Unfit for raptures; or, if raptures cheer,
On fome high festival of once a year,

In wild excefs the vulgar breast takes fire,
Till, buried in debauch, the bliss expire

But not their joys alone thus coarsely flow;
Their morals, like their pleasures, are but low:
For, as refinement ftops, from fire to son,
Unalter'd, unimprov'd, their manners run;
And love's and friendship's finely-pointed dart
Falls blunted from each indurated heart:
Some fterner virtues o'er the mountain's breaft
May fit, like falcons, cow'ring on the neft;
But all the gentler morals, fuch as play
Through life's more cultur'd walks, and charm our way,
Thefe far difpers'd, on timorous pinions fly,
To fport and flutter in a kinder sky.

To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, We turn; and FRANCE difplays her bright domain. Gay, fprightly land of mirth and focial ease, Pleas'd with thyfelf, whom all the world can please, How often have I led thy fportive choir, With tuneless pipe beside the murmuring Loire! Where fhading elms along the margin grew, And freshen'd from the wave the zephyr flew: And haply, though my harfh touch faltering ftill, But mock'd all tune, and marr'd the dancer's skill;

Yet

et would the village praise my wondrous power, nd dance, forgetful of the noon-tide hour.

like, all ages: dames of ancient days

ave led their children through the mirthful maze; nd the gay grandfire, skill'd in jestic lore,

Las frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore!

So bright a life these thoughtless realms difplay;
Thus idly bufy rolls their world away!
Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear,
for honour forms the focial temper here.
Honour, that praise which real merit gains,
Or ev'n imaginary worth obtains,

Here paffes current; paid from hand to hand,
It shifts, in fplendid traffic, round the land:
From courts to camps, to cottages, it ftrays,
And all are taught an avarice of praife;
They please, are pleas'd; they give, to get efteem;
Till, seeming bleft, they grow to what they feem.
But while this fofter art their bliss fupplies,
It gives their follies alfo room to rife;

For praise too dearly lov'd, or warmly fought,
Enfeebles all internal strength of thought:
And the weak foul, within itself unbleft,
Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.
Hence Oftentation, here, with tawdry art,
Pants for the vulgar praise which fools impart 3

Here

Here Vanity affumes her pert grimace,
And trims her robes of frieze with copper lace.

Here beggar Pride defrauds her daily cheer,

To boast one fplendid banquet once a

year:

The mind still turns where fhifting fashion draws,
Nor weighs the folid worth of felf-applaufe.

To men of other minds my fancy flies,
Embofom'd in the deep where HOLLAND lies.
Methinks her patient fons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land;
And, fedulous to ftop the coming tide,
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward, methinks, and diligently flow,
The firm connected bulwark feems to go;
Spreads it's long arms amidst the watry roar,
Scoops out an empire, and ufurps the shore:
While the pent Ocean, rifing o'er the pile,
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile;
The flow canal, the yellow-bloffom'd vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding fail,
The crouded mart, the cultivated plain,
A new creation refcu'd from his reign.

Thus, while around the wave-fubjected foil
Impels the native to repeated toil,
Industrious habits in each bofom reign,
And Industry begets a love of gain.

Hence

Hence all the good front opulence that springs,
With all those ills fuperfluous treafure brings,

Are here display'd. Their much-lov❜d wealth imparts
Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts;

But, view them clofer, craft and fraud appear,
Ev'n liberty itself is barter'd here:

At gold's fuperior charms' all freedom flies,
The needy fell it, and the rich man buys;
A land of tyrants, and a den of flaves,
Here wretches feek difhonourable graves;
And calmly bent, to fervitude conform,
Dull as their lakes that fleep beneath the storm.

Heavens! how unlike their Belgic fires of old!
Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold;
War in each breaft, and freedom on each brow:
How much unlike the fons of Britain now!

I

Fir'd at the found, my genius spreads her wing,
And flies where BRITAIN courts the western spring;
Where lawns extend, that scorn Arcadian pride,
And brighter streams than fam'd Hydafpes glide.
There all around the gentlest breezes stray,
There gentle mufic melts on every spray;
Creation's mildest charms are there combin'd;
Extremes are only in the master's mind.
Stern o'er each bofom Reason holds her state,
With daring aims irregularly great:

Pride

Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I fee the lords of human kind pass by;
Intent on high defigns, a thoughtful band,
By forms unfashion'd, fresh from Nature's hand;
Fierce in their native hardinefs of foul,

True to imagin'd right, above control;

While ev'n the peasant boasts these rights to scan,
And learns to venerate himself as man.

Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictur'd here,
Thine are thofe charms that dazzle and endear.
Too bleft, indeed, were fuch without alloy:
But, fofter'd ev'n by Freedom, ills annoy.
That independence Britons prize too high,
Keeps man from man, and breaks the focial tie;
The self-dependent lordlings ftand alone,
All kindred claims that foften life unknown:
Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held,
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd;
Ferments arife, imprifon'd factions roar,
Repreft Ambition ftruggles round her shore;
Whilft, over-wrought, the general fyftem feels
It's motion ftopt, or phrenzy fires the wheels.

Nor this the worst: as focial bonds decay,
As duty, love, and honour, fail to fway,
Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law,
Still gather ftrength, and force unwilling awe,

Hence