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النشر الإلكتروني

[43]

LIBERTY..

PART

II.

T

HUS spoke the GODDESS of the fearless eye;
And at her voice, renew'd, the VISION rofe.
First, in the dawn of time, with eastern swains,
In woods, and tents, and cottages, I liv'd;
While on from plain to plain they led their flocks, 5
In search of clearer spring, and fresher field.
These, as increasing families disclos'd

The tender state, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, palm-o'erfpread,
The father-fenate met. There Justice dealt,
With reafon then and equity the fame,
Free as the common air, her prompt decree ;
Nor yet had stain'd her fword with fubject's blood.

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The fimpler arts were all their simple wants
Had urg'd to light. But instant, these supply'd,

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Another fet of fonder wants arose,

And other arts with them of finer aim;

Till, from refining want to want impell'd,
The mind by thinking push'd her latent pow'rs,

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And life began to glow, and arts to shine.

At first on brutes along the rustic war

Launch'd the rude fpear; fwift, as he glar'd along,
On the grim lion, or the robber wolf.
For then young sportive life was void of toil,

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Demanding little, and with little pleas'd:
But when to manhood grown, and endless joys,
Led on by equal toils, the bosom fir'd;

Lewd lazy rapine broke primæval peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,

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From the lone pilgrim and the wand'ring swain,
Seiz'd what he durft not earn. Then brother's blood

First, horrid, smoak'd on the polluted skies.

Awful in justice, then the burning youth,
Led by their temper'd fires, on lawless men,

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The last worst monsters of the fhaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow, and the sharpen'd spear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arose ;
Who, scorning coward felf, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their ease, and for their fafety bled.
West with the living day to GREECE I came :
Earth smil'd beneath my beam: the Muse before
Sonorous flew, that low till then in woods
Had tun'd the reed, and figh'd the shepherd's pain;
But now, to fing heroic deeds, she swell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.

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:

For GREECE my fons of EGYPT I forsook;
A boastful race, that in the vain abyfs

Of fabling ages lov'd to lose their source,
And with their river trac'd it from the skies.

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While there my laws alone despotic reign'd,
And king, as well as people, proud obey'd;
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, sages, legislators sought;

The school of polish'd life, and human-kind.
But when mysterious Superstition came,
And with her * Civil Sifter league'd, involv'd

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In study'd darkness the desponding mind;

Then Tyrant Pow'r the righteous scourge unloos'd :

For yielded reason speaks the foul a flave.

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Instead of useful works, like nature's, great,
Enormous, cruel wonders crush'd the land;
And round a tyrant's † tomb, who none deserv'd,
For one vile carcass perish'd countless lives..

Then the great of Dragon, couch'd amid his floods, 65
Swell'd his fierce heart, and cry'd" This flood is

" mine,

"'Tis I that bid it flow."-But, undeceiv'd, His phrenzy foon the proud blafphemer felt;

:

Felt that, without my fertilizing pow'r,.

Suns loft their force, and Niles o'erflow'd in vain. 70

Nought could retard me: nor the frugal state

Of rifing Perfia, sober in extreme,

Beyond the pitch of man, and thence revers'd
Into luxurious waste: nor yet the ports

† The Pyramids.

*Civil Tyranny.

The Tyrants of EGYPT..

Of old PHOENICIA; first for letters fam'd,
That paint the voice, and filent speak to fight,
Of arts prime fource, and guardian! by fair stars,
First tempted out into the lonely deep;

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To whom I first disclos'd mechanic arts,
The winds to conquer, to fubdue the waves,

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With all the peaceful pow'r of ruling trade;
Earnest of BRITAIN. Nor by these retain'd;
Nor by the neighb'ring land, whose palmy shore

The filver Jordan laves. Before me lay

The promis'd LAND OF ARTS, and urg'd my flight. 85 Hail Nature's utmost boast! unrival'd GREECE!

My fairest reign! where ev'ry pow'r benign

Conspir'd to blow the flow'r of human-kind,
And lavish'd all that genius can infpire.
Clear funny climates, by the breezy main,

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Ionian or Ægaan, temper'd kind.

Light, airy foils. A country rich, and gay;

Broke into hills with balmy odours crown'd,
And, bright with purple harvest, joyous vales.
Mountains, and streams, where verse spontaneous

flow'd;

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Whence deem'd by wond'ring men the feat of gods,
And still the mountains and the streams of fong.
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and My restless ARTS
Frame into finish'd life. How many states,
And clust'ring towns, and monuments of fame,
And scenes of glorious deeds, in little bounds!
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beat

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By Adria's here, there by Ægean waves;
To where the deep-adorning Cyclade Isles
In thining profpect rise, and on the shore
Of farthest Crete resounds the Libyan main.

O'FR All two rival cities rear'd the brow,
And balanc'd All. Spread on Eurotas' bank,
Amid a circle of foft-rifing hills,
The patient SPARTA One: the fober, hard,
And man-fubduing city; which no shape
Of Pain could conquer, nor of Pleasure charm.

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LYCURGUS there built, on the folid bafe

Of equal life, so well a temper'd state;

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Where mix'd each government, in such just poise;
Each pow'r so checking, and fupporting, each;
That firm for ages, and unmov'd, it stood,

The fort of GREECE! without one giddy hour,
One fhock of faction, or of party-rage.

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For, drain'd the springs of wealth, Corruption there

Lay wither'd at the root. Thrice happy land!

Had not neglected art, with weedy vice

Confounded, sunk. But if Athenian arts

Lov'd not the foil; yet there the calm abode

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Of wisdom, virtue, philofophic ease,

Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrafe

Confin'd, and press'd'into Laconic force.
There too, by rooting thence still treach'rous self,

The Public and the Private grew the fame.

130

The children of the nurfing Public all,
And at its table fed, for that they toil'd,
For that they liv'd entire, and ev'n for that
The tender mother urg'd her fon to die.

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