The man of reason is a god

Who scorns to stoop to fortune's nod ; Sole agent he beneath the shining sphere, Others are passive, are impell'd,

Are frighten'd, flatter'd, sunk, or swell'd, As accident is pleas'd to domineer.

Our hopes and fears are much to blame;
Shall monarchs awe? or crowns inflame?
From gross mistake our idle tumult springs;
Those men the silly world disarm,

Elude the dart, dissolve the charm,
Who know the slender worth of men and things.

The present object, present day,
Are idle phantoms, and away;
What's lasting only does exist. Know this,

Life, fame, friends, freedom, empire, all,
Peace, commerce, freedom, nobly fall
To lanch us on the flood of endless bliss.

How foreign these, though most in view!
Go, look your whole existence through ;
Thence, form your rule; thence fix your estimate,
For so the gods: but as the gains,

How great the toil! 'Twill cost more pains, To vanquish folly, than reduce a state.

Hence, Reason! the first palm is thine, Old Britain learnt from thee to shine. [smile, By thee, trade's swarming throng, gay freedom's Armies, in war of fatal frown,

Of peace the pride, arts flowing down, Enrich, exall, defend, instruct our isle.

COMMERCE gives arts, as well as gain; By commerce wafted o'er the main, They barbarous climes enlighten as they run; Arts, the rich traffic of the soul ! May travel, thus, from pole to pole, And gild the world with learning's brighter sun.

Commerce gives learning, virtue, gold!
Ply commerce, then, ye Britons bold,
Inur'd to winds and seas! lest gods repent:

The gods that thron'd you in the wave,
And, as the trident's emblem, gave
A triple realm, that awes the continent :

And awes with wealth; for wealth is power:
When Jove descends a golden shower,
'Tis navies, armies, empire, all, in one.-
View, emulate, outshine old Tyre;
In scarlet rob'd, with gems on fire,
Her merchants, prinçes! every deck, a throne !

She sate an empress! aw'd the flood!
Her stable column Ocean trod;

She call'd the nations, and she call'd the seas,
By both obey'd: the Syrian sings;
The Cyprian's art her viol strings;
Togarmagh's steed along her valley neighs.

The fir of Senir makes her floor,
And Bashan's oak, transform'd, her oar;
High Lebanon her mast; far Dedan warms
Her mantled host; Arabia feeds;
Her sail of purple Egypt spreads;
Arvad sends mariners; the Persian, arms.

The world's last limit bounds her fame;
The golden city was her name!
Those stars on Earth, the topaz, onyx, blaze
Beneath her foot: extent of coast,
And rich as Nile's, let others boast;
Hers the far nobler harvest of the seas.

O merchant land! as Eden fair!
Antient of empires! Nature's care!
The strength of Ocean! head of plenty's springs!
The pride of isles! In wars rever'd!
Mother of crafts! lov'd! courted! fear'd!
Pilot of kingdoms! and support of kings!

Great mart of nations !-But she fell :
Her pamper'd sons revolt! rebel !
Against his favourite isle loud roars the main !

The tempest howls! her sculptur'd dome
Soon, the wolf's refuge; dragon's home!
The land, one altar! a whole people, slain!
The destin'd day puts on her frown;
The sable hour is coming down:

She's on her march from yon Almighty throne:
The sword and storm are in her hand;

She trumpets shrill her dread command:
Dark be the light of Earth! the boast, unknown !

For, oh! her sins as red as blood, As crimson deep, outcry the flood; The queen of trade is bought! once wise and just, Now, venal is her council's tongue : How riot, violence, and wrong, Turn gold to dross, her blossom into dust!

To things inglorious, far beneath
Those high-born souls they proudly breathe,
Her sordid noble sinks! her mighty, bow!
Is it for this, the groves around
Return the tabret's sprightly sound?
Is it for this, her great-ones toss the brow?

What burning feuds 'twixt brothers reign!
To nuptials cold, how glows the vein,
Confounding kindred, and misleading right?
The spurious lord it o'er the land!
Bold blasphemy dares make a stand,
Assault the sky, and brandish all her might:
Tyre's artisan, sweet drator,

Her merchant sage, big man of war,
Her judge, her prophet, nay her hoary heads,

Whose brow with wisdom should be crown'd,
Her very priests in guilt abound:
Hence, the world's cedar all her honours sheds.

What death of truth! what thirst of gold! Chiefs warm in peace, in battle cold! What youth unletter'd! base ones lifted high!

What public boasts! what private views! What desert temples! crowded stews! What women /-practis'd but to roll an eye l

O! foul of heart, her fairest dames Decline the Sun's intruding beams, To mad the midnight in their gloomy haunts: Alas! there is, who sees them there; There is, who flatters not the fair, When cymbals tinkle, and the virgin chants.

