XXIV. ANTICIPATION. OCTOBER, 1803. SHOUT, for a mighty Victory is won! On British ground the Invaders are laid low; Never to rise again! the work is done. Come forth, ye Old Men, now in peaceful show XXV. NOVEMBER, 1806. ANOTHER year! another deadly blow! Another mighty Empire overthrown! And We are left, or shall be left, alone; The last that dare to struggle with the Foe. ODE. 1. WHO rises on the banks of Seine, And binds her temples with the civic wreath? And twinkling in the light, And if a breeze be straying, That breeze she will invite ; And stands on tiptoe, conscious she is fair, And spreads her arms-as if the general air - Melt, Principalities, before her melt! Her love ye hailed-her wrath have felt! But She through many a change of form hath gone, And stands amidst you now, an armed Creature, Whose panoply is not a thing put on, But the live scales of a portentous nature; That, having wrought its way from birth to birth, Stalks round-abhorred by Heaven, a terror to the Earth! 2. I marked the breathings of her dragon crest; My Soul, a sorrowful Interpreter, Before the ominous aspect of her spear; Whether the mighty Beam, in scorn upheld, As stretches a blue bar of solid cloud Across the setting Sun, and through the fiery West. 3. So did she daunt the Earth, and God defy! And, wheresoe'er she spread her sovereignty, Pollution tainted all that was most pure. - Have we not known-and live we not to tell- Shame followed shame and woe supplanted woe- Of Nations wanting virtue to be strong And daring not to feel the majesty of right! Upon the pressure of a painful thing, Of herbs and lowly flowers, Or seek, from Saints above, miraculous aid; Which his own Nature hath enjoined and why? If, when that interference hath relieved him, He must sink down to languish In worse than former helplessness - and lie Till the caves roar,—and, imbecility Again engendering anguish, The same weak wish returns, that had before deceived him. |