And thus polluting honour in its source, And over fields where scatter'd hamlets rose, Even now, perhaps, as there some pilgrim strays Thro' tangled forests, and thro' dangerous ways; 23 Where beasts with man divided empire claim, 21 Where wild] 'Oh! let me fly a land that spurns the brave, Goldsmith's Threnodia Augustalis. 22 Through tangled] The forests are dark and tangled.' An. Nat. vol. i. p. 400. 23 Where beasts] Where man in his savage state owns inferior strength, and the beasts claim divided dominion.' Gold. An. Nat. vol. ii. p. 9, 12. And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim; Vain, very vain, my weary search to find That bliss which only centres in the mind : Why have I stray'd, from pleasure and repose, To seek a good each government bestows? 24 In every government, though terrors reign, Though tyrant kings, or tyrant laws restrain, How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, Our own felicity we make or find: With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy. 25 The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, In every] Every mind seems capable of entertaining a certain quantity of happiness; which no constitutions can increase, no circumstances alter, and entirely independent on fortune.' Cit. of the World, i. p. 185. lifted axe] Some the sharp axe, and some the painful wheel.' 'The lifted axe.' v. Blackmore's K. Arthur, p. 220. When with her lifted are proud Martha stood.' 26 Luke's iron crown, and Damien's 27 bed of steel, To men remote from power but rarely known, Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own. 26 Luke's iron crown] This appears to be a mistake. Luke and George Zeck, brothers, were both engaged in a desperate rebellion in Hungary in 1514, and George suffered the torture of the red-hot crown of iron. See Nares' Glossary, art. Crown Iron, and Biblioth. Parriana, p. 519. Damien] For an account of the assassination of Louis XV. by Damien, see Anecdotes de la Cour de France pendant la faveur de Mad. de Pompadour, 1802, 8vo. p. 143–204. |