But now the fair rivers of Paradise wind Through countries and kingdoms o'erthrown: Despoiling, destroying its charms; Beneath his broad footstep the Ganges is dry, Thus the pestilent Upas, the Demon of trees, The birds on the wing, and the flowers in their beds, That darkens the noonday with death; And pale ghosts of travellers wander around, While their mouldering skeletons whiten the ground. Ah! why hath JEHOVAH, in forming the world, His ramparts of rocks round the continent hurl'd, If man may transgress his eternal command, And violate nations and realms that should be There are, gloomy OCEAN! a brotherless clan, The poor disinherited outcasts of man, Whom Avarice coins into slaves: From the homes of their kindred, their forefathers' graves, Love, friendship, and conjugal bliss, They are dragg'd on the hoary abyss; The shark hears their shrieks, and, ascending to day, Demands of the spoiler his share of the prey. Then joy to the tempest that whelms them beneath, Where the vultures and vampires of Mammon resort; Where Europe exultingly drains The life-blood from Africa's veins; Where man rules o'er man with a merciless rod, The hour is approaching,-a terrible hour! And the rock-rending whirlwinds blow: In a moment entomb'd in the horrible void, Shall this be the fate of the cane-planted isles, When the sun o'er the ocean descending in smiles -NO!-Father of mercy! befriend the opprest; peace May the sorrows of Africa cease; And the slave and his master devoutly unite As homeward my weary-wing'd Fancy extends And turns upon Europe her eyes; Ah me! what new prospects, new horrors arise! * Alluding to the glorious success of the Moravian Missionaries among the Negroes in the West Indies. I see the war-tempested flood All foaming, and panting with blood; The panic-struck OCEAN in agony roars, Rebounds from the battle, and flies to his shores; For BRITANNIA is wielding the trident to-day, Consuming her foes in her ire, And hurling the thunder of absolute sway -She triumphs;-the winds and the waters conspire To spread her invincible name; -The universe rings with her fame; -But the cries of the fatherless mix with her praise, O Britain! dear Britain! the land of my birth; Thou Pearl of the Ocean! Thou Gem of the Earth! For wealth is a phantom, and empire a snare: O let not thy birthright be sold For reprobate glory and gold! Thy distant dominions like wild graftings shoot, They weigh down thy trunk-they will tear up thy root: The root of thine OAK, O my country! that stands Rock-planted, and flourishing free; Its branches are stretch'd o'er the uttermost lands, The blood of our ancestors nourish'd the tree; Their spirit dwells in it :—and, hark! for it spoke ; *While the author was meditating these stanzas, in sight of the ocean from the northern cliffs, intelligence arrived of the naval victory of Sir Robert Calder, over the French and Spanish fleets off the western coast of Spain. "Ye Britons, who dwell where we conquer'd of old, Though poor were your fathers,-gigantic and bold, But firm as our rocks, and as free as our waves, We never stoop'd under their yoke; In the shipwreck of nations we stood up alone,- "For ages and ages, with barbarous foes, The Saxon, Norwegian, and Gaul, We wrestled, were foil'd, were cast down, but we rose By all we were conquer'd :—we conquer'd them all! -The cruel, the cannibal mind, We soften'd, subdued, and refined: Bears, wolves, and sea monsters, they rush'd from their den; We taught them, we tamed them, we turn'd them to men. "Love led the wild hordes in his flower-woven bands, The tenderest, strongest of chains : Love married our hearts, he united our hands, And mingled the blood in our veins; One race we became :-on the mountains and plains The unquenchable Altar of Liberty blazed, And the Temple of Justice in Mercy was raised. 66 Ark, Altar, and Temple, we left with our breath! O guard them, O keep them, in life and in death! And your spirits with ours be in Paradise blest: And Avarice, the soul of a slave, No longer seduce your affections to roam From Liberty, Justice, Religion, AT HOME.” THE COMMON LOT. A Birthday Meditation, during a solitary winter walk, of seven miles, between a village in Derbyshire and Sheffield, when the ground was covered with snow, the sky serene, and the morning air intensely pure. ONCE in the flight of ages past, There lived a man:-and WHO was HE? -Mortal! howe'er thy lot be cast, That Man resembled Thee. Unknown the region of his birth, The land in which he died unknown: That joy and grief, and hope and fear, The bounding pulse, the languid limb, He suffer'd, but his pangs are o'er ; And foes,-his foes are dead. He loved, but whom he loved, the grave He saw whatever thou hast seen; |