LIBERTY.

PART 111.

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HERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms,
That painted still whate'er the goddess sung.
Then I, impatient: "From extinguish'd Greece,
To what new region stream'd the human day?"
She softly sighing, as when Zephyr leaves,
Resign'd to Boreas, the declining year,
Resum'd: "Indignant, these last scenes I fled;
And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff,
And the Ceraunian hills behind me thrown,
All Latium stood arous'd. Ages before,
Great mother of republics! Greece had pour'd,
Swarm after swarm, her ardent youth around,
On Asia, Afric, Sicily, they stoop'd,
But chief on fair Hesperia's winding shore;
Where, from Lacinium to Ftrurian vales,
They roll'd increasing colonies along,
And lent materials for my Roman reign.
With them my spirit spread; and numerous states
And cities rose, on Grecian models form'd;
As its parental policy, and arts,

Each had imbib'd. Besides, to each assign'd
A guardian genius, o'er the public weal,

Kept an unclosing eye; try'd to sustain,
Or more sublime, the soul infus'd by me:
And strong the battle rose, with various wave,
Against the tyrant demons of the land.
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew ;
Their flows of fortune, and receding times,
But almost all below the proud regard
Of story vow'd to Rome, on deeds intent
That truth beyond the flight of fable bore.

"Not so the Samian sage; to him belongs The brightest witness of recording fame. For these free states his native isle forsook, And a vain tyrant's transitory smile, He sought Crotona's pure salubrious air, And through Great Greece his gentle wisdom taught;

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Wisdom that calm'd for listening years the mind,
Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal,
His mental eye first lanch'd into the deeps
Of boundless ether; where unnumber'd orbs,
Myriads on myriads, through the pathless sky
Unerring roll, and wind their steady way.
There he the full consenting choir beheld;
There first discern'd the secret band of love,
The kind attraction, that to central suns
Binds circling earths, and world with world unites.
Instructed thence, he great ideas form'd
Of the whole-moving, all-informing God,
The Sun of beings! beaming unconfin'd
Light, life, and love, and ever-active power:
Whom nought can image, and who best approves
The silent worship of the moral heart,
That joys in bounteous Heaven, and spreads the joy.
Nor scorn'd the soaring sage to stoop to life,
And bound his reason to the sphere of man.
He gave the four yet reigning virtues name,
Inspir'd the study of the finer arts,
That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd
Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd.

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Whatever shares the brotherhood of life!
He taught that life's indissoluble flame,
From brute to man, and man to brute again,
For ever shifting, runs th' eternal round;
Thence try'd against the blood-polluted meal,
And limbs yet quivering with some kindred soul,
To turn the human heart. Delightful truth!
Had he beheld the living chain ascend,
And not a circling form, but rising whole.
Amid these small republics one arose,
On yellow Tyber's bank, almighty Rome,
Fated for me. A nobler spirit warm'd
Her sons; and, rous'd by tyrants, nobler still
It burn'd in Brutus; the proud Tarquins chas'd,
With all their crimes; bade radiant eras rise,
And the long honours of the consul-line.

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Here, from the fairer, not the greater, plan Of Greece I vary'd; whose unmixing states, By the keen soul of emulation pierc'd, Long wag'd alone the bloodless war of arts, And their best empire gain'd. But to diffuse O'er men an empire was my purpose now: To let my martial majesty abroad; Into the vortex of one state to draw The whole mix'd force, and liberty, on Earth; To conquer tyrants, and set nations free.

