Nor can the prifon 'fcape your searching eye,
Your ear till opening to the captive's cry..
Nor lefs was promis'd from thy early skill,
Ere
enforc'd benevolence of will!
To friends refin'd, thy private life adher'd,
By thee improving, ere by thee prefer'd.
Well hadft thou weigh'd what truth fuch friends afford,
With thee refigning, and with thee restor’d.
Thou taught'ft them all exteníve love to bear,
And now mankind with thee their friendships fhare.
As the rich cloud by due degrees expands,
And fhowers down plenty thick on fundry lands,
Thy spreading worth in various bounty fell,
Made genius flourish, and made art excel.
How many, yet deceiv'd, all power oppofe?
Their fears increaíing, as decrease their woes;
Jealous of bondage, while they freedom gain,
And most oblig'd, most eager to complain.
But well we count our blifs, if well we view,
When power oppreffion, not protection grew;
View prefent ills that punish diftant climes;
Or bleed in memory here from ancient times.
Mark first the robe abus'd Religion wore,
Story'd with griefs, and ftain'd with human gore!
What various tortures, engines, fires, reveal,
Stop here, my Mufe!-Peculiar woes defcry!
Study'd, empower'd, and fanctify'd by zeal?
Bid them in fad fucceffion ftrike thy eye!
Lo, to her eye the fad fucceffion fprings!
She looks, fhe weeps, and, as the weeps, the fings.
See the doom'd Hebrew of his ftores bereft!
See holy murder juftify the theft!
His ravag'd gold fome ufelefs fhrine shall raise,
His gems on fuperftitious idols blaze!
His wife, his babe, deny'd their little home, Stripp'd, ftarv'd, unfriended, and unpity'd roam, Lc, the Priest's hand the Wafer-God fupplies!A King by confecrated poifon dies!
See Learning range yon broad æthereal plain, From world to world, and god-like Science gain! Ah! what avails the curious fearch fuftain'd, The finifl'd toil, the god-like Science gain'd? Sentenc'd to flames th' expanfive wisdom fell, And truth from heaven was forcery from hell. See Reafon bid each myftic wile retire, Strike out new light! and mark!-the wife admire! Zeal fhall fuch herefy, like Learning, hate; The same their glory, and the fame their fate.
Lo, from fought mercy, one his life receives! Life, worse than death, that cruel mercy gives: The man, perchance, who wealth and honours bore, Slaves in the mine, or ceafelefs trains the oar. So doom'd are thefe, and fuch perhaps, our doom, 95 Own'd we a Prince, avert it heaven! from Rome.
Nor private worth alone false Zeal affails; Whole nations bleed when bigotry prevails. What are fworn friendships? What are kindred ties? What's faith with herefy? (the zealot cries.) See, when war finks, the thundering cannon's roar ;When wounds, and death, and difcord are no more
When music bids undreading joys advance,
Swell the foft hour, and turn the fwimming dance:
When, to crown these, the social sparkling bowl 105
Lifts the cheer'd sense, and pours out all the soul;
Sudden he fends red maffacre abroad;
Faithlefs to man, to prove his faith to God.
What pure perfuafive eloquence denies,
All-drunk with blood, the arguing fword supplies; 110
The sword, which to th'affaffin's hand is given!
Th' affaffin's hand!-pronounc'd the hand of heaven!
Sex bleeds with fex, and infancy with age;
No rank, no place, no virtue, flops his rage;
Shall fword, and flame, and devastation cease,
To please with zeal, wild zeal! the God of Peace?
Nor lefs abufe has fcourg'd the civil state,
When a King's will became a nation's fate.
Enormous power! Nor noble, nor ferene;
Now fierce and cruel; now but wild and mean.
See titles fold, to raise th' unjust supply!
Compell'd the purchase! or be fin'd, or buy!
No public fpirit, guarded well by laws,
Uncenfur'd cenfures in his country's caufe.
See from the merchant forc'd th' unwilling loan! 125
Who dares deny, or deem his wealth his own?
Denying, fee! where dungeon-damps arife,
Difeas'd he pines, and unaffifted dies.
Far more than maffacre that fate accurft!
As of all deaths the lingering is the worst.
New courts of cenfure griev'd with new offence,
Tax'd without power, and fin'd without pretence,
Explain'd, at will, each statute's wrested aim,
Till marks of merit were the marks of fhame;
So monftrous!-Life was the everest grief,
And the worst death feem'd welcome for relief.
In vain the fubject fought redrels from law,
No fenate liv'd the partial judge to awe :
Senates were void, and fenators confin'd
For the great caufe of Nature and Mankind;
Who kings fuperior to the people own;
Yet prove the law fuperior to the throne.
Who can review without a generous tear,
A Church, a State, fo impious, fo severe;
A land uncultur'd through polemic jars,
Rich-but with carnage from inteftine wars;
The hand of Industry employ'd no more,
And Commerce flying to fome fafer fhore;
All Property reduc'd, to Power a prey,
And Senfe and Learning chac'd by Zeal away? 150
Who honours not each dear departed ghoft,
That ftrove for Liberty fo won, fo loft:
So well regain'd when god-like William rose,
And first entail'd the blessing George bestows ?
May Walpole ftill the growing triumph raise,
And bid thefe emulate Eliza's days;
Still ferve a Prince, who, o'er his people great,
As far tranfcends in virtue, as in ftate!
The Mufe pursues thee to thy rural feat;
Ev'n there fhall Liberty inspire retreat.
When folemn cares in flowing wit are drown'd,
And sportive chat and social laughs go
Ev'n then, when pausing mirth begins to fail,
The converse varies to the ferious tale.
The tale pathetic speaks fome wretch that owes
To fome deficient law relieflefs woes.
What inftant pity warms thy generous breast!
How all the legiflator ftands confess'd!
Now fprings the hint! 'tis now improv'd to thought!
Now ripe and now to public welfare brought! 170
New bills, which regulating means bestow,
Juftice preferve, yet foftening mercy know :
Juftice fhall low vexatious wiles decline,
And fill thrive moft, when lawyers most repine,
Juftice from jargon fhall refin'd appear,
To knowledge through our native language clear.
Hence we may learn, no more deceiv'd by law,
Whence wealth and life their beft affurance draw.
The freed Infolvent, with induftrious hand,
Strives yet to fatisfy the just demand :
Thus ruthless men, who would his powers reftrain,
Oft what feverity would lofe obtain.
Thefe, and a thoufand gifts, thy thought acquires,
Which Liberty benevolent infpires.
From Liberty the fruits of law increase,
Plenty, and joy, and all the arts of
Abroad the merchant, while the tempefts rave,
Adventurous fails, nor fears the wind and wave;
At home untir'd we find th' aufpicious hand
With flocks, and herds, and harvests, bless the land: 190
While there, the peafaat glads the grateful foil,
Here mark the shipwright, there the mason toil,
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