}

616

At ftarving Virtue, and at Virtue's fools;
Determin'd to be broke, the plighted Faith;
Nay, more, the Godlefs Oath, that knows no tie;
Soft-buzzing Slander; filky moths, that eat

An honest name; the harpy hand and maw
Of avaricious Luxury, who makes

620

The throne his fhelter, venal laws his fort,
And, by his fervice, who betrays his king.

Now turn your view, and mark, from Celtic* night To prefent grandeur, how My Britain rose. 625

Bold were those Britons who, the carelefs fons
Of Nature, roam'd the forest-bounds, at once
Their verdant city, high-embowering fane,
And the gay circle of their wood-land wars;
For by the Druid taught +, that death but shifts 630
The vital scene, they that prime fear despis'd;
And, prone to rush on steel, disdain'd to spare
An ill-fav'd life that must again return.
Erect from Nature's hand, by tyrant Force,
And still more tyrant Custom, unsubdu'd,
Man knows no mafter fave creating Heaven,
Or fuch as choice and common good ordain.
This general sense, with which the nations I
Promifcuous fire, in Britons burn'd intense,
Of future times prophetic. Witness Rome!
Who faw'ft thy Cæfar, from the naked land,

635

640

Great-Britain was peopled by the Celtae or Gauls.
The Druids, among the ancient Gauls and Britons, had the

cave and direction of all religious matters.

Whofe only fort was British hearts, repell'd,
To feek Pharfalian wreaths. Witness the toil,
The blood of ages, bootless to secure,

Beneath an Empire's yoke *, a ftubborn Ifle, 645
Difputed hard, and never quite fubdu'd.

650

The North + remain'd untouch'd, where those who
To stoop retir'd; and to their keen effort [fcorn'd
Yielding at lak, recoil'd the Roman power,
In vain, unable to fuftain the shock,
From fea to fea defponding legions rais'd
The wall immenfe ‡, and yet, on fummer's eve,
While sport his lambkins round, the shepherd's gaze.
Continual o'er it burst the northern ftorm ||,
As often check'd, receded, threatening hoarse 655
A fwift return. But the devouring flood
No more endur'd controul, when, to support
The laft remains of empire§, was recall'd
The weary Roman, and the Briton lay
Unnerv'd, exhausted, spiritless, and sunk.
Great proof how men enfeeble into flaves!
The fword behind him flash'd; before him roar'd,

The Roman Empire.

660

+ Caledonia, inhabited by the Scots and Picts, whither a great many Britons, who would not fubmit to the Romans, retired.

The wall of Severus, built upon Adrian's rampart, which ran for eighty miles quite across the country from the mouth of the Tyne to Solway-Frith,

Irruptions of the Scots and Picts.

The Roman Empire being miferably torn by the northern nations, Britain was for ever abandoned by the Romans in the year 426 or 427.

Deaf to his woes, the deep*. Forlorn, around
He roll'd his eye, not sparkling ardent flame,
As when Cara&tacus + to battle led

Silurian fwains, and Boadicea ‡ taught
Her raging troops the miseries of flaves.

665

Then (fad relief!) from the bleak coaft that hears
The German ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong,
And yellow-hair'd, the blue-ey'd Saxon came. 670
He came implor'd, but came with other aim
Than to protect: for conqueft and defence
Suffices the fame arm. With the fierce race
Pour'd in a fresh.invigorating ftream,

Blood where, unquell'd, a mighty spirit glow'd : 675
Rafh war and perilous battle their delight;
And immature, and red with glorious wounds,
Unpeaceful death their choice: deriving thence
A right to feaft, and drain immortal bowls,

The Britons, applying to Aetius the Roman general for affiftance, thus expreffed their miferable condition:-" We "know not which way to turn us. ihe Barbarians drive us "to fea, and the fea forces us back to the Barbarians; between "which we have only the choice of two deaths, either to be "fwallowed up by the waves, or butchered by the sword."

+ King of the Silures, famous for his great exploits, and accounted the beft general Great-Britain had ever produced. The Silures were esteemed the bravest and moft powerful of all the Britons; they inhabited Herefordshire, Radnorfhire, Brecknockfire, Monmouthshire, and Glamorganshire

Queen of the Iceni. Her ftory is well known.

It is certain that an opinion was fixed and general among them (the Goths) that death was but the entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and unactive lives, and died natural deaths, by fickness or by age, went into vaft caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noifome creatures (

In Odin's hall, whose blazing roof refounds 680
The genial uproar of those shades who fall
In defperate fight, or by fome brave attempt;
And tho' more polish'd times the martial creed
Difown, yet ftill the fearless habit lives.
Nor were the furly gifts of war their all:
Wisdom was likewise theirs, indulgent Laws,
The calm gradations of art-nurfing Peace,
And matchlefs Orders, the deep bafis ftill

685

On which afcends my British reign. Untam'd
To the refining subtleties of flaves,

690

They brought an happy government along,

Form'd by that Freedom which, with fecret voice, Impartial Nature teaches all her fons,

695

And which of old thro' the whole Scythian mafs
I ftrong infpir'd. Monarchical their state,
But prudently confin'd, and mingled wife.
Of each harmonious power, only too much
Imperious War into their rule infus'd,

Prevail'd the General-king, and Chieftain-thanes.

ufual to fuch places, and there for ever grovelled in endless ftench and mifery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves. to warlike actions and enterprizes, to the conqueft of their neighbours, and the flaughter of their enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures or refolutions, went immediately to the vaft hall or palace of Odin, their God of War, who eternally kept open houfe for all fuch guests, where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual feafts and mirth, caroufing in bowls made of the fculls of their enemies they had flain, according to the number of whom every one in thefe manfions of pleasure was the most honoured and be entertained. Sir W. Temple's Elay on Heroic Virtue.

In many a field, by civil fury ftain'd, Bled the difcordant Heptarchy *, and long (Educing good from ill) the battle groan'd, Ere, blood-cemented, Anglo-Saxons faw Egbert + and Peace on one united throne.

No fooner dawn'd the fair disclosing calm

Of brighter days, when, lo! the North anew,
With stormy nations black, on England pour'd
Woes the fevereft e'er a people felt.

700

705

The Danish Raven ‡, lur'd by annual prey,
Hung o'er the land inceffant. Fleet on fleet
Of barbarous pirates unremitting tore

710

The miserable coaft. Before them stalk'd,
Far feen, the Demon of devouring Flame

Rapine and Murder, all with blood befmear'd,

Without or ear, or eye, or feeling heart;

715

While close behind them march'd the fallow Power

Of defolating Famine, who delights

In grafs-grown cities, and in defert fields;
And purple-spotted Pestilence, by whom
Ev'n friendship scar'd, in fickening horror finks 720
Each focial sense and tenderness of life.

The feven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, confidered as being united into one common government, under a general in chief, or monarch, and by the means of an ailembly-general, or wittenagemot.

+ Egbert, king of Weffex, who, after having reduced all the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy under his dominion, was the first king of England.

A famous Danish ftandard was called Reafan, or Raven, The Danes imagined that before a battle, the Raven wrought upon this ftandard clapt its wings, or hung down its head, in token of victory or defeat,