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"Already have 1 given, with flying touch, A broken view of this my amplest reign. Now, while its first, last, periods you survey, Mark how it labouring rose, and rapid fell. "When Rome in noon-tide empire grasp'd the

world,

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And, soon as her resistless legions shone,
The nations stoop'd around; though then appear'd
Her grandeur most, yet in her dawn of power,
By many a jealous equal people press'd,
Then was the toil, the mighty struggle then;
Then for each Roman I an hero told;
And every passing sun, and Latian scene,
Saw patriot virtues then, and awful deeds,
That or surpass the faith of modern times,
Or, if believ'd, with sacred horrour strike.
"For then, to prove my most exalted power,
I to the point of full perfection push'd,
To fondness or enthusiastic zeal,
The great, the reigning passion of the free.
That godlike passion! which, the bounds of self
Divinely bursting, the whole public takes
Into the heart, enlarg'd, and burning high
With the mix'd ardour of unnumber'd selves;
Of all who safe beneath the voted laws
Of the same parent state, fraternal, live.
From this kind sun of moral nature flow'd
Virtues, that shine the light of human kind,
And, ray'd through story, warm remotest time.
These virtues too, reflected to their source,
Increas'd its flame. The social charm went round,
The fair idea, more attractive still,

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As more by virtue mark'd: till Romans, all 120 One band of friends, unconquerable grew. [voice,

"Hence, when their country rais'd her plaintive The voice of pleading Nature was not heard; And in their hearts the fathers throbb'd no more: Stern to themselves, but gentle to the whole. Hence sweeten'd pain, the luxury of toil; Patience, that baffled Fortune's utmost rage; High-minded Hope, which at the lowest ebb, When Brennus conquer'd, and when Cannæ bled, The bravest impulse felt, and scorn'd despair. 150

Hence Moderation a new conquest gain'd;
As on the vanquish'd, like descending Heaven,
Their dewy mercy dropp'd, their bounty beam'd,
And by the labouring hand were crowns bestow'd.
Fruitful of men, hence hard laborious life,
Which no fatigue can quell, no season pierce.
Hence, Independence, with his little pleas'd,
Serene, and self-sufficient, like a god;

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In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm, While he his honest roots to gold preferr'd ; While truly rich, and by his Sabine field, The man maintain'd, the Roman's splendour all Was in the public wealth and glory plac'd: Or ready, a rough swain, to guide the plough; Or else, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown, In long majestic flow, to rule the state, With Wisdom's purest eye; or, clad in steel, To drive the steady battle on the foe. Hence every passion, ev'n the proudest, stoop'd, To common good: Camillus, thy revenge; Thy glory, Fabius. All submissive hence, Consuls, dictators, still resign'd their rule, The very moment that the laws ordain'd. Though Conquest o'er them clapp'd her eagle-wings, Her laurels wreath'd, and yok'd her snowy steeds To the triumphal car; soon as expir'd The latest hour of sway, taught to submit (A harder lesson that than to command) Into the private Roman sunk the chief. If Rome was serv'd, and glorious, careless they By whom. Their country's fame they deem'd their And, above envy, in a rival's train, [own; Sung the loud lös by themselves deserv'd. Hence matchless courage. On Cremera's bank, Hence fell the Fabii; hence the Decii dy'd; And Curtius plung'd into the flaming gulf. Hence Regulus the wavering fathers firm'd, By dreadful counsel never given before, For Roman honour sued, and his own doom. Hence he sustain'd to dare a death prepar'd By Punic rage. On earth his manly look Relentless fix'd, he from a last embrace, By chains polluted, put his wife aside, His little children climbing for a kiss; Then dumb through rows of weeping wondering A new illustrious exile! press'd along. Nor less impatient did he pierce the crowds Opposing his return, than if, escap'd From long litigious suits, he glad forsook The noisy town a while, and city cloud, To breath Venafrian, or Tarentine air. Need I these high particulars recount? The meanest bosom felt a thirst for fame; Flight their worst death, and shame their only fear. Life had no charms, nor any terrours fate, When Rome and glory call'd. But, in one view, Mark the rare boast of these unequal'd times. Ages revolv'd unsully'd by a crime: Astrea reign'd, and scarcely needed laws To bind a race elated with the pride Of virtue, and disdaining to descend To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs. While war around them rag'd, in happy Rome All peaceful smil'd, all save the passing clouds That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow! And fair unblemish'd centuries elaps'd, When not a Roman bled but in the field. Their virtue such, that an unbalanc'd state, Still between noble and plebeian tost, As flow'd the wave of fluctuating power,

