The warrior fetter'd, and at laft refign'd,
To glut the vengeance of a vanquish'd foe.
Then, active ftill and unrestrain'd, his mind
Explor'd the vast extent of ages paft,
And with his prison-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, 1510
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!
Wife, ftrenuous, firm, of unsubmitting soul,
Who ftemm'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 ftrew
The grave where Ruffel lies, whose temper'd blood,
With calmeft cheerfulness for thee refign'd,
Stain'd the fad annals of a giddy reign,
Aiming at lawless power, tho' meanly funk 1525
In loose 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 Mufes' fong.
Thine is a Bacon, hapless in his choice,
Unfit to ftand the civil ftorm of state,
And thro' the smooth barbarity of courts
With firm but pliant virtue forward still
To urge his courfe; him for the ftudious fhade 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 cloifter'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-afcending still,
Investigating fure the chain of things,
With radiant finger points to heaven again.
The generous Ashley* thine, the friend of man,
Who fcann'd his nature with a brother's eye, 1551
His weakness prompt to fhade, 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 receffes 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 fublimely fimple, speak thy fame
In all philofophy. 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 univerfal as his theme,
Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom
Of blowing Eden fair, as heaven sublime.
Nor fhall my verse that elder bard forget,
The gentle Spenser, Fancy's pleasing fon,
Who like a copious river pour'd his song
O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground;
Nor thee, his ancient mafter, laughing Sage, 1575
Chaucer, whose native manners-painting verse,
Well-moraliz'd, fhines 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, fimplicity of life,
And elegance and tafte: 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,
And every nameless grace; the parted lip,
Like the red rofe-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 refiftless, piercing to the foul,
And by the foul inform'd, when, dreft in love,
She fits high-fmiling in the confcious eye.
Ifland of blifs! amid the fubject feas
That thunder round thy rocky coafts fet up, 1595
At once the wonder, terror, and delight,
Of diftant nations, whofe remotest shores
Can foon be fhaken 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 faving Virtues round the land.
In bright patrol; white Peace and focial Love;
The tender-looking Charity, intent
1605 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, Disorder'd at the deep regard the draws; Volume I.
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 mufing on the common weal,
Still labours, glorious, with fome great defign.
Low walks the fun, and broadens by degrees
Juft o'er the verge of day. The fhifting clouds, 1620
Affembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train,
In all their pomp attend his fetting throne.
Air, earth, and ocean, fmile immenfe. And now,
As if his weary chariot fought the bowers
Of Amphitrite 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 disappears.
For ever running an enchanted round
Paffes the day, deceitful, vain, and void,
As fleets the vifion 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 fquander'd vile,
Upon his fcoundrel train, what might have cheer'd
A drooping family of modeft worth:
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