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EPISTLE

ΤΟ

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Esq.

ON THE REJECTION OF THE BILL FOR ABOLISHING

THE SLAVE TRADE.

CEASE, Wilberforce, to urge thy generous aim! Thy Country knows the fin, and stands the shame!

The Preacher, Poet, Senator, in vain

Has rattled in her fight the Negro's chain;
With his deep groans affail'd her startled ear,
And rent the veil that hid his conftant tear;
Forc'd her averted eyes his stripes to scan,

Beneath the bloody fcourge laid bare the man,

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Claim'd Pity's tear, urged Conscience' strong controul

And flash'd conviction on her shrinking foul.

The Mufe, too foon awaked, with ready tongue

At Mercy's fhrine applaufive peans rung;

And Freedom's eager fons, in vain foretold
A new Aftrean reign, an age of gold:

She knows and she perfifts-Still Afric bleeds,
Unchecked, the human traffic ftill proceeds;

She stamps her infamy to future time,

And on her hardened forehead seals the crime.

In vain, to thy white standard gathering round, Wit, Worth, and Parts and Eloquence are found: In vain, to push to birth thy great design, Contending chiefs, and hostile virtues join;

All, from conflicting ranks, of power poffeft
To roufe, to melt, or to inform the breast.

Where feafoned tools of Avarice prevail,

A Nation's eloquence, combined, must fail:

Each flimfy sophistry by turns they try;

The plaufive argument, the daring lye,

The artful glofs, that moral fenfe confounds,

Th' acknowledged thirst of gain that honour wounds:

Bane of ingenuous minds! th' unfeeling fneer,

Which, fudden, turns to ftone the falling tear:
They search affiduous, with inverted skill,

For forms of wrong, and precedents of ill;
With impious mockery wrest the sacred page,

And glean up crimes from each remoter age:
Wrung Nature's tortures, fhuddering, while you tell,

From scoffing fiends burfts forth the laugh of hell;

In Britain's fenate, Mifery's pangs give birth

To jefts unfeemly, and to horrid mirth

Forbear!-thy virtues but provoke our doom,

And fwell th' account of vengeance yet to come;

For, not unmarked in Heaven's impartial plan,

Shall man, proud worm, contemn his fellow-man?

And injured Afric, by herself redrest,

Darts her own ferpents at her Tyrant's breast.

Each vice, to minds depraved by bondage known,

With fure contagion fastens on his own;

In fickly languors melts his nervelefs frame,
And blows to rage impetuous Paffion's flanie:

Fermenting swift, the fiery venom gains

The milky innocence of infant veins;

There fwells the stubborn will, damps learning's fire,

The whirlwind wakes of uncontrouled defire,

Sears the young heart to images of wo,

And blafts the buds of Virtue as they blow.

Lo! where reclined, pale Beauty courts the breeze,

Diffused on fofas of voluptuous ease;

With anxious awe, her menial train around,

Catch her faint whispers of half-utter'd found;

See her, in monftrous fellowship, unite

At once the Scythian, and the Sybarite;
Blending repugnant vices, mifally'd,

Which frugal nature purposed to divide ;

See her, with indolence to fierceness join'd,

Of body delicate, infirm of mind,

With languid tones imperious mandates urge;

With arm recumbent wield the household fcourge;

And with unruffled mien, and placid founds,

Contriving torture, and inflicting wounds.

Nor, in their palmy walks and spicy groves,

The form benign of rural Pleasure roves;

No milk-maids' fong, or hum of village talk,

Sooths the lone poet in his evening walk:

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