And every venal stickler for the yoke

Felt himself crushed at the first word he spoke.
Such men are raised to ftation and command,
When Providence means mercy to a land.
He fpeaks, and they appear; to him they owe
Skill to direct, and ftrength to ftrike the blow;
To manage with addrefs, to seize with power
The crifis of a dark decifive hour.

So Gideon earned a victory not his own;
Subferviency his praise, and that alone.

Poor England! thou art a devoted deer,
Befet with every ill but that of fear.

The nations hunt; all mark thee for a prey;
They swarm around thee, and thou standeft at bay,
Undaunted ftill, though wearied and perplexed,
Once Chatham faved thee; but who faves thee next??
Alas! the tide of pleasure sweeps along

All, that should be the boaft of British song.

"Tis not the wreath, that once adorned thy brow, The prize of happier times, will ferve thee now. Our ancestry, a gallant chriftian race,

Patterns of every virtue, every grace,

Confeffed a God; they kneeled before they fought,
And praised him in the victories he wrought.
Now from the duft of ancient days bring forth
Their fober zeal, integrity, and worth;

Courage, ungrac'd by thefe, affronts the skies,

Is but the fire without the facrifice.

The ftream, that feeds the well-fpring of the heart,
Not more invigorates life's nobleft part,

Than virtue quickens with a warmth divine
The powers, that fin has brought to a decline.
A. Th' ineftimable eftimate of Brown

Rofe like a paper-kite, and charmed the town;
But measures, plann'd and executed well,
Shifted the wind that rais'd it, and it fell.
He trod the very felf-fame ground you tread,
And victory refuted all he said.

B. And yet his judgment was not fram'd amifs; Its error, if it err'd, was merely this

He thought the dying hour already come,
And a complete recovery ftruck him dumb.
But that effeminancy, folly, luft,
Enervate and enfeeble, and needs muft,
And that a nation fhamefully debas'd,
Will be defpis'd and trampled on at last.
Unless sweet penitence her pow'rs renew,
Is truth, if hiftory itself be true.

There is a time, and justice marks the date,
For long-forbearing clemency to wait;
That hour elaps'd th' incurable revolt

Is punishd, and down comes the thunder-bolt.

If mercy then put by the threat'ning blow,
Muft she perform the fame kind office now?
May fhe! and, if offended heaven be ftill
Acceffible, and prayer prevail, she will.
'Tis not however, infolence and noise,
The tempeft of tumultuary joys,
Nor is it yet despondence and dismay
Will win her vifits or engage her ftay;
Pray'r only, and the penitential tear,

Can call her smiling down, and fix her here.
But when a country, (one that I could name)
In prostitution finks the sense of shame;
When infamous venality, grown bold,
Writes on his bofom, to be let or sold;
When perjury, that heav'n defying vice,
Sells oaths by tale, and at the lowest price,
Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made,
To turn a penny in the way of trade;

When avarice ftarves (and never hides his face)
Two or three millions of the human race,

And not a tongue inquires, how, where, or when, Though conscience will have twinges now and then; When profanation of the facred cause

In all its parts, times, miniftry, and laws,

Befpeaks a land, once christian, fall'n, and loft,

In all, that wars against that title moft;

What follows next let cities of great name,
And regions long fince defolate proclaim.
Nineveh, Babylon, and ancient Rome,

Speak to the present times, and times to come;
They cry aloud in every careless ear,

Stop, while ye may; fufpend your mad career;
O learn from our example and our fate,
Learn wisdom and repentance ere too late.
Not only vice difpofes and prepares

The mind, that flumbers fweetly in her fnares,
To ftoop to tyranny's ufurped command,
And bend her polished neck beneath his hand,
(A dire effect, by one of nature's laws
Unchangeably connected with its cause);
But Providence himself will intervene

To throw his dark displeasure over the scene.
All are his inftruments; each form of war,
What burns at home, or threatens from afar,
Nature in arms, her elements at ftrife,
The ftorms, that overset the joys of life,
Are but his rods to scourge a guilty land,
And waste it at the bidding of his hand.
He gives the word, and mutiny foon roars
In all her gates, and shakes her diftant shores ;
The ftandards of all nations are unfurled;

She has one foe, and that one foe the world.

And, if he doom that people with a frown,
And mark them with a feal of wrath preffed down,
Obduracy takes place; callous and tough,

The reprobated race grows judgment proof:

Earth shakes beneath them, and heaven roars above;
But nothing scares them from the course they love.
To the lafcivious pipe and wanton song,

That charm down fear, they frolic it along,
With mad rapidity and unconcern,

Down to the gulph, from which is no return.
They truft in navies, and their navies fail-
God's curfe can caft away ten thousand fail!
They truft in armies, and their courage dies;
In wisdom, wealth, in fortune, and in lies;
But all they truft in withers, as it must,

When He commands, in whom they place no truft.
Vengeance at laft pours down upon their coaft
A long despised, but now victorious, hoft;
Tyranny fends the chain, that must abridge
The noble sweep of all their privilege;
Gives liberty the laft, the mortal shock:
Slips the flave's collar on, and snaps the lock.
4. Such lofty ftrains embellish what you teach,
Mean you to prophefy, or but to preach?

B. I know the mind, that feels indeed the fire
The mufe imparts, and can command the lyre.