The antient Britons are a hardy race,
Averse to luxury and slothful ease;
Their necks beneath a foreign yoke ne'er bow'd,
In war unconquer'd, and of freedom proud;
With minds resolv'd they lasting toils endure,
Unmix'd their language, and their manners pure,
Wisely. does nature such an offspring choose,
Brave to defend her wealth, and slow to use.
Where thirst of empire ne'er inflames their veins,
Nor avarice, nor wild ambition reigns:
But, low in mines, they constant toils renew,
And thro' the earth their branching veins pursue,
As when some navy on th' Iberian coast, Chas'd by the winds, is in the ocean lost; To Neptune's realms a new supply it brings, The strength design'd of European kings: Contending divers would the wreck regain, And make reprisals on the grasping main; 60 Wild in pursuit they are endanger'd more, Than when they combated the storms before. The miner thus thro' perils digs his way, Equal to theirs, and deeper than the sea; Drawing, in pestilential steams, his breath, Resolv'd to conquer, tho' he combats death, Night's gloomy realms his pointed steel invades, The courts of Pluto, and infernal shades: He cuts thro' mountains, subterraneous lakes, Plying his work, each nervous stroke he takes Loosens the earth, and the whole cavern shakes.
Thus, with his brawny arms, the Cyclops stands,
To form Jove's lightning with uplifted hands;
The ponderous hammer with a force descends,
Loud as the thunder which his art intends;
And, as he strikes, with each resistless blow
The anvil yields, and Aetna groans below.
Thy fam'd inventions, Mackworth, most adorn
'The miner's art, and make the best return:
Thy speedy sails, and useful engines, show
A genius richer than the mines below.
Thousands of slaves unskill'd Peru maintains;
The hands that labor still exhaust the gains:
The winds, thy slaves, their useful succour join,
Convey thy ore, and labor at thy mine;
Instructed by thy arts, a power they find
To vanquish realms, where once they lay confin'd.
Downward, my Muse, direct thy steepy flight, Where smiling shades, and bounteous realms invite; I first of British bards invoke thee down,
-go. And first with wealth thy graceful temples crown, Thro' dark retreats pursue the winding ore,
Search nature's depths, and view her boundless store; The secret cause in tuneful measures sing,
How metals first are fram'd, and whence they spring.
Whether the active sun, with chymic flames,
Thro' porous earth transmits his genial beams;
With heat impregnating the womb of night,
The offspring shines with its paternal light:
On Britain's isle propitiously he shines,
With joy descends, and labors in her mines.
Or whether, urg'd by subterraneous flames,
The earth ferments, and flows in liquid streams;
Purg'd from their dross, the nobler parts refine,
Receive new forms, and with fresh beauties shine.
Thus fluid parts, unknowing how to burn,
With cold congeal'd, to solid metals turn:
For metals only from devouring flame
Preserve their beauty, and return the same;
Both art and force the well-wrought mass disdains,
And 'midst the fire its native form retains.
Or whether by creation first they sprung,
When yet unpois'd the world's great fabric hung:
Metals the basis of the earth were made,
The bars on which its fix'd foundation's laid
All second causes they disdain to own,
And from th' Almighty's Fiat sprung alone.
Nature in specious beds preserves her store, And keeps unmix'd the well-compacted ore; The spreading root a numerous race maintains Of branching limbs, and far-extended veins : Thus, from its watery store, a spring supplies The lesser streams that round its fountain rise Which bounding out in fair meanders play, And o'er the meads in different currents stray.
Methinks I see the rounded metal spread, To be ennobled with our monarch's head:
About the globe th' admired coin shall run,
And make the circle of its parent sun.
How are thy realms, triumphant Britain, blest!/30`
Enrich'd with more than all the distant west!
Thy sons, no more betray'd with hopes of gain,
Shall tempt the dangers of a faithless main,
Traffic no more abroad for foreign spoil,
Supplied with richer from their native soil,
To Dovey's flood shall numerous traders come,
Employ'd to fetch the British bullion home,
To pay their tributes to its bounteous shore,
Returning laden with the Cambrian ore.
Her absent fleet Potosi's race shall mourn, 140
And wish in vain to see our sails return;
Like misers heaping up their useless store,
Starv'd with their wealth, amidst their riches poor.
Where-e'er the British banners are display'd,
The suppliant nations shall implore our aid:
Till thus compell'd, the greater worlds confess
Themselves oblig'd, and succour'd by the less.
How Cambria's mines were to her offspring known, Thus sacred verse transmits the story down:
Merlin, a bard of the inspired train,
With mystic numbers charm'd the British plain;
Belov'd by Phoebus, and the tuneful nine,
His song was sacred, and his art divine:
As on Sabrina's fruitful banks he stood,
His wonderous verse restrain'd the listening flood;
The stream's bright Goddess rais'd her awful head,
And to her cave the artful shepherd led.
Her swift-decending steps the youth pursues,
And rich in ore the spacious mountain views.
In beds distinct the well-rang'd metals lay,
Dispersing rays, and counterfeiting day.
The silver, shedding beams of orient light,
Struck with too fierce a glare his aking sight;
Like rising flames the ruddy copper show'd,
And spread its blushes o'er the dark abode : _bo
Profuse of rays, and with unrivall'd beams,
The liquid silver flow'd in restless streams :
Nor India's sparkling gems are half so bright,
Nor waves above, that shine with heavenly light;
When thus the Goddess spake; harmonious Youth,
Rever'd for numbers fraught with sacred truth!
Belov'd by heaven! attend while I relate
The fix'd decree, and dark events of fate.
Conceal'd these treasures lie in nature's womb,
For future times, and ages yet to come.
When many long revolving years are run,
A hero shall ascend the British throne,
Whose numerous triumphs shall Augusta grace,
In arms renown'd, ador'd for plenteous peace.
Beneath his sway a generous youth shall rise,
With virtues blest, in happy councils wise;
Rich with the spoils of learning's various store,
Commanding arts, yet still acquiring more.
He, with success, shall enter this abode,
And nature trace in paths before untrod ;
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