gravitation, mishing prone
To press the public good, ny wystem soon,
Traverse, to several settish Centres irawn.
Will reet to min: while for ever shut
Stand the bright portais of desponding Fume.

* From sortad sef shoot up no shining deeds.
None of those ancient lights, hat gaiden Earth
Give grace to being, and arouse the brave
To just amination, virtue's quickening are!
Life tedious grows, an dly-busting round,
Fill'd up with actions animal and mean.
A dull gazette' T'impatient reader scorns
The poor historic page; hil kindly comes
Chiivion, and redeems a people's shame.
Not so the times, when, emulation-stung,
Greece shone in genus, science, and in arts,
And Rome in virtues dreadful to be wid
To live was glory then and charm'd mankind
Through the deep penods of devolving ame.
Those, raptur i, copy these, astonish a, read.

True, a corrupted state, with every vice
And every meanness foul, this passion damps
Who can, unshock 1, behold the crnel eve !
The pale inveigling smile the ruthan front!
The wretch abandon i to relentless seif,
Equaily vile if miser or profuse!
Powers not of God, assiduous to corrupt?
The feil deputed tyrant, who devours

The poor and weak, at distance from redress?*
Delirious faction bellowing loud my name?
The false fair-seeming patriot's hollow boast?
A race resolv'd on bondage, fierce for chains,
My sacred rights a merchandise alone
Esteeming, and to work their feeder's will
By deeds, a horror to mankind, prepar'd,
As were the dregs of Romulus of old?
Who these indeed can undetesting see!—
But who unpitying? To the generous eye
Distress is virtue! and, though self-betray'd,
A people struggling with their fate must rouse
The hero's throb. Nor can a land, at once,
Be lost to virtue quite. How glorious then!
Fit luxury for gods! to save the good,
Protect the feeble, dash bold vice aside,
Depress the wicked, and restore the frail.
Posterity, besides, the young, are pure,

And sons may tinge their fathers' cheek with shame. "Should then the times arrive (which Heaven avert!)

That Britons bend unnerv'd, not by the force
Of arms, more generous, and more manly, quell'd,
But by corruption's soul-dejecting arts,
Arts impudent! and gross! by their own gold,
In part bestow'd, to bribe them to give all.
With party raging, or immers'd in sloth,
Should they Britannia's well-fought laurels yield
To slily-conquering Gaul; ev'n from her brow
Let her own naval oak be basely torn,
By such as tremble at the stiffening gale,
And nerveless sink while others sing rejoic'd.
Or (darker prospect! scarce one gleam behind
Disclosing) should the broad corruptive plague
Breathe from the city to the farthest hut,
That sits serene within the forest shade,
The fever'd people fire, inflame their wants,
And their luxurious thirst, so gathering rage,
That, were a buyer found, they stand prepar'd
To sell their birthright for a cooling draught.
Should shameless pens for plain corruption plead;
The hir'd assassins of the commonweal!
Deem'd the declaiming rant of Greece and Rome,
Should public virtue grow the public scoff,
Till private, failing, staggers through the land:
Till round the city loose mechanic want,
Dire-prowling nightly, makes the cheerful haunts
Of men more hideous than Numidian wilds.
Nor from its fury sleeps the vale in peace;
And murders, horrors, perjuries abound:
Nay, till to lowest deeds the highest stoop;
The rich, like starving wretches, thirst for gold;
And those, on whom the vernal showers of Heaven
All-bounteous fall, and that prime lot bestow,
A power to live to Nature and themselves,
In sick attendance wear their anxious days,
With fortune, joyless, and with honors, mean.
Meantime, perhaps, profusion flows around,
The waste of war, without the works of peace;
No mark of millions, in the gulf absorpt
Of uncreating vice, none but the rage
Of rous'd corruption still demanding more.
That very portion, which (by faithful skill

* Lord Molesworth, in his account of Denmark, says: "It is observed, that in limited monarchies and common. wealths, a neighborhood to the scat of the government is advantageous to the subjects: while the distant provinces are less thriving, and more liable to oppression."

Employ'd) might make the smiling public rear
Her ornamented head, drill'd through the hands
Of mercenary tools, serves but to nurse

A locust band within, and in the bud
Leaves starv'd each work of dignity and use.
"I paint the worst. But should these times
arrive,

If any nobler passion yet remain,

Let all my sons all parties fling aside,
Despise their nonsense, and together join;
Let worth and virtue, scorning low despair,
Exerted full, from every quiver shine,
Commix'd in heighten'd blaze. Light flash'd to
light,

Moral, or intellectual, more intense

By giving glows. As on pure Winter's eve,
Gradual, the stars effulge; fainter, at first,
They, straggling, rise; but when the radiant host,
In thick profusion pour'd, shine out immense,
Each casting vivid influence on each,
From pole to pole a glittering deluge plays,
And worlds above rejoice, and men below.

"But why to Britons this superfluous strain ?-
Good-nature, honest truth ev'n somewhat blunt,
Of crooked baseness an indignant scorn,
A zeal unyielding in their country's cause,
And ready bounty, wont to dwell with them-
Nor only wont-Wide o'er the land diffus'd,
In many a blest retirement still they dwell.

"To softer prospect turn we now the view,
To laurel'd science, arts, and public works,
That lend my finish'd fabric comely pride,
Grandeur, and grace. Of sullen genius he!
Curs'd by the Muses! by the Graces loth'd!
Who deems beneath the public's high regard
These last enlivening touches of my reign.
However puff'd with power, and gorg'd with wealth,
A nation be; let trade enormous rise,
Let East and South their mingled treasure pour,
Till, swell'd impetuous, the corrupting flood
Burst o'er the city, and devour the land :
Yet these neglected, these recording arts,
Wealth rots, a nuisance; and, oblivious sunk,
That nation must another Carthage lie.
If not by them, on monumental brass,
On sculptur'd marble, on the deathless page,
Imprest, renown had left no trace behind:
In vain, to future times, the sage had thought,
The legislator plann'd, the hero found

A beauteous death, the patriot toil'd in vain.
Th' awarders they of Fame's immortal wreath,
They rouse ambition, they the mind exalt,
Give great ideas, lovely forms infuse,
Delight the general eye, and, drest by them,
The moral Venus glows with double charms.
"Science, my close associate, still attends
Where'er I go. Sometimes, in simple guise,
She walks the furrow with the consul swain,
Whispering unletter'd wisdom to the heart,
Direct; or, sometimes, in the pompous robe
Of fancy drest, she charms Athenian wits,
And a whole sapient city round her burns.
Then o'er her brow Minerva's terrors nod;
With Xenophon, sometimes, in dire extremes,
She breathes deliberate soul, and makes retreatt
Unequall'd glory; with the Theban sage,
Epaminondas, first and best of men!

The famous retreat of the Ten Thousand was chiefly conducted by Xenophon.