Shall bid the valleys laugh and heavenly beams diffuse.”
Wraxall remarks, that “here, in a fine frenzy of inspiration,” the poet “seems to behold, as in a vision, the modern Washington and the Congress met, after successfully throwing off all subjection to Great Britain,” while “George the Third is pretty clearly designated in the line apostrophizing tyrants.”[587] But to an American the most captivating verses are those which open the vista of peaceful triumphs, where Commerce and the Arts unite with every Grace and every Muse.
Kindred in sentiment were other contemporary verses by the anonymous author of the “Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers,” now understood to be the poet Mason,[588] which Wraxall praises for their beauty, but condemns for their politics.[589] After describing the corruption of the House of Commons under Lord North, the poet declares that it will augment in enormity and profligacy,—
“Till, mocked and jaded with the puppet play,
Old England’s genius turns with scorn away,
Ascends his sacred bark, the sails unfurled,
And steers his state to the wide Western World.
High on the helm majestic Freedom stands;
In act of cold contempt she waves her hands:
‘Take, slaves,’ she cries, ‘the realms that I disown,