Resistless Freedom--when she nerves the arm, No vulgar triumph crowns the hero's might; She, she alone can spread a moral charm O’er War’s fell deeds, and sanctify the fight! Oh Gallia, in this bright immortal hour How proud a trophy binds thy laureld brow! Republic, hail, whose independent power All Earth contested once, all Earth confesses now! Protecting spirits of the glorious dead, Ah! not in vain the hero's noble toil, That blood shall consecrate his native soil! the bard, For you shall Virtue pour the glowing tear— And your remember'd deeds shall still your country guard! And thou, loved Britain, my parental isle, Secure encircled by thy subject waves, Tbou land august, where Freedom rear'd her pile, While gothic Night obscured a world of slaves; Thy genius, that indignant beard the shock Of frantic combat-(strife unmeet for thee!) Now views, triumphant, from his seagirt rock, Thee unsubdued alone; for thou alone wert free! Oh, happy thy misguided efforts faild, My country, when with tyrant hosts combined ! Oh, hideous conquest, had thy sword prevail'd And crown'd the impious league against man. Thou nurse of great design, of lofty thought, kind! What homicide, had thy insensate rage Effaced the sacred lesson thou hadst taught, And with thy purest blood inscribed on Glory's page! Ye rival nations—haste with joy elate; And bind the wounds of no immortal hate : Where Freedom's martyrs press an early grave; Go, vow that never shall their turf be trod By the polluting step of tyrant or of slave! And from your shores the abject Vices chase That low Ambition generous souls disdain, Corruption blasting every moral grace, Servility that kneels to bless his chain! Oh Liberty, those demons far remove : Come, nymph, severely good, sublimely great; Nor to the enraptured hope of mortals prove Like those illusive dreams that pass the ivory gate! New age, that rollest o'er man thy dawning year, Ah, sure all happy omens hail thy birth; Sure whiter annals in thy train appear, And purer glory cheers the gladden’d Earth. Like the young eagle, when his steadfast glance Meets the full sunbeam in his upward flight, So thou shalt with majestic step advance, And fix thy dauntless eye on Liberty and Light! H. M. WILLIAMS. 1801. TO MANKIND. Is there, or do the schoolmen dream, The delegate of Heaven? By special grace is given ? A throne his hallow'd shrine ? Strange proofs of power divine ! Can form a sovereign's claim; Hail, monarchs ! ye whom Heaven ordains, Our toils unshared, to share our gains, Ye idiots, blind and lame! Superior virtue, wisdom, might So reason must conclude : Thrice sacred multitude ! In thee, vast ALL! are these contain'd, So Nature's systems roll: Great monarch! mighty whole ! A hosts or senate's voice ! And gave the species choice. The trembling slave may bind : But, loose from Nature's moral ties, The oath by force imposed belies The unassenting mind. Thy will's thy rule, thy good its end; What parent nature gave: Thy victim or thy slave. Thus reason founds the just decree Not private rights resign'd: To hurt the general kind. Thee justice guides, thee right maintains, The' oppressor's wrongs, the pilferer's gains Thy injured weal impair. Thy temper'd counsels share. Each instance of thy vengeful rage, Though malice swell the sum, Or Sylla's hippodrome. The rabble weak and loud: A more ignoble crowd. While both thy claim oppose ? Alike to thee were foes. Far other shone fair Freedom's hand, When Hambden fought for thee: Of arts and industry. On thee yet foams the preacher's rage, On thee fierce frowns the historian's page, |