He sees, and thunders !-Now, in vain! The courser paws, and foams the rein; And chariots stream along the printed soil:

In vain! Her high, presumptuous air
In gorgeous vestments rich and rare,

"Ah! wretched isle, once call'd the great!
Ah! wretched isle, and wise too late!
The vengeance of Jehovah is gone out:
Thy luxury, corruption, pride,
And freedom lost, the realms deride,
Ador'd thee standing, o'er thy ruins shout:

"To scourge with war, or peace bestow,
Was thine, O fallen! fallen low!

'Twas thine, of jarring thrones to still debates: How art thou fallen, down, down, down! Wide waste, and night, and horrour frown,

In robes or gems, her costly stain,
Green, scarlet, azure, shine, in vain!

In vain! their golden heads her turrets rear;
In vain high-flavour'd foreign fruits,
Sydonian oils, and Lydian lutes,
Glide o'er her tongue, and melt upon her ear.

In vain! wines flow in various streams,
With helm and spear each piliar gleams;
Damascus, vain! unfolds the glossy store;

The golden wedge from Ophir's coasts, From Arab incense vain, she boasts, Vain are her gods, and vainly men adore. Bel falls! the mighty Nebo bends! The nations hiss! her glory ends ! To ships, her confidence! she flies from foes; Foes meet her there: the wind, the wave, That once aid, strength, and grandeur gave, Plunge her in seas, from which her glory rose. Her ivory deck, embroider'd sail, And mast of cedar naught avail, Or pilot learn'd! She sinks, nor sinks alone, Her gods sink with her! to the sky, Which never more shall meet her eye, She sends her soul out in one dreadful groan.

What though so vast her naval might, In her first dawn'd the British right! All flags abas'd her sea-dominion greet:

What though she longer warr'd than Troy? At length her foes that isle destroy Whose conquest sail'd, as far as sail'd her fleet.

The kings she cloth'd in purple shake Their aweful brows: "O foul mistake! O fatal pride!" they cry, "this, this is she,

Who said With my own art and arm,
In the world's wealth I wrap me warm'-
And swell'd at heart, vain empress of the sea!

"This, this is she, who meanly soar'd:
Alas! how low, to be ador'd,

And style herself a God!-Through stormy wars
This Eagle-isle her thunder bore,
High-fed her young with human gore;

And would have built her nest among the stars.

"But ah, frail man! how impotent To stand Heaven's vengeance, or prevent! To turn aside the great Creator's aim!

Shall island-kings with him contend,
Who makes the poles beneath him bend?
And shall drink up the sea herself with flame?

"Earth, Ether, Empyreum bow,
When from the brazen mountain's brow
The God of Battles takes his mighty bow:
Of wrath prepares to pour the flood,
Puts on his vesture dipt in blood,
And marches out to scourge the world below.

STRAIN THE THIRD.

THE ARGUMENT.

An inference from this history. Advice to Britain. More proper to her than other nations. How far the stroke of tyranny reaches. What supports our endeavours. The unconsider'd benefits of liberty. Britain's obligation to pursue trade. Why above half the globe is sea. Britain's grandeur from her situation. The winds, the Sir Isaac seas, the constellations, described. Newton's praise. Britain compared with other states. The leviathan described. Britain's site, and antient title to the seas. Who rivals her. Of Venice. Holland. Some despise trade as mean. Censured for it. Trade's glory. The late Czar. Solomon. A surprising instance of magnificence. The merchant's dignity. Compared with men of letters.

HENCE learn, as hearts are foul or pure,
Our fortunes wither or endure:
Nations may thrive, or perish by the wave.
What storms from Jove's unwilling frown,
A people's crimes solicit down!
Ocean's the womb of riches, and the grave.

This truth, O Britain! ponder well;
Virtues should rise, as fortunes swell :
What is large property?-The sign of good,
Of worth superior: if 't is less,
Another's treasure we possess,

And charge the gods with favours misbestow'd.

This council suits Britannia's isle,

High-flush'd with wealth, and freedom's smile: To vassals prison'd in the continent,

Who starve, at home, on meagre toil, And suck to death their mother soil, 'T were useless caution, and a truth mis-spent.

Fell tyrants strike beyond the bone,
And wound the soul; bow genius down,
Lay virtue waste! for worth or arts, who strain,
To throw them at a monster's foot?
'Tis property supports pursuit :
Freedom gives eloquence; and freedom, gain.

