X.
Ruffians, p.ciless as proud,

Heav'n awards the vengeance due
Empire is on us bestow'd,

Shame and ruin wait for you.

HEROISM.

THERE was a time when Ætna's silent fire Slept unperceiv'd, the mountain yet entire ; When, conscious of no danger from below, She tower'd a cloudcapt pyramid of snow. No thunders shook with deep intestine sound The blooming groves that girdled her around. Her unctuous olives, and her purple vines, (Unfelt the fury of those bursting mines,) The peasant's hopes, and not in vain, assurd, In peace upon her sloping sides matur’d. When on a day, like that of the last doom, A conflagration lab’ring in her womb, She teem'd and heav'd with an infernal birth, That shook the circling seas and solid earth. Dark and voluminous the vapours rise, And hang their horrours in the neighb’ring skies, While through the stygian veil that blots the day, In dazzling streaks the vivid lightnings play. But O! what muse, and in what pow'rs of song, Can trace the torrent as it burns along ? Havock and devastation in the van, It marches o'er the prostrate works of man, Vines, olives, herbage, forests, disappear, And all the charms of a Sicilian year.

Revolving seasons fruitless as they pass, See it an uninform’d and idle mass; Without a soil t'invite the tiller's care, Or blade that might redeem it from despair. Yet time, at length, (what will not time achieve ?) Clothes it with earth, and bids the produce live. Once more the spiry myrtle crowns the glade, And ruminating flocks enjoy the shade. O bliss precarious and unsafe retreat O charming Paradise of short-liv'd sweets ! The self-same gale that wafts the fragrance round, Brings to the distant ear a sullen sound : Again the mountain feels the imprison'd foe, Again pours ruin on the vale below. Ten thousand swains the wasted scene deplore, That only future ages can restore.

Ye monarchs, whom the lure of honour draws, Who write in blood the merits of your cause, Who strike the blow, then plead your own defence, Glory your aim, but justice your pretence ; Behold in Ætna's emblematick fires The mischiefs your ambitious pride inspires.

Fast by the stream that bounds your just domain, And tells you where ye have a right to reign, A nation dwells, not envious of your throne, Studious of peace, their neighbours' and their own. Ill-fated race ! how deeply must they rue Their only crime, vicinity to you ! The trumpet sounds, your legions swarm abroad, Through the ripe harvest lies their destin'd road; At ev'ry step beneath their feet they tread The life of multitudes, a nation's bread! Earth seems a garden in its loveliest dress Before them, and behind a wilderness. Famine, and Pestilence, her first-born son, Attend to finish what the sword begun;

And echoing praises, such as fiends might earn,
And Folly pays, resound at your return.
A calm succeeds—but Plenty, with her train
Of heart-felt joys, succeeds not soon again,
And years of pining indigence must show
What scourges are the gods that rule below.

Yet man, laborious man, by slow degrees,
(Such is his thirst of opulence and ease,)
Plies all the sinews of industrious toil,
Gleans up the refuse of the gen’ral spoil,
Rebuilds the tow'rs, that smokd upon the plain,
And the sun gilds the shining spires again.

Increasing commerce and reviving art Renew the quarrel on the conqu’ror's part ; And the sad lesson must be learn'd once more, That wealth within is ruin at the door. What are ye, monarchs, laurell'd heroes, say, But Ætnas of the suff'ring world ye sway ? Sweet Nature, stripp'd of her embroider'd robe, Deplores the wasted regions of her globe ; And stands a witness at Truth's awful bar, To prove you there destroyers as ye are.

O place me in some Heav'n-protected isle, Where Peace, and Equity, and Freedom smile: Where no volcano pours his fiery flood, No crested warriour dips his plume in blood ; Where Pow'r secures what Industry has won ; Where to succeed is not to be undone ; A land, that distant tyrants hate in vain, In Britain's isle, beneath a George's reign?

ON A MISCHIEVOUS BULL, WHICH THE OWNER OF HIM

SOLD AT THE AUTHOR'S INSTANCE.

The squirrel here his hoard provides

Aware of wintry storms,
And wood-peckers explore the sides

Of rugged oaks for worms.

The sheep here smooths the knotted thorn

With frictions of her fleece;
And here I wander eve and morn,

Like her, a friend to peace.

Ah!- I could pity thee exil'd

From this secure retreat-
I would not lose it to be stýl'd

The happiest of the great.

But thou canst taste no calm delight;

Thy pleasure is to show Thy magnanimity in fight,

Thy prowess--therefore go

I care not whether east or north,

So I no more may find thee;
The angry muse thus sings thee forth,

And claps the gate behind thee.
VOL. II.

18

ANNUS MEMORABILIS, 1789.

WRITTEN IN COMMEMORATION OF HIS MAJESTY'S.

HAPPY RECOVERY.

I RANSACK'D for a theme of song,
Much ancient chronicle, and long ;
I read of bright embattled fields,
Of trophied helmets, spears, and shields,
Of chiefs, whose single arm could boast
Prowess to dissipate a host ;
Through tomes of fable and of dream
I sought an eligible theme,
But none I found, or found them shar'd
Already by some happier bard.

To modern times, with Truth to guide
My busy search, I next applied ;
Here cities won, and fleets dispers’d,
Urg'd loud a claim to be rehears'd,
Deeds of unperishing renown,
Our fathers' triumphs and our own.

Thus, as the bee, from bank to bow'r,
Assiduous sips at ev'ry flow'r,
But rests on none, till that be found,
Where most nectareous sweets abound--
So I, from theme to theme display'd
In many a page historick stray'd, .
Siege after siege, fight after fight
Contemplating with small delight,
(For feats of sanguinary hue
Not always glitter in my view,)