THE PRElude. The proposition. An address to the vessel that brought over the king. Who should sing on this occasion. A Pindaric boast. FAST by the surge my limbs are spread, The naval oak nods o'er my head; The winds are loud; the waves tumultuous roll; Ye winds! indulge your rage no more; Ye sounding billows! cease to roar; The god descends; and transports warm my soul. The waves are hush'd; the winds are spent!This kingdom, from the kingdoms rent, I celebrate in song-Fam'd Isle! no less, By Nature's favour, from mankind, Than by the foaming sea, disjoin'd; Alone in bliss! an isle, in happiness! Though fate and time have damp'd my strains, Though youth no longer fires my veins, Though slow their streams in this cold climate run; The royal eye dispels my cares, Recals the warmth of blooming years, Returning George supplies the distant Sun. Away, my soul! salute the Pine', Salute the bark that ne'er shall hold My soul! to thee, she spreads her sails; O send her down the tide of time, Snatch'd from oblivion, and secure from storm. Or teach this flag, like that to soar, The sea she scorns; and, now, shall bound I am her pilot, and her port the skies! Dare you to sing, ye tinkling train? Who shackle prose, and boast of absent gods ; Who murder thought, and numbers maim, Ye lawful sons of genius, rise! Ye founts of learning! and ye mints of fame! And drink pure song from Cam's or Isis' stream. The vessel that brought over the king. STRAIN THE FIRST. THE ARGUMENT. How the king attended. A prospect of happiness. Industry. A surprising instance of it in old Rome. The mischief of sloth. What happiness is. Sloth its greatest enemy. Trade natural to Britain. Trade invoked. Described. What the greatest human excellence. The praise of wealth. Its use, abuse, end. The variety of Nature. The final mo. ral cause of it. The benefit of man's necessities. Britain's naval stores. She makes all Nature serviceable to her ends. Of reason. Its excellence. How we should form our estimate of things. Rea. son's difficult task. Why the first glory hers. Her effects in old Britain. "OUR monarch comes! nor comes alone!" What shining forms surround his throne, O Sun! as planets thee !-To my loud strain See Peace, by Wisdom led, advance; The Grace, the Muse, the Season, Dance; And Plenty spreads behind her flowing train! "Our monarch comes! nor comes alone:" New glories kindle round his throne, The visions rise! I triumph as I gaze: By Pindar led, I turn'd of late | All Jove can give, the naval oak bestows. "Fell all your groves," a Flamen cries; Cankers our being, all devours; Where, Industry! thy daughter fair? Here, was Trade born, here bred, here flourish'd long; What though she languish'd? 'twas but fear, Wake, sting her up. Trade! lean no more And, see, she's rous'd, absolv'd from fears, Religion, habit, custom, tongue, and name; Again, she travels with the Sun, Again, she draws a golden zone [fame! Round Earth and main; bright zone of wealth and Ten thousand active hands, that hung In shameful sloth with nerves unstrung, The nation's languid load, defy the storms, The sheets unfurl, and anchors weigh, The long-moor'd vessel wing to sea, Worlds, worlds salute, and peopled Ocean swarms. His sons, Po, Ganges, Danube, Nile, Their urns inverted prodigally pour Streams, charg'd with wealth, and vow to buy Happy the man! who, large of heart, Of being rich: stores starve us, or they cloy; 'Tis hard to gain, much harder to enjoy. Plenty's a means, and joy her end: When humbler scenes resign their light, Pregnant with blessings, Britain! swear Offend the donor of thy wealth and peace; That blood of nations! commerce and increase. Here nodding floats the golden plain; There, worms weave silken webs; here, glowing vines And kings' revenues ripen in the mines. What's various Nature? Art divine Heaven different growths to different lands imparts, With climes paid down; what can the gods do more? A net to catch and join all human hearts. Cold Russia costly furs from far, France generous wines to crown it, Arab sweet With gales of incense swells our sails, Her richest ore the ballast of our fleet. Luxuriant isle! What tide that flows, All these one British harvest make! Both sinks and swells: his arms thy bosom wrap, And fondly give, in boundless dower, Commerce brings riches, riches crown When hearts for others' welfare glow, Glow then, my breast! abound, my store! All blessings wound us, when discretion's lost. Wealth, in the virtuous and the wise, Thus has the great Creator's pen E'en appetite supplies the place Huge mountains rise, of cable, anchor, mast! Sees here, by subjects of a British king: How Earth's abridg'd! all nations range In size confin'd, and humbly made, Thou golden chain 'twixt God and men, The man of reason is a god Who scorns to stoop to fortune's nod ; Sole agent he beneath the shining sphere, Others are passive, are impell'd, Are frighten'd, flatter'd, sunk, or swell'd, As accident is pleas'd to domineer. ; Our hopes and fears are much to blame Shall monarchs awe? or crowns inflame? From gross mistake our idle tumult springs; Those men the silly world disarm, Elude the dart, dissolve the charm, The present object, present day, Life, fame, friends, freedom, empire, all, How foreign these, though most in view! How great the toil! 'Twill cost more pains, To vanquish folly, than reduce a state. Hence, Reason! the first palm is thine, Old Britain learnt from thee to shine. [smile, By thee, trade's swarming throng, gay freedom's Armies, in war of fatal frown, Of peace the pride, arts flowing down, Enrich, exalt, defend, instruct our isle. STRAIN THE SECOND. THE ARGUMENT. Arts from commerce. Why Britons should pursue it. What wealth includes. An historical digression which kind is most frequent in Pindar. The wealth and wonderful glory of Tyre, The approach of her ruin. The cause of it. Her crimes through all ranks and orders. Her miserable fall. The neighbouring kings' just reflection on it. An awful image of the divine power and vengeance. From what Tyre fell, and how deep her calamity. COMMERCE gives arts, as well as gain; Commerce gives learning, virtue, gold! And awes with wealth; for wealth is power: She sate an empress! aw'd the flood! She call'd the nations, and she call'd the seas, The fir of Senir makes her floor, The world's last limit bounds her fame; And rich as Nile's, let others boast; O merchant land! as Eden fair! Great mart of nations !