A. Vouchsafe, at least, to pitch the key of rhime To themes more pertinent, if lefs fublime. Patriots, who love good places at their hearts; When admirals, extoll'd for standing still, Gen'rals, who will not conquer when they may, Or tell me, if you can, what pow'r maintains A Briton's fcorn of arbitrary chains? That were a theme might animate the dead, And move the lips of poets caft in lead. B. The caufe, tho' worth the fearch, may yet elude Conjecture and remark, however shrewd. They take, perhaps, a well-directed aim, Who feek it in his climate and his frame. Lib'ral in all things elfe, yet nature here With stern severity deals out the year. His form robust and of elastic tone, A mind well lodg'd, and mafculine of course. And keeps alive, his fierce but noble fires. He bears it with meek manliness of foul; But, if authority grow wanton, woe To him that treads upon his free-born toe; One ftep beyond the bound'ry of the laws Fires him at once in freedom's glorious cause. Is feldom felt, though sometimes feen and heard; fine and gay, And in his like cage, parrot Is kept, to strut, look big, and talk away. Born in a climate fofter far than our's, Not form'd like us, with fuch Herculean pow'rs, The Frenchman, eafy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frifk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away: He drinks his fimple bev'rage with a guft; And, feasting on an onion and a crust, We never feel th' alacrity and joy With which he shouts and carols, Vive le Roy, Fill'd with as much true merriment and glee, As if he heard his king fay-Slave, be free. Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, Lefs on exterior things than moft fuppofe. Vigilant over all that he has made, And fill with discontent a British isle. A. Freeman and flave, then, if the case be such, Stand on a level; and you prove too much: If all men indiscriminately share His foft'ring pow'r, and tutelary care, As dwell at large in Britain's charter'd land. B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That flaves, howe'er contented, never know. The mind attains, beneath her happy reign, The growth that nature meant she should attain; Religion, richest favour of the skies, Stands moft reveal'd before the freeman's eyes; No shades of superstition blot the day, Liberty chases all that gloom away; The foul, emancipated, unopprefs'd, Free to prove all things and hold faft the beft, Courage in arms, and ever prompt to show Guards well what arts and induftry have won, The nobleft caufe mankind can have at ftake:Religion, virtue, truth, whate'er we call A bleffing-freedom is the pledge of all. |