And tanght a giddy populace to blend
The kindred names of Master and of Friend,
Still he left fancy free, nor meanly sought
To fetter genius, or to rule o'er thought.
And wiser far than they, who vainly seek
The intellectual force of man to break,
To dull the mind's fine temper, and control
The bold dilations of th' expanding soul.
Did fear of pains or penalties restrain,
Or timid caution chill the Poet's vein;
The frigid principle had soon confin'd
The nobler sallies of each ardent mind,
Made Horace flat, made Juvenal resign
The manly spirit, and the rage divine,
Pope venerate each blockhead's titled claim,
And Churchill's Muse disown the Poet's name;
Dryden had then his golden harp unstrung,
"And heav'n had wanted one immortal song!"*
Hail, generous BRITAIN! where, as nature free,
Man breathes th' elastic air of liberty;
*This is taken from Dryden HIMSELF; "pour en parler dignement, il faut être LUI MEME!"
Where no capricious censor dares to bind
The thought, or clap his padlock on the mind;
Where, to full vigour grown, the strenuous soul*
Nor tyrant Mobs, nor tyrant Kings control;
Where ev❜n the SLAVE, should some auspicious breeze†
Waft his black vessel through thy billowy seas,
Though dingy hues by southern suns imprest
Level the human being with the beast;
Though ruthless Molock on the ensanguin'd plain
Consign'd the shuddering captive to the chain,
And impious rights, with legal sanction, yield ‡
The two-legg'd brute to plough some western field;
* Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis Tyranni
Mente quatit solida.
+ Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free,
They touch our Country, and their shackles fall.
$ And this spirit of liberty is so deeply implanted in our Constitution, and rooted even in our very soil, that a slave or a negro, the moment he lands in England, falls under the protection of the law, and so far becomes a freeman; though the master's right to his service may possibly still continue.”
It is this apparent contradiction, this evident inconsistency, in the language of the great Commentator on the laws of England, that the
Soon as his footsteps press thy soil, expands
In form, and bursts his ignominious bands,
Taught by thy genius, "learns his rights to scan,
And learns to venerate himself as MAN!"
Nor home-confined, behold thy genius soar,
On every wind, to every distant shore;
Where'er great Ocean's azure arms are hurl'd,
Thy flag triumphant rules the watery world;
Where'er the trumpet speaks th' alarm of war,
The voice of freedom hails BRITANNIA'S star,
That shines to save; and see th' imperious Gaul
Reel from his throne, and curse thee in his fall,
While shouting myriads, with exulting tone,
Proclaim thy NELSON's name, and thine, O WELLING-
TON!
Like the proud eagle on some mountain's brow,* That trains her young to brave the depths below,
Rhapsodist seems to allude to, in the above line. What sort of right is that, which the law not only will not enforce, but will absolutely extinguish ?
* "Methinks I see her, (the English Nation) "an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam; purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the fountain it.
Train thou thine offspring, mew the generous brood,
The future guardians of the Nations' good;
To truth's bright fountain point their ardent gaze,
With unscaled vision drink its purest rays;
Lead their bold flight, thy port sublime assume,
Unfold the lustrous glories of thy plume;
Mount, mount to heav'n, while Europe's wondering
Pursue thy stately progress through the skies!
But pale the wreath, that decks the soldier's brow,
And cold the lustre, that his arms bestow,
Unless the milder virtues warmth impart,
And gain the head the sanction of the heart.
Let Fame's obstreperous breath her clarion raise,
And in deepening notes, the warrior's praise,
Flung from the height, where stern NAPOLEON Stood,
Begirt with slaughter, and besmear'd with blood,
self of radiance, while the whole flock of timorous and noisy birds, with those, that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and, in their envious gabble, would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms." One would imagine that the divine author of this passage was describing the present state of the British Empire, and the conduct of certain factions, at this immediate juncture.
When RUSSIA Saw, on BORODINO's plain,
In even ranks her genuine offspring slain,
Bore the full rage of Gaul's wide-wasting fire,
Unable to advance, disdaining to retire !*
In the dread narrative we hear the groan t
Of death, the soldier's shout, the long-expiring moan,
The cannon's burst and roar,the trumpet's brazen tone!
But, when some act of clemency we read,
Where mildness, mercy, justice, mark the deed,
Where all, in CHARITY united, join
To give PHILANTHROPY her air divine,
Responsive to the theme the heart replies,
And pays its wonted tribute to the eyes,
Tears, that embalm the deed, that Nature loves,
That reason sanctions, and that heav'n approves.
* This line is almost literally transcribed from the bulletin of that dreadful day, and contains an involuntary homage to the valour, patriotism, and virtue of our truly magnanimous ally.
Sed tamen ejusmodi res, nescio quomodo, etiam cùm leguntur, obstrepi clamore militum videntur, et tubarum sono. At verò cum aliquid clementer, mansuetè, justè, moderatè, sapienter factum―――aut audimus, aut legimus, quo studio incendimurut eos sæpè, quos nunquam vidimus, diligamus?
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