—But she fell : The tempest bowls! her sculptur'd dome She's on her march from yon Almighty throne: She trumpets shrill her dread command: Dark be the light of Earth! the boast, unknown ! For, oh her sins as red as blood, As crimson deep, outcry the flood; The queen of trade is bought! once wise and just, Now, venal is her council's tongue : How riot, violence, and wrong, Turn gold to dross, her blossom into dust! To things inglorious, far beneath Those high-born souls they proudly breathe, What burning feuds 'twixt brothers reign! Her merchant sage, big man of war, Whose brow with wisdom should be crown'd, What death of truth! what thirst of gold! Chiefs warm in peace, in battle cold! What youth unletter'd! base ones lifted high! What public boasts! what private views! What desert temples! crowded stews! What women!-practis'd but to roll an eye! O foul of heart, her fairest dames Decline the Sun's intruding beams, To mad the midnight in their gloomy haunts: Alas! there is, who sees them there; There is, who flatters not the fair, When cymbals tinkle, and the virgin chants. He sees, and thunders !-Now, in vain! The courser paws, and foams the rein; And chariots stream along the printed soil: In vain! Her high, presumptuous air "Ah! wretched isle, once call'd the great! "To scourge with war, or peace bestow, 'Twas thine, of jarring thrones to still debates: How art thou fallen, down, down, down! Wide waste, and night, and horrour frown, O'er her proud shoulder throws the poor man's toil. Where empire flam'd in gold, and balanc'd states. In robes or gems, her costly stain. In vain! wines flow in various streams, Bel falls! the mighty Nebo bends! Foes meet her there: the wind, the wave, What though so vast her naval might, In her first dawn'd the British right! All flags abas'd her sea-dominion greet: What though she longer warr'd than Troy? At length her foes that isle destroy Whose conquest sail'd, as far as sail'd her fleet. The kings she cloth'd in purple shake Their aweful brows: "O foul mistake! O fatal pride" they cry, "this, this is she, Who said-' With my own art and arm, In the world's wealth I wrap me warm'And swell'd at heart, vain empress of the sea! This, this is she, who meanly soar'd: And style herself a God!-Through stormy wars High-fed her young with human gore ; And would have built her nest among the stars. "But ah, frail man! how impotent To stand Heaven's vengeance, or prevent! To turn aside the great Creator's aim! Shall island-kings with him contend, "Earth, Ether, Empyreum bow, STRAIN THE THIRD. THE ARGUMENT. An inference from this history. Advice to Britain. More proper to her than other nations. How far the stroke of tyranny reaches. What supports our endeavours. The unconsider'd benefits of liberty. Britain's obligation to pursue trade. Why above half the globe is sea. Britain's grandeur from her situation. The winds, the seas, the constellations, described. Sir Isaac Newton's praise. Britain compared with other states. The leviathan described. Britain's site, and antient title to the seas. Who rivals her. Of Venice. Holland. Some despise trade as mean. Censured for it. Trude's glory. The late Czar. Solomon. A surprising instance of magnificence. The merchant's dignity. Compared with men of letters. HENCE learn, as hearts are foul or pure, This truth, O Britain! ponder well; And charge the gods with favours misbestow'd. This council suits Britannia's isle, To vassals prison'd in the continent, Who starve, at home, on meagre toil, 'T were useless caution, and a truth mis-spent. Fell tyrants strike beyond the bone, She pours the thought, and forms the style, I feel her now! and rouse, and rise, and rave Others may traffic if they please; Is born for trade; to plough her field, the wave: And why for commerce. Ocean streams For that, through all his various names: And, if for commerce, ocean flows for thee. Britain, like some great potentate Of eastern clime, retires in state, Shuts out the nations! would a prince draw nigh? There are her friends; soft Zephyr there, Rough Boreas bursting from the pole: all urge, There are her friends, a marshal'd train: They may retreat, but not from her; Hyad, for her, leans o'er her urn; These nations Newton made his own; Let the proud brothers of the land Vast tracts and ample beings vaunt; O Britain! the leviathan is thine. Leviathan whom Nature's strife He drinks a river, and ejects a storm. Th' Atlantic surge around our shore Their mighty Genii hold us in their lap. Hear Egbert, Edgar, Ethelred; "The seas are ours."-The monarch saidThe floods their hands, their hands the nations, clap. Whence is a rival, then, to rise? No, there, they dwell, that can give Britain fear: Proud Venice sits amid the waves; Her foot ambitious ocean laves : Art's noblest boast! but O what wondrous odds "Twixt Venice and Britannia's isle! 'T wixt mortal and immortal toil! Britannia is a Venice built by gods. Let Holland triumph o'er her foes, And what have Earth's mean sons to do, Blush, and behold the Russian bow, He too of Judah, great, as wise, If words and thoughts to court my choice Out-number'd sands, I could not reach its height. Merchants o'er proudest heroes reign; Kings, merchants are in league and love; The whole creation is one vast Exchange. * Vast treasure taken from Solomon's tomb 1500 years after his death.-YOUNG, |