Was thence kept firm, and with triumphant prow Rode out the storms. Oft though the native feuds, That from the first their constitution shook,

(A latent ruin, growing as it grew)

Stood on the threatening point of civil war
Ready to rush: yet could the lenient voice
Of wisdom, soothing the tumultuous soul,
Those sons of virtue calm. Their generous hearts,
Unpetrify'd by self, so naked lay,

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And sensible to truth, that o'er the rage
Of giddy faction, by oppression swell'd,
Prevail'd a simple fable, and at once
To peace recover'd the divided state.
But if their often-cheated hopes refus'd
The soothing touch; still, in the love of Rome,
The dread dictator found a sure resource.
Was she assaulted? was her glory stain'd?
One common quarrel wide-inflam'd the whole.
Foes in the forum in the field were friends,
By social danger bound; each fond for each, 220
And for their dearest country all, to die,

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"Thus up the hill of empire slow they toil'd: Till, the bold summit gain'd, the thousand states Of proud Italia blended into one; Then o'er the nations they resistless rush'd, And touch'd the limits of the failing world. "Let Fancy's eye the distant lines unite. See that which borders wild the western main, Where storms at large resound, and tides immense : From Caledonia's din cerulean coast, And moist Hibernia, to where Atlas, lodg'd Amid the restless clouds, and leaning heaven, Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name. Mark that oppos'd, where first the springing Morn Her roses sheds, and shakes around her dews: From the dire deserts by the Caspian lav'd, To where the Tigris and Euphrates, join'd, Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain; And blest Arabia aromatic breathes.

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[friends,

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mouth'd,

In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roars;
To where the frozen Tanaïs scarcely stirs
The dead Meotic pool, or the long Rha,
In the black Scythian sea his torrent throws.
Last, that beneath the burning zone behold.
See where it runs, from the deep-loaded plaias
Of Mauritania to the Libyan sands,
Where Ammon lifts amid the torrid waste
A verdant isle, with shade and fountain fresh;
And farther to the full Egyptian shore,
To where the Nile from Ethiopian clouds,
His never-drain'd ethereal urn, descends.

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In this vast space what various tongues, and states! What bounding rocks, and mountains, floods and seas!

[divine,

From many a thousand hearts ecstatic sprung.
On every hand rebellow'd to their joy
The swelling sea, the rocks, and vocal hills:
Through all her turrets stately Corinth shook;
And, from the void above of shatter'd air,
The flitting bird fell breathless to the ground. 290
What piercing bliss! how keen a sense of faine,
Did then, Flaminius, reach thy inmost soul!
And with what deep-felt glory didst thou then
Escape the fondness of transport d Greece!
Mix'd in a tempest of superior joy,
They left the sports; like Bacchanals they flew,
Each other straining in a strict embrace,
Nor strain'd a slave; and loud acclaims till night
Round the proconsul's tent repeated rung.
Then, crown'd with garlands, came the festive
Hours;

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And music, sparkling wine, and converse warm, Their raptures wak'd anew.-Ye gods!' they cry'd,

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'Ye guardian gods of Greece! And are we free? Was it not madness deem'd the very thought? And is it true? How did we purchase chains? At what a dire expense of kindred blood? And are they now dissolv'd? And scarce one drop For the fair first of blessings have we paid? Courage, and conduct, in the doubtful field, When rages wide the storm of mingling war, Are rare indeed; but how to generous ends To turn success, and conquest, rarer still: That the great gods and Romans only know. Lives there on Earth, almost to Greece unknown, A people so magnanimous, to quit Their native soil, traverse the stormy deep, And by their blood and treasure, spent for us, Redeem our states, our liberties, and laws! There does! there does! oh, saviour Titus! Rome!' Thus through the happy night they pour'd their And in my last reflected beams rejoic'd. [sonls, As when the shepherd, on the mountain brow,322 Sits piping to his flocks, and gamesome kids; Meantime the Sun, beneath the green Earth sunk, Slants upward o'er the scene a parting gleam: Short is the glory that the mountain gilds, Plays on the glittering flocks, and glads the swain; To western worlds irrevocable roll'd, Rapid, the source of light recalls his ray.' Here interposing I." Oh, queen of men! 330 Beneath whose sceptre in essential rights Equal they live; though plac'd, for common good, Various, or in subjection, or command;