She pours the thought, and forms the style,
She makes the blood and spirits boil;

I feel her now! and rouse, and rise, and rave
In Theban song: O Muse! not thine,
Verse is gay freedom's gift divine:
The man that can think greatly, is no slave,

Others may traffic if they please;
Britain, fair daughter of the seas,

Is born for trade; to plough her field, the wave:
And reap the growth of every coast:
A speck of land! but let her boast,

Gods gave the world, when they the waters gave.
Britain! behold the world's wide face;
Nor cover'd half with solid space,
Three parts are fluid; empire of the sea!

And why? for commerce. Ocean streams For that, through all his various names : And, if for commerce, ocean flows for thee.

Britain, like some great potentate
Of eastern clime, retires in state,
Shuts out the nations! would a prince draw nigh?
He passes her strong guards, the waves,
Of servant winds admission craves,
Her empire has no neighbour but the sky.

There are her friends; soft Zephyr there,
Keen Eurus, Notus never fair,

Rough Boreas bursting from the pole: all urge,
And urge for her, their various toil;
The Caspian, the broad Baltic boil,
And into life the dead Pacific scourge.

There are her friends, a marshal'd train:
A golden host! and azure plain !
By turns do duty, and by turns retreat :
They may retreat, but not from her;
The star that quits this hemisphere
Must quit the skies, to want a British flect.

Hyad, for her, leans o'er her urn;
For her, Orion's glories burn,
The Pleiads gleam. For Britons set and rise
The fair-fac'd sons of Mazaroth,

Near the deep chambers of the South,
The raging Dog that fires the midnight skies.

These nations Newton made his own;
All intimate with him alone.
His mighty soul did, like a giant, run
To the vast volume's closing star;
Decypher'd every character:
His reason pour'd new light upon the Sun.

Let the proud brothers of the land
Smile at our rock and barren strand,
Not such the sea: let Fohé's antient line
Vast tracts and ample beings vaunt;
The camel low, small elephant→→→

O Britain! the leviathan is thine.

Leviathan whom Nature's strife
Brought forth, her largest piece of life;
He sleeps an isle! his sports the billows warm!
Dreadful leviathan! thy spout
Invades the skies; the stars are out:

He drinks a river, and ejects a storm.

Th' Atlantic surge around our shore
German and Caledonian roar ;

Their mighty Genii hold us in their lap.

Hear Egbert, Edgar, Ethelred;

"The seas are ours."-The monarch saidThe floods their hands, their hands the nations, clap.

Whence is a rival, then, to rise?
Can be be found beneath the skies?

No, there, they dwell, that can give Britain fear :
The powers of Earth, by rival aim
Her grandeur but the more proclaim;
And prove their distance most, as they draw near.

Proud Venice sits amid the waves;

Her foot ambitious ocean laves:
Art's noblest boast! but O what wondrous odda
'Twixt Venice and Britannia's isle!
"Twixt mortal and immortal toil!
Britamia is a Venice built by gods.

Let Holland triumph o'er her foes,
But not o'er friends by whom she rose;
The child of Britain! and shall she contend
It were no less than parricide:-
What wonders rise from out the tide !
Her high and mighty to the rudder bend.

And are there, then, of lofty brow,
So far beneath the state of noble birth?
Who think trade mean, and scorn to bow

Alas! these chiefs but little know
Commerce how high, themselves how low;
The sons of nobles are the sons of Earth.

And what have Earth's mean sons to do,
But reap her fruits, and warm pursue
The world's chief good, not glut on others' toil?
High commerce from the gods came down,
With compass, chart, and starry crown,
Their delegate, to make the nations smile.

Blush, and behold the Russian bow,
From forty crowns, his mighty brow
To trade. To toil he turns his glorious hand:
That arm, which swept the bloody field,
See the huge are, or hammer, wield;
While sceptres wait, and thrones impatient stand.
O shame to subjects! first renown,
Matchless example to the crown!
Old Time is poor: what age boasts such a sight?
Ye drones! adore the man divine-
No; virtue still as mean decline,
Call Russians barbarous, and yourselves polite.

He too of Judah, great, as wise, With Hiram strove in merchandise: Monarchs with monarchs struggle for an oar! That merchant sinking to his grave, A flood of treasure swells the cave; The king left much, the merchant bury'd more. Is merchant an inglorious name? No; fit for Pindar such a theme, Too great for me; I pant beneath the weight! If loud as Ocean's were my voice, If words and thoughts to court my choice Out-number'd sands, I could not reach its height.

Merchants o'er proudest heroes reign;
Those trade in blessing, these in pain,
At slaughter swell, and shout, while nations groan:
With purple monarchs, merchants vie ;
If great to spend, what, to supply ?
Priests pray for blessings; merchants pour them
down.

