Such are the visions of the rustic reign—
But this alone, the fountain of support,
Would scarce employ the varying mind of man;285
Each seeks employ, and each a different way:
Strip Commerce of her sail, and men once more
Would be converted into savages;—
No nation e'er grew social and refined
'Till Commerce first had wing'd the adventurous prow,290
Or sent the slow-paced caravan, afar,
To waft their produce to some other clime,
And bring the wished exchange—thus came, of old,
Golconda's golden ore, and thus the wealth
Of Ophir, to the wisest of mankind.295
Eugenio
Great is the praise of Commerce, and the men
Deserve our praise, who spread the undaunted sail,
And traverse every sea—their dangers great,
Death still to combat in the unfeeling gale,
And every billow but a gaping grave:—300
There, skies and waters, wearying on the eye,
For weeks and months no other prospect yield
But barren wastes, unfathomed depths, where not
The blissful haunt of human form is seen
To cheer the unsocial horrors of the way.—305
Yet all these bold designs to Science owe
Their rise and glory.—Hail, fair Science! thou,
Transplanted from the eastern skies, dost bloom
In these blest regions.—Greece and Rome no more
Detain the Muses on Citheron's brow,310
Or old Olympus, crowned with waving woods,
Or Hæmus' top, where once was heard the harp,
Sweet Orpheus' harp, that gained his cause below,
And pierced the souls of Orcus and his bride;
That hush'd to silence by its voice divine315
Thy melancholy waters, and the gales
O Hebrus! that o'er thy sad surface blow.—
No more the maids round Alpheus' waters stray,
Where he with Arethusa's stream doth mix,
Or where swift Tiber disembogues his waves320
Into the Italian sea, so long unsung;
Hither they wing their way, the last, the best
Of countries, where the arts shall rise and grow,
And arms shall have their day;—even now we boast
A Franklin, prince of all philosophy,325
A genius piercing as the electric fire,
Bright as the lightning's flash, explained so well,
By him, the rival of Britannia's sage.—
This is the land of every joyous sound,
Of liberty and life, sweet liberty!330
Without whose aid the noblest genius fails,
And Science irretrievably must die.
Leander
But come, Eugenio, since we know the past—
What hinders to pervade with searching eye
The mystic scenes of dark futurity?335
Say, shall we ask what empires yet must rise,
What kingdoms, powers and states, where now are seen
Mere dreary wastes and awful solitude,
Where Melancholy sits, with eye forlorn,
And time anticipates, when we shall spread340
Dominion from the north, and south, and west,
Far from the Atlantic to Pacific shores,
And people half the convex of the main!—
A glorious theme!—but how shall mortals dare
To pierce the dark events of future years345
And scenes unravel, only known to fate?
Acasto
This might we do, if warmed by that bright coal
Snatch'd from the altar of cherubic fire
Which touched Isaiah's lips—or if the spirit
Of Jeremy and Amos, prophets old,350
Might swell the heaving breast—I see, I see
Freedom's established reign; cities, and men,
Numerous as sands upon the ocean shore,
And empires rising where the sun descends!—
The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town355
Of note; and where the Mississippi stream,
By forests shaded, now runs weeping on,
Nations shall grow, and states not less in fame
Than Greece and Rome of old!—we too shall boast
Our Scipios, Solons, Catos, sages, chiefs360
That in the lap of time yet dormant lie,
Waiting the joyous hour of life and light.—
O snatch me hence, ye muses, to those days
When, through the veil of dark antiquity,
A race shall hear of us as things remote,365
That blossomed in the morn of days.—Indeed,
How could I weep that we exist so soon,
Just in the dawning of these mighty times,
Whose scenes are painting for eternity!
Dissentions that shall swell the trump of fame,370
And ruin hovering o'er all monarchy!
Eugenio
Nor shall these angry tumults here subside
Nor murder cease, through all these provinces,
Till foreign crowns have vanished from our view
And dazzle here no more—no more presume375
To awe the spirit of fair Liberty;—
Vengeance must cut the thread,—and Britain, sure
Will curse her fatal obstinacy for it!
Bent on the ruin of this injured country,
She will not listen to our humble prayers.380
Though offered with submission:
Like vagabonds and objects of destruction,
Like those whom all mankind are sworn to hate,
She casts us off from her protection,
And will invite the nations round about,385
Russians and Germans, slaves and savages,
To come and have a share in our perdition.—
O cruel race, O unrelenting Britain,
Who bloody beasts will hire to cut our throats,
Who war will wage with prattling innocence,390
And basely murder unoffending women!—
Will stab their prisoners when they cry for quarter,
Will burn our towns, and from his lodging turn
The poor inhabitant to sleep in tempests!—
These will be wrongs, indeed, and all sufficient395
To kindle up our souls to deeds of horror,
And give to every arm the nerves of Samson—
These are the men that fill the world with ruin,
And every region mourns their greedy sway,—
Not only for ambition——400
But what are this world's goods, that they for them
Should exercise perpetual butchery?
What are these mighty riches we possess,
That they should send so far to plunder them?—
Already have we felt their potent arm—405
And ever since that inauspicious day,
When first Sir Francis Bernard
His ruffians planted at the council door,
And made the assembly room a home for vagrants,
And soldiers, rank and file—e'er since that day410
This wretched land, that drinks its children's gore,
Has been a scene of tumult and confusion!—
Are there not evils in the world enough?
Are we so happy that they envy us?
Have we not toiled to satisfy their harpies,415
Kings' deputies, that are insatiable;
Whose practice is to incense the royal mind
And make us despicable in his view?—
Have we not all the evils to contend with
That, in this life, mankind are subject to,420
Pain, sickness, poverty, and natural death—
But into every wound that nature gave
They will a dagger plunge, and make them mortal!
Leander