And that by common choice: alas! the scene, With virtus, freedom, and with glory bright,

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Streams into blood, and darkens into woe."
Thus she pursued.-" Near this great era, Rome
Began to feel the swift approach of fate,
That now her vitals gain'd; still more and more
Her deep divisions kindling into rage,
And war with chains and desolation charg'd.
From an unequal balance of her sons
These fierce contentions sprung; and, as increas'd
This hated inequality, more fierce

They flam'd to tumult. Independence fail'd;
Here by luxurious wants, by real there;
And with this virtue every virtue sunk,
As, with the sliding rock, the pile sustain'd.
A last attempt, too late, the Gracchi made,
To fix the flying scale, and poise the state.
On one side swell'd aristocratic pride;
With Usury, the villain! whose fell gripe
Bends by degrees to baseness the free soul;
And Luxury rapacious, cruel, mean,
Mother of vice! while on the other crept
A populace in want, with pleasure fir'd;
Fit for proscriptions, for the darkest deeds,
As the proud feeder bade: inconstant, blind,
Deserting friends at need, and dup'd by foes;
Loud and seditious, when a chief inspir'd
Their headlong fury, but, of him depriv'd,
Already slaves that lick'd the scourging hand.

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This firm republic, that against the blast Of opposition rose; that (like an oak, Nurs'd on feracious Algidum, whose boughs Still stronger shoot beneath the rigid axe) By loss, by slaughter, from the steel itself, Ev'n force and spirit drew; smit with the calm, The dead serene of prosperous fortune, pin'd. Nought now her weighty legions could oppose ;370 Her terrour once on Afric's tawny shore, Now smok'd in dust, a stabling now for wolves; And every dreaded power receiv'd the yoke. Besides, destructive, from the conquer'd, east, In the soft plunder came that worst of plagues, That pestilence of mind, a fever'd thirst For the false joys which luxury prepares. Unworthy joys! that wasteful leave behind No mark of honour, in reflecting hour, No secret ray to glad the conscious soul; At once involving in one ruin wealth, And wealth-acquiring powers: while stupid self, Of narrow gust, and hebetating sense Devour the nobler faculties of bliss. Hence Roman virtue slacken'd into sloth; Security relax'd the softening state; And the broad eye of government lay clos'd; No more the laws inviolable reign'd, And public weal no more: but party rag'd; And partial power, and licence unrestrain'd, 590 Let discord through the deathful city loose. First, mild Tiberius, on thy sacred head The fury's vengeance fell; the first, whose blood Had since the consuls stain'd contending Rome. Of precedent pernicious! with thee bled Three hundred Romans; with thy brother, next, Three thousand more; till, into battles turn'd Debates of peace, and forc'd the trembling laws, The forum and comitia horrid grew, A sceffe of barter'd power, or recking gore. When, half-asham'd, Corruption's thievish arts, And ruffian force began to sap the mounds And majesty of laws; if not in time Repress'd severe, for human aid too strong The torrent turns, and overbears the whole.

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Nought but its pride and fierceness yet appear'd. Then was the night of time, that parted worlds. I quitted Earth the while. As when the tribes

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Aerial, warn'd of rising winter, ride
Autumnal winds, to warmer climates borne;
So, arts and each good genius in my train,
I cut the closing gloom, and soar'd to Heaven.
"In the bright regions there of purest day,
Far other scenes, and palaces, arise,
Adorn'd profuse with other arts divine.
All beauty here below, to them compar'd,
Would, like a rose before the mid-day Sun,
Shrink up its blossom; like a bubble, break
The passing poor magnificence of kings.
For there the King of Nature, in full blaze,
Calls every splendour forth; and there his court
Amid ethereal powers, and virtues, holds:
Angel, archangel, tutelary gods,

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Of cities, natious, empires, and of worlds.
But sacred be the veil, that kindly clouds
A light too keen for mortals: wraps a view
Too softening fair, for those that here in dust
Must cheerful toil out their appointed years.
A sense of higher life would only damp
The school-boy's task, and spoil his playful hours.
Nor could the child of reason, feeble man,
With vigour through this infant being drudge;
Did brighter worlds, their unimagin'd bliss
Disclosing, dazzle and dissolve his mind."

