XVI.

Or, like the thief of fire for heaven,3
Wilt thou withstand the shock?
And share with him, the unforgiven,
His vulture and his rock!
Foredoom'd by God-by man accurst,
And that last act, though not thy worst,
The very Fiend's arch mock;
He in his fall preserved his pride,
And, if a mortal, had as proudly died!

XVII.

There was a day-there was an hour, While there was Gaul's-Gaul thineWhen that immeasurable power

Unsated to resign

Had been an act of purer fame
Than gathers round Marengo's name
And gilded thy decline,

Through the long twilight of all time,
Despite some passing clouds of crime.

XVIII.

But thou forsooth must be a king,
And don the purple vest,
As if that foolish robe could wring
Remembrance from thy breast.
Where is that faded garment? where
The gewgaws thou wert fond to wear,
The star, the string, the crest?
Vain froward child of empire! say,
Are all thy playthings snatch'd away?

XIX.

Where may the wearied eye repose
When gazing on the Great;

Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?

Yes-one-the first-the last-the best-
The Cincinnatus of the West,

Whom envy dared not hate,

Bequeath'd the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but one!

Notes to the Ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte.

1.

"Certaminis gaudia"-the expression of Attila in his harangue to his army, previous to the battle of Chalons, given in Cassiodorus.

2.

The cage of Bajazet, by order of Tamerlane.

Prometheus.

3.

4.

"The very fiend's arch mock

To lip a wanton, and suppose her chaste."

-SHAKSPEARE. [He alludes to the unworthy amour in which Napoleon engaged on the evening of his arrival at Fontainebleau.]

HEBREW MELODIES.

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THE subsequent poems were written at the request of my friend, the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, for a Selection of Hebrew Melodies, and have been published, with the music, arranged by Mr Braham and Mr Nathan.

January 1815.