10 For every want that stimulates the breast Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame, : But not their joys alone thus coarsely flow Thro' life's more cultur'd walks, and charm the way, 10 For every want] Every want becomes a means of pleasure in the redressing.' Golds. An. Nat. ii. 123. To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, I turn; and France displays her bright domain. Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease, Pleas'd with thyself, whom all the world can please, How often have I led thy sportive choir, With tuneless pipe, beside the murmuring Loire? Have led their children through the mirthful maze, So blest a life these thoughtless realms display, Thus idly busy rolls their world away: Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear, For honour forms the social temper here : Honour, that praise which real merit gains, Or even imaginary worth obtains, Here passes current; paid from hand to hand, It shifts in splendid traffic round the land: From courts, to camps, to cottages it strays, And all are taught an avarice of praise; They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem, Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem. с But while this softer art their bliss supplies, For praise too dearly lov'd, or warmly sought, To men of other minds my fancy flies, Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies. Methinks her patient sons before me stand, Where the broad ocean leans against the land,11 And, sedulous to stop the coming tide, Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride. Onward methinks, and diligently slow, The firm connected bulwark seems to grow; Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar, Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore. 11 V. Statii Theb. iv. 62. Et terris maria inclinata repellit.' And Dryden, Annus Mirab. st. clxiv. And view the ocean leaning on the sky.' 'Bent his breast against the broad wave.' Cit. of the World, ii. 101. While the pent ocean rising o'er the pile, Thus, while around the wave-subjected soil Hence all the good from opulence that springs, Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm. 12 A new] Holland seems to be a conquest upon the sea, and in a manner rescued from its bosom.' Gold. An. Nat. i. P. 276. 12 Even liberty] Slavery was permitted in Holland; children were sold by their parents for a certain number of years. 14 A nation once famous for setting the world an example of freedom is now become a land of tyrants, and a den of slaves.' Cit. of the World, i. P. 147. Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires of old! Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold; War in each breast, and freedom on each brow; How much unlike the sons of Britain now! Fir'd at the sound, my genius spreads her wing, Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, True to imagin'd right, above control, While even the peasant boasts these rights to scan, And learns to venerate himself as man. 15 So in the Cit. of the World, ii. p. 196, in praise of Britain. Yet from the vernal softness of the air, the verdure of the fields, the transparency of the streams, and the beauty of the women; here love might sport among painted lawns, and warbling groves, and carol upon gales wafting at once both fragrance and harmony.' |