These move the cenfure and illib'ral grin
Of fools that hate thee and delight in fin:
But these shall last when night has quench'd the pole,
And heav'n is all departed as a fcroll:
And when, as juftice has long fince decreed,
This earth fhall blaze, and a new world fucceed,
Then these thy glorious works, and they who share
That hope which can alone exclude despair,
Shall live exempt from weakness and decay,
The brightest wonders of an endless day.
Happy the bard, (if that fair name belong
To him that blends no fable with his fong)
Whofe lines, uniting, by an honest art,
The faithful monitor's and poet's part,
Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind,
And, while they captivate, inform the mind :
Still happier, if he till a thankful foil,
And fruit reward his honourable toil :
But happier far, who comfort those that wait
To hear plain truth at Judah's hallow'd gate.
Their language fimple, as their manners meek,
No fhining ornaments have they to feek;
Nor labour they, nor time, nor talents, waste,
In forting flow'rs to fuit a fickle tafte;
But, while they speak the wifdom of the fkies,
Which art can only darken and difguife,
Th' abundant harveft, recompense divine,
Repays their work—the gleaning only mine.
Qua nihil majus meliufve terris
Fata donavere, boniq; divi,
Nec dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum
Tempora prifcuт.
HOR. Lib. IV. Ode 2.
FAIREST and foremost of the train, that wait
On man's moft dignified and happiest state,
Whether we name thee Charity or love,
Chief grace below, and all in all above,
Profper (I prefs thee with a pow'rful plea)
A task I venture on, impell'd by thee:
Oh, never seen but in thy bleft effects,
Or felt but in the foul that heav'n felects;
Who feeks to praise thee, and to make thee known
To other hearts, must have thee in his own.
Come, prompt me with benevolent defires,
Teach me to kindle at thy gentle fires,
And, though difgrac'd and flighted, to redeem
A poet's name, by making thee the theme.
God, working ever on a focial plan,
By various ties attaches man to man:
He made at first, though free and unconfin'd,
One man the common father of the kind;
That ev'ry tribe, though placed as he sees beft,
Where feas or deferts part them from the reft,
Diff'ring in language, manners, or in face,
Might feel themselves allied to all the race.
When Cook-lamented, and with tears as juft
As ever mingled with heroic duft—
Steer'd Britain's oak into a world unknown,
And in his country's glory fought his own,
Wherever he found man, to nature true,
The rights of man were facred in his view.
He footh'd with gifts, and greeted with a fmile,
The fimple native of the new-found ifle;
He fpurn'd the wretch that flighted or withftood
The tender argument of kindred blood,
His free-born brethren of the fouthern pole. But, though fome nobler minds a law refpect, That none shall with impunity neglect,
In bafer fouls unnumber'd evils meet,
To thwart its influence, and its end defeat.
While Cook is lov'd for favage lives he fav'd,
See Cortez odious for a world enflav'd!
Where waft thou then, fweet Charity? where then,
Thou tutelary friend of helpless men?
Waft thou in monkish cells and nunn'ries found,
Or building hospitals on English ground?
No.-Mammon makes the world his legatee
Through fear, not love; and heav'n abhors the fee.
Wherever found, (and all men need thy care)
Nor age nor infancy could find thee there.
The hand that flew, till it could flay no more,
Was glu'd to the fword-hilt with Indian gore.
Their prince, as juftly feated on his throne.
As vain imperial Philip on his own,
Trick'd out of all his royalty by art,
That stripp'd him bare, and broke his honeft heart, Died, by the sentence of a fhaven priest,
For fcorning what they taught him to deteft.
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