Hence all the good from opulence that springs,
With all thofe ills fuperfluous treasure brings,

Are here difplay'd. Their much lov❜d wealth imparts

Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts:
But view them closer, craft and fraud appear;
Ev'n liberty herself is barter'd here.

At gold's fuperior charms all freedom flies;
The needy fell it, and the rich man buys;
A land of tyrants, and a den of flaves;
Here wretches feek difhonourable graves,
And calmly bent, to fervitude conform,
Dull as their lakes that flumber in the storm.

Heavens! how unlike their Belgic fires of old!"
Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold:
War in each breast, and freedom on each brow,
How much unlike the fons of Britain now!

Fir'd at the found, my genius fpreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring; Where lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride, And brighter streams than fam'd Hydafpis glide. There all around the gentlest breezes stray, There gentle mufic melts on every spray : Creation's mildeft charms are there combin❜d, Extremes are only in the master's mind! Stern o'er each bofom reason holds her state, With daring aims irregularly great; Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I fee the lords of human kind pass by;

Intent

Intent on high defigns, a thoughtful band,
By forms unfashion'd, fresh from Nature's hand;
Fierce in their native hardiness of foul,

True to imagin'd right, above controul,

While ev'n the peasant boasts these rights to scan, And learns to venerate himfelf as man.

Thine, Freedom, thine the bleffings pictur'd here,
Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear;
Too bleft indeed, were fuch without alloy,
But foster'd ev'n by Freedom ills annoy ;
That independence Britons prize too high,
Keeps man from man and breaks the focial tie;
The felf-dependent lordlings ftand alone,

All claims that bind and fweeten life unknown;
Here by the bonds of Nature feebly held,
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd.
Ferments arife, imprison'd factions roar,
Repreft ambition ftruggles round the shore,
Till over wrought, the gen'ral fyftem feels
Its motions ftop, or phrenzy fire the wheels.

Nor this the worst. As Nature's ties decay,
As duty, love, and honour fail to fway,
Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law,
Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe.
Hence all obedience bows to these alone,
And talent finks, and merit weeps unknown;
Till time may come, when stript of all her charms,
The land of fcholars, and the nurse of arms,
Where noble stems tranfmit the patriot flame,
Where kings have toil'd, and poets wrote for fame,

One fink of level avarice fhall lie,
And scholars, foldiers, kings, unhonour'd die.

Yet think not, thus when Freedom's ills I ftate,
I mean to flatter kings, or court the great;
Ye pow'rs of Truth that bid my foul aspire,
Far from my bosom drive the low defire;
And thou, fair Freedom, taught alike to feel
The rabble's rage, and tyrant's angry
fteel;

Thou tranfitory flow'r, alike undone

By proud contempt, or favour's foft'ring fun,
Still may thy blooms the changeful clime endure,
I only would repress them to fecure:

For juft experience tells, in ev'ry foil,

That those who think must govern those that toil;
And all that Freedom's highest aims can reach,
Is but to lay proportion'd loads on each.
Hence, fhould one order difproportion'd grow,
Its double weight must ruin all below.

O then how blind to all that Truth requires,
Who think it Freedom when a part aspires!
Calm is my foul, nor apt to rife in arms,
Except when faft-approaching danger warms:
But when contending chiefs blockade the throne,
Contracting regal pow'r to ftretch their own ;
When I behold a factious band agree
To call it Freedom when themselves are free;
Each wanton judge new penal ftatutes draw,
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law;

The

The wealth of climes, where favage nations roam,
Pillag'd from flaves to purchase slaves at home;
Fear, pity, juftice, indignation ftart,
Tear off reserve, and bear my fwelling heart;
Till half a patriot, half a coward grown,
I fly from petty tyrants to the throne

Yes, brother, curfe with me that baleful hour,
When first ambition struck at regal pow'r;
And thus polluting honour in its fource,
Gave wealth to fway the mind with double force.
Have we not feen, round Britain's peopled fhore,
Her useful fons exchang'd for useless ore?
Seen all her triumphs but deftruction hafte,
Like ftaring tapers bright'ning as they wafte;
Seen opulence, her grandeur to maintain,
Lead ftern depopulation in her train,
And over fields where scatter'd hamlets rofe,
In barren, folitary pomp repofe?
Have we not seen at pleafure's lordly call,
The smiling, long-frequented village fall?
Behold the duteous fon, the fire decay'd,
The modeft matron, and the blufhing maid,
Forc'd from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the western main ;
Where wild Ofwego fpreads her fwamps around,
And Niagara stuns with thund'ring found.

Ev'n now, perhaps, as there fome pilgrim ftrays Thro' tangled forests and thro' dang’rous ways;

Where beafts with man divided empire claim,
And the brown Indian marks with murd'rous aim;
There, while above the giddy tempeft flies,
And all around diftrefsful yells arife,

The penfive exile, bending with his woe,
To stop too fearful, and too faint to go,
Cafts a long look where England's glories fhine,
And bids his bofom fmpathize with mine.

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That blifs which only centers in the mind :
Why have I ftray'd, from pleasure and repose,
To feek a good each government bestows?
In ev'ry 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 ourfelves in ev'ry place confign'd,

Our own felicity we make or find :

With fecret courfe, which no loud ftorms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel,
Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel,
To men remote from pow'r but rarely known,
Leave reason, faith, and confcience all our own.