I caft them at thy feet-my only plea
Is what it was, dependence upon thee,
While ftruggling in the vale of tears below,
That never failed, nor shall it fail me now.
Angelic gratulations rend the skies,
Pride falls unpitied never more to rife,
Humility is crowned, and faith receives the prize.
Tantane, tam patiens, nullo certamine tolli
WHY weeps the muse for England? What appears
In England's cafe to move the muse to tears?
From fide to fide of her delightful ifle
Is the not clothed with a perpetual smile?
Can nature add a charm, or art confer
A new-found luxury not feen in her?
Where under heaven is pleasure more purfued,
Or where does cold reflection lefs intrude?
Her fields a rich expanfe of wavy corn,
Poured out from plenty's overflowing horn;
Ambrofial gardens, in which art supplies
The fervour and the force of Indian skies;
Her peaceful shores, where bufy commerce waits
To pour his golden tide through all her gates;
Whom fiery funs, that fcorch the ruffet spice
Of eaftern groves, and oceans floored with ice
Forbid in vain to push his daring way
To darker climes, or climes of brighter day;
Whom the winds waft wherever the billows roll,
From the world's girdle to the frozen pole;
The chariots bounding in her wheel-worn ftreets,
Her vaults below, where every vintage meets;
Her theatres, her revels, and her sports;
The scenes, to which not youth alone reforts,
But age, in fpite of weakness and of pain,
Still haunts, in hope to dream of youth again;
All speak her happy: let the mufe look round
From Eaft to Weft, no sorrow can be found:
Or only what, in cottages confined,
Sighs unregarded to the paffing wind.
Then wherefore weep for England? What appears
In England's cafe to move the mufe to tears?
The prophet wept for Ifrael; wifhed his eyes
Were fountains fed with infinite fupplies :
For Ifrael dealt in robbery and wrong;
There were the scorner's and the flanderer's tongue;
Oaths, ufed as playthings or convenient tools,
As intereft biaffed knaves, or fashion foels;
Adultery, neighing at his neighbour's door;
Oppreffior, labouring hard to grind the poor;
The partial balance, and deceitful weight;
The treacherous smile, a mask for fecret hate;
Hypocrify, formality in prayer,
And the dull fervice of the lip were there.
Her women, infolent and self-careffed,
By vanity's unwearied finger dreffed,
Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart
To modeft cheeks, and borrowed one from art;
Were juft fuch trifles, without worth or use,
As filly pride and idleness produce;
Curled, fcented, furbelowed, and flounced around,
With feet too delicate to touch the ground,
They ftretched the neck, and rolled the wanton eye,
And fighed for every fool that fluttered by.
He faw his people slaves to every luft,
Lewd, avaricious, arrogant, unjust;
He heard the wheels of an avenging God
Groan heavily along the diftant road;
Saw Babylon fet wide her two-leaved brafs
To let the military deluge pafs;
Jerufalem a prey, her glory foiled,
Her princes captive, and her treasures spoiled;
Wept till all Ifrael heard his bitter cry,
Stamped with his foot, and fmote upon his thigh: But wept, and ftamped, and fmote his thigh in vain, Pleafure is deaf when told of future pain,
And founds prophetic are too rough to suit
Ears long accustomed to the pleasing lute:
They scorned his infpiration and his theme,
Pronounced him frantic, and his fears a dream;
With felf-indulgence winged the fleeting hours,
Till the foe found them, and down fell the towers.
Long time Affyria bound them in her chain,
Till penitence had purged the public ftain,
And Cyrus, with relenting pity moved,
Returned them happy to the land they loved;
There, proof against prosperity, awhile
They flood the teft of her enfnaring smile,
And had the grace in fcenes of peace to fhow
The virtue, they had learned in fcenes of woe.
Fut man is frail, and can but ill sustain
A long immunity from grief and pain;
And after all the joys that plenty leads,
With tip-toe ftep vice filently fucceeds.
When he that ruled them with a shepherd's rod, In form a man, in dignity a God,
Came, not expected in that humble guife,
To fift and fearch them with unerring eyes,
He found, concealed beneath a fair outfide,
The filth of rottennefs and worm of pride;
Their piety a fyftem of deceit,
Scripture employed fo fanctify the cheat;
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