Lib'ral in all things elfe, yet nature here Winter invades the spring, and often pours A chilling flood on fummer's drooping flow'rs, A mind well lodg'd, and mafculine of courfe. And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires. He bears it with meek manliness of foul, To him that treads upon his free-born toe, One One step beyond the bound'ry of the laws Is feldom felt, though fometimes feen and heard ; And in his like Is kept to ftrut, look big, and talk away. Born in a climate fofter far than our's, The Frenchman, easy, debonair and brisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, We never feel th' alacrity and joy With which he fhouts and carols, Vive le Roy, Vigilant Vigilant over all that he has made, And fill with discontent a British ifle. A. Freeman and flave then, if the cafe be fuch, Stand on a level, and you prove too much. If all men indifcriminately fhare, His foft'ring pow'r and tutelary care, As well be yok'd by defpotifm's hand, As dwell at large in Britain's charter'd land. B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to fhow, That flaves, howe'er contented, never know. The mind attains beneath her happy reign, The growth that nature meant fhe should attain. She ventures onward with a profp'rous force, Religion, Religion, richest favour of the skies, Stands most reveal'd before the freeman's eyes; Liberty chaces all that gloom away; The foul, emancipated, unoppress'd, Free to prove all things and hold fast the best, Guards well what arts and industry have won, Oh Oh liberty! the pris'ners pleafing dream, Its clearest tone, the rapture it infpires; Place me where winter breathes his keenest air, And I will fing at liberty's dear feet, In Afric's torrid clime or India's fiercest heat. A. Sing where you please, in such a cause I grant An English Poet's privilege to rant, But is not freedom, at least is not our's Too apt to play the wanton with her pow'rs, Grow freakish, and o'er leaping ev'ry mound B. Agreed. But would you fell or flay your horse For bounding and curvetting in his course; Or if, when ridden with a careless rein, He break away, and feek the diftant plain? No. |