Kings, merchants are in league and love;
Earth's odours pay soft airs above,
That o'er the teeming field prolific range;
Planets are merchants; take, return,
Lustre and heat; by traffic burn;
The whole creation is one vast Exchange.

? Vast treasure taken from Solomon's tomb 1300 years after his death.-YOUNG.

Is merchant an inglorious name? What say the sons of letter'd fame, Proud of their volumes, swelling in their cells? In open life, in change of scene,

Mid various manners, throngs of men, Experience, arts, and solid wisdom dwells.

Trade, art's mechanic, Nature's stores Well-weighs; to starry science soars : Reads warm in life (dead-colour'd by the pen) The sites, tongues, interests, of the ball: Who studies trade, he studies all; Accomplish'd merchants are accomplish'd men.

STRAIN THE FOURTH.

THE ARGUMENT.

Pindar invoked. His praise. Britain should decline war; but boldly assert her trade. Encouraged from the throne: Britain's condition without trade. Trade's character, and surprising deeds. Carthage. Solomon's temple. St. Paul's church. The miser's character. The wonderful effects of trade. Why religion recommended to the merchant. What, false joy. What, true. What religion is to the merchant. Why trade more glorious in Britons than others. How warmly, and how long, to be pursued by us. The Briton's legacy. Columbus. His praise.

America described. Worlds still unknown.
Queen Elizabeth.
King George the Second.
His glory navally represented.

How shall I further rouse the soul?
How sloth's lascivious reign control

By verse with unextinguish'd ardour wrought?
How every breast inflame with mine?
How bid my theme still brighter shine,

With wealth of words, and unexhausted thought?

O thou Dircæan swan, on high,
Round whom familiar thunders fly!
While Jove attends a language like his own:
Thy spirit pour, like vernal showers,
My verse shall burst out with the flowers,
While Britain's trade advances with her sun.

Though Britain was not born to fear,
Grasp not at bloody fame from uar;
Nor war decline, if thrones your right invade :
Jove gathers tempest black as night;
Jove pours the golden flood of light;
Let Britain thunder, or let Britain trade.

Britain a comet, or a star,

In commerce this, or that in war,

Let Britons shout! Earth, seas, and skies resound!
Commerce to kindle, raise, preserve,
And spirit dart through every nerve,

Hear from the throne a voice through time renown'd.

So fall from Heaven the vernal showers, To cheer the glebe, and wake the flowers; The gloom call'd forth sees azure skies display'd; The bird of voice is proud to sing, Industrious bees ply every wing,

Distend their cells, and urge their golden trade.

The king's speech.

What Rome and all her gods defies?
The Punic oar. Behold it rise

And battle for the world' trade gave the call;
Rich cordial from his naval art

Sent the strong spirits to his heart,
That bid an Afric merchant grasp the ball.

Where is, on Earth, Jehovah's home? Trade mark'd the soil, and built the dome, In which his majesty first deign'd to dwell; The walls with silver sheets o'erlaid, Rich, as the Sun, through gold unweigh'd, Bent the moon'd arch, and bid the column swell.

Grandeur unknown to Solomon !

Methinks the labouring Earth should groan, Beneath yon load3: created sure, not made !

Servant and rival of the skies!

Heaven's arch alone can higher rise: What hand immortal rais'd thee?-Humble trade.

Where hadst thou been, if, left at large,
Those sinewy arms that tugg'd the barge
Had caught at pleasure on the flowery green?
If they that watch'd the midnight star
Had swung behind the rolling car,

Or fill'd it with disgrace, where hadst thou been?
As by repletion men consume,
Abundance is the miser's doom;
Expend it nobly; he that lets it rust,

Which, passing numerous hands, would shine;
Is not a man, but living mine,

Foe to the gods, and rival to the dust.

Trade barbarous lands can polish fair; Make Earth well worth the wise man's care; Call forth her forests, charm them into fleets; Can make one house of human race; Can bid the distant poles embrace; Hers, every sun; and India, India meets.

Trade monarchs crowns, and arts imports, With bounty feeds, with laurel courts: Trade gives fair virtue fairer still to shine;

Enacts those guards of gain, the laws; Exalts e'en freedom's glorious cause.Trade! warn'd by Tyre, O make religion thine!

You lend each other mutual aid:

Why is Heaven's smile, in wealth, convey'd! Not to place vice, but virtues in our power: Pleasure declin'd, is luxury, Boundless in time and in degree: Pleasure enjoy'd, the tumult of an hour,

St. Paul's, built by the coal-tax-YOUNG