NOTES ON PART III.

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Ver. 7. The last struggles of liberty in Greece.
Ver. 15. A promontory in Calabria.
Ver. 32. Pythagoras.

Ver. 34. Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant Polycrates.

Ver. 37. The southern parts of Italy, and Sicily, so called because of the Grecian colonies there settled.

Ver. 38. His scholars were enjoined silence for five years.

Ver. 57. The four cardinal virtues.

Ver. 244. The ancient name of the Volga.

Ver. 245. The Caspian sea.

Ver. 264. The king of Macedonia.

Ver. 286. The Isthmian games were celebrated at Corinth.

Ver. 369. Carthage.

Ver. 390. Tib. Gracchus.

Ver. 465. Pub. Servilius Rullus, tribune of the people, proposed an Agrarian Law, in appearance very advantageous for the people, but destructive of their liberty; and which was defeated by the eloquence of Cicero, in his speech against Rullus. Ver. 489. Tiberius.

Ver. 496. Thrasea Pætus, put to death by Nero. Tacitus introduces the account he gives of his death thus." After having inhumanly slaughtered so many illustrious men, he (Nero) burned at last with a desire of cutting off virtue itself in the person of Thrasea, &c."

Ver. 505. Antoninus Pius, and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, afterwards called Antoninus Philosophus.

Ver. 511. Constantine's arch, to build which, that of Trajan was destroyed, sculpture having been then almost entirely lost.

Ver. 515. The ancient Sarmatia contained a vast tract of country running all along the north of Europe, and Asia,

BRITAIN:

BEING THE FOURTH PART OF

LIBERTY,

A POEM.

THE CONTENTS OF PART IV.

DIFFERENCE betwixt the ancients and moderns slightly touched upon, to ver. 30. Description of the dark ages. The goddess of Liberty, who during these is supposed to have left Earth, returns, attended with Arts and Science, to ver. 100. She first descends on Italy. Sculpture,

Painting, and Architecture fix at Rome, to revive their several arts by the great models of antiquity there, which many barbarous invasions had not been able to destroy. The revival of these arts marked out. That sometimes arts may flourish for a while under despotic governments, though never the natural and genuine production of them, to ver. 254. Learning begins to dawn. The Muse and Science attend Liberty, who in her progress towards Great Britain raises several free states and cities. These enumerated, to ver. 381. Author's exclamation of joy, upon seeing the British seas and coasts rise in the vision, which painted whatever the goddess of Liberty said. She resumes her narration. The Genius of the Deep appears, and, addressing Liberty, associates Great Britain into his domi nion, to ver. 451. Liberty received and congratulated by Britannia, and the native Genii or Virtues of the island. These described. Animated by the presence of Liberty, they begin their operations. Their beneficent influence contrasted with the works and delusions of opposing demons, to ver. 626. Concludes with an abstract of the English history, marking the several advances of Liberty, down to her complete establishment at the Revolution.

[depth

To this the power, whose vital radiance calls From the brute mass of man an order'd world: "Wait till the morning shines, and from the Of Gothic darkness springs another day. True genius droops; the tender ancient taste Of beauty, then fresh-blooming in her prime, But faintly trembles through the callous soul, And grandeur, or of morals, or of life, Sinks into safe pursuits, and creeping cares. Ev'n cautious virtue seems to stoop her flight, 20 And aged life to deem the generous deeds Of youth romantic. Yet in cooler thought Well-reason'd, in researches piercing deep Through Nature's works, in profitable arts, And all that calm experience can diselose, (Slow guide, but sure) behold the world anew