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XXI.

ENGLAND! the time is come when thou shouldst wean
Thy heart from its emasculating food;

The truth should now be better understood;

Old things have been unsettled; we have seen

Fair seed-time, better harvest might have been

But for thy trespasses; and, at this day,

If for Greece, Egypt, India, Africa,

Aught good were destined, thou wouldst step between.
England! all nations in this charge agree :

But worse, more ignorant in love and hate,
Far-far more abject, is thine Enemy :

Therefore the wise pray for thee, though the freight
Of thy offences be a heavy weight :

Oh grief that Earth's best hopes rest all with Thee!

XXII.

OCTOBER, 1803.

WHEN, looking on the present face of things,
I see one Man, of men the meanest too;
Raised up to sway the world, to do, undo,
With mighty Nations for his underlings,
The great events with which old story rings
Seem vain and hollow; I find nothing great':
Nothing is left which I can venerate;

So that almost a doubt within me springs
Of Providence, such emptiness at length
Seems at the heart of all things. But, great God!
I measure back the steps which I have trod ;
And tremble, seeing whence proceeds the strength
Of such poor Instruments, with thoughts sublime
I tremble at the sorrow of the time.

XXIII.

TO THE MEN OF KENT. OCTOBER, 1803.

VANGUARD of Liberty, ye men of Kent,
Ye children of a Soil that doth advance

Her haughty brow against the coast of France,

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Now is the time to prove your hardiment !

To France be words of invitation sent!

: They from their fields can see the countenance

Of your fierce war, may ken the glittering lance.
And hear you shouting forth your brave intent.
Left single, in bold parley, ye of yore,

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Did from the Norman win a gallant wreath;
Confirmed the charters that were yours before ;~
No parleying now! In Britain is one breath ;
We all are with you now from shore to shore :-
Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death!

!

XXIV.

WHAT if our numbers barely could defy
The arithmetic of babes, must foreign hordes,
Slaves, vile as ever were befooled by words,
Striking through English breasts the anarchy
Of Terror, bear us to the ground, and tie

Our hands behind our backs with felon cords?
Yields

every thing to discipline of swords?

Is man as good as man, none low, none high ?➡

Nor discipline

The shock,

nor valour can withstand

nor quell the inevitable rout,

When in some great extremity breaks out
A people, on their own beloved Land,

Risen, like one man, to combat in the sight
Of a just God for liberty and right.

XXV.

Six thousand veterans practise in war's game,
Tried men, at Killieranky were arrayed
Against an equal host that wore the plaid, ·
Shepherds and herdsmen.—Like a whirlwind came
The Highlanders, the slaughter spread like flame;
And Garry, thundering down his mountain-road,
Was stopped, and could not breathe beneath the load
Of the dead bodies.—'Twas a day of shame
For them whom precept and the pedantry
Of cold mechanic battle do enslave.
O for a single hour of that Dundee,
Who on that day the word of onset gave!
Like conquest would the Men of England see ;
And her Foes find a like inglorious grave.