The cause is Conscience-Conscience oft
Her tale of guilt renews:
Her voice is terrible though soft,
And dread of death ensues.

Then, anxious to be longer spar'd,
Man mourns his fleeting breath:
All evils then seem light, compar'd
With the approach of death.

'Tis judgment shakes him; there's the fear,
That prompts the wish to stay:
He has incurr'd a long arrear,

And must despair to pay.

Pay!--Follow CHRIST, and all is paid:

His death your peace ensures :

Think on the grave where he was laid,
And calm descend to yours.

ON A SIMILAR OCCASION

FOR THE YEAR 1793

[Written 1793. Published 1800 (vol. I. Appendix), and by Bull, 1801.]

24

32

De sacris autem hæc sit una sententia, ut conserventur.-CIC. de Leg.

But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate.

He lives who lives to God alone,

And all are dead beside;

For other source than God is none
Whence life can be supplied.

To live to God, is to requite

His love as best we may;

To make his precepts our delight,
His promises our stay.

But life, within a narrow ring
Of giddy joys compriz'd,

Is falsely nam'd, and no such thing,
But rather death disguis'd.

Can life in them deserve the name,

Who only live to prove

8

For what poor toys they can disclaim

An endless life above?

16

Title] date blank in 1800. 13 the] a 1800. 15 joys 1800.

Who, much diseas'd, yet nothing feel,
Much menac'd, nothing dread;
Have wounds which only God can heal,
Yet never ask his aid?

Who deem his house an useless place,
Faith, want of common sense;
And ardour in the Christian race

An hypocrite's pretence?

Who trample order, and the day
Which God asserts his own,

Dishonour with unhallow'd play,
And worship chance alone?

If scorn of God's commands, impress'd
On word and deed, imply

The better part of man unbless'd

With life that cannot die,

Such want it; and that want, uncur'd

Till man resigns his breath,

Speaks him a criminal, assur'd

Of everlasting death.

24

32

[Written Feb. (?), 1788. Published in The Gentleman's Magazine
Dec., 1793; afterwards in 1800 (vol. I. Appendix).]
FORC'D from home, and all its pleasures,
Afric's coast I left forlorn ;

To increase a stranger's treasures,
O'er the raging billows borne.

Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;

But, though theirs they have enroll'd me,
Minds are never to be sold.

Still in thought as free as ever,

What are England's rights, I ask,

Me from my delights to sever,
Me to torture, me to task?

Fleecy locks, and black complexion
Cannot forfeit nature's claim;

Skins may differ, but affection

Dwells in white and black the same.

33 incurr'd 1800.

34 resign 1800.

30 employ 1800.
The Negro's Complaint-7 theirs] slave first in 1808.

8

16

Why did all-creating Nature

Make the plant for which we toil?
Sighs must fan it, tears must water,
Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
Think, ye masters, iron-hearted,
Lolling at your jovial boards;
Think how many backs have smarted
For the sweets your cane affords.

Is there, as ye sometimes tell us,
Is there one who reigns on high?
Has he bid you buy and sell us,

Speaking from his throne the sky?
Ask him, if your knotted scourges,
Matches, blood-extorting screws,
Are the means which duty urges
Agents of his will to use?

Hark! he answers-Wild tornadoes,
Strewing yonder sea with wrecks;
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
Are the voice with which he speaks.
He, foreseeing what vexations
Afric's sons should undergo,
Fix'd their tyrants' habitations

24

32

By our suff'rings since ye brought us
To the man-degrading mart;

All sustain'd by patience, taught us
Only by a broken heart:

48

Deem our nation brutes no longer
Till some reason ye shall find
Worthier of regard and stronger
Than the colour of our kind.
Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings
Tarnish all your boasted pow'rs,
Prove that you have human feelings,
Ere you proudly question ours!

56

30 Matches] Fetters 1793, and quoted by T. Wright from a MS. 37, 39 vexation... habitation 1793. 40 whirlwind 1793.

43 we

have] which we 1793.

THE MORNING DREAM

[Written March (?), 1788. Published in The Gentleman's
Magazine Nov., 1788; afterwards in 1800.]

"TWAS in the glad season of spring,
Asleep at the dawn of the day,
I dream'd what I cannot but sing,
So pleasant it seem'd as I lay.
I dream'd that on ocean afloat,

Far hence to the westward I sail'd,
While the billows high lifted the boat,

And the fresh-blowing breeze never fail'd.

In the steerage a woman I saw,

Such at least was the form that she wore,
Whose beauty impress'd me with awe,
Ne'er taught me by woman before.
She sat, and a shield at her side

Shed light like a sun on the waves,
And smiling divinely, she cried-

I go to make Freemen of Slaves.— Then raising her voice to a strain

The sweetest that ear ever heard, She sang of the slave's broken chain, Wherever her glory appear'd.

Some clouds which had over us hung
Fled, chas'd by her melody clear,

8

16

And methought while she Liberty sung, 'Twas Liberty only to hear.

Thus swiftly dividing the flood,

To a slave-cultur'd island we came,
Where a Demon, her enemy, stood-
Oppression his terrible name.
In his hand, as the sign of his sway,
A scourge hung with lashes he bore,
And stood looking out for his prey
From Africa's sorrowful shore.
But soon as approaching the land

That goddess-like woman he view'd,
The scourge he let fall from his hand,
With blood of his subjects imbrued.
I saw him both sicken and die,

And the moment the monster expir'd Heard shouts that ascended the sky

From thousands with rapture inspir'd.

1 glad] sweet 1788. 6 hence... westward] West from fair Albion 1788. 19 slave-broken 1788. 29 the] a 1788. 34 That] This 1788.

Awaking, how could I but muse

At what such a dream should betide? But soon my ear caught the glad news

Which serv'd my weak thought for a guide— That Britannia, renown'd o'er the waves For the hatred she ever has shown To the black-sceptred rulers of slaves, Resolves to have none of her own.

SWEET MEAT HAS SOUR SAUCE

OR, THE SLAVE-TRADER IN THE DUMPS
[Written early in 1788. Published by Southey, 1836.]

A TRADER I am to the African shore,
But since that my trading is like to be o'er,
I'll sing you a song that you ne'er heard before,
Which nobody can deny, deny,
Which nobody can deny.

When I first heard the news it gave me a shock,
Much like what they call an electrical knock,
And now I am going to sell off my stock,
Which nobody, &c.

48

5

'Tis a curious assortment of dainty regales, To tickle the negroes with when the ship sails, Fine chains for the neck, and a cat with nine

tails,

Which nobody, &c.

Here's supple-jack plenty, and store of rat-tan,
That will wind itself round the sides of a man,
As close as a hoop round a bucket or can,
Which nobody, &c.

11

Here's padlocks and bolts, and screws for tho thumbs,

That squeeze them so lovingly till the blood comes, They sweeten the temper like comfits or plums, 17 Which nobody, &c.

When a negro his head from his victuals withdraws, And clenches his teeth and thrusts out his paws, Here's a notable engine to open his jaws,

Which nobody, &c.

Thus going to market, we kindly prepare
A pretty black cargo of African ware,

For what they must meet with when they get

there,

Which nobody, &c.

23

42 should] might 1788. 44 thoughts 1788. 47 Ruler 1788.