THESE times touch moneyed worldlings with dismay :

[air Even rich men, brave by nature, taint the With words of apprehension and despair: While tens of thousands, thinking on the affray,

Men unto whom sufficient for the day
And minds not stinted or untilled are given,
Sound, healthy children of the God of
heaven,

Are cheerful as the rising sun in May.
What do we gather hence but firmer faith
That every gift of noble origin [breath?
Is breathed upon by hope's perpetual
That virtue and the faculties within
Are vital,-and that riches are akin
To fear, to change, to cowardice and
death!

ENGLAND! the time is come when thou shouldst wean

Thy heart from its emasculating food;

seen

The truth should now be better understood;
Old things have been unsettled; we have
[been
Fair seedtime, better harvest might have
But for thy trespasses; and at this day,
If for Greece, Egypt, India, Africa,
Aught good were destined, thou wouldst
step between.

England! all nations in this charge agree:
But worse, more ignorant in love and hate,
Far, far more abject is thine enemy:
Therefore the wise pray for thee, though
the freight

Of thy offences be a heavy weight: Oh, grief! that earth's best hopes rest all with thee!

OCTOBER, 1803.

WHEN, looking on the present face of things,

I see one man, of men the meanest too!
Raised up to sway the world, to do, undo,
With mighty nations for his underlings,
The great events with which old story rings
Seem vain and hollow; I find nothing great;
Nothing is left which I can venerate;
So that almost a doubt within me springs
Of Providence, such emptiness at length
Seems at the heart of all things. But, great
God!

I measure back the steps which I have trod;
And tremble, seeing whence proceeds the
strength
[sublime
Of such poor instruments, with thoughts
I tremble at the sorrow of the time.

TO THE MEN OF KENT. OCTOBER, 1803.
VANGUARD of liberty, ye men of Kent,
Ye children of a soil that doth advance
Her haughty brow against the coast of
France,

Now is the time to prove your hardiment!
To France be words of invitation sent!
They from their fields can see the coun-
tenance
[lance,
Of your fierce war, may ken the glittering
And hear you shouting forth your brave
intent.

Left single, in bold parley, ye of yore,
Did from the Norman win a gallant wreath;
Confirmed the charters that were yours
[breath;

before ;

No parleying now! In Britain is one We all are with you now from shore to shore :

Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death!

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. 'Tis well! from this day forward we shall know

That in ourselves our safety must be sought; That by our own right hands it must be wrought, [low. That we must stand unpropped, or be laid O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer!

Be men who hold its many blessings dear, We shall exult, if they who rule the land Wise, upright, valiant ; not a servile band, Who are to judge of danger which they fear,

And honour which they do not understand.

ODE.

air

Alone could satisfy her wide embrace. Melt, principalities. before her melt! Her love ye hailed-her wrath have felt; But she through many a change of form hath gone, [creature, And stands amidst you now, an armèd 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, [to the earth! Stalks round-abhorred by Heaven, a terror

I marked the breathings of her dragon
crest;

My soul, a sorrowful interpreter,
In many a midnight vision bowed

Before the ominous aspect of her spear;
Whether the mighty beam, in scorn upheld,
Threatened her foes,-or, pompously at
rest,

Seemed to bisect her orbèd shield,

As stretches a blue bar of solid cloud Across the setting sun, and through the fiery west.

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

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.

way,

[may, And look and listen-gathering, whence I Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.

Cliffs, woods, and caves her viewless steps And babble of her pastime !-On, dread power!

THE SAME OCCASION.

I DROPPED my pen :-and listened to the

wind

Through hanging clouds, from craggy

height to height, [herdsman's bower, Through the green vales and through the That all the Alps may gladden in th might,

Here, there, and in all places at one hour

ALAS! what boots the long, laborious quest Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill;

Or pains abstruse-to elevate the will,
And lead us on to that transcendent rest
Where every passion shall the sway attest
Of reason, seated on her sovereign hill;
What is it, but a vain and curious skill,
If sapient Germany must lie deprest,
Beneath the brutal sword? Her haughty
[say,
Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules,
Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have
wrought

schools

More for mankind at this unhappy day Than all the pride of intellect and thought?

AND is it among rude untutored dales, There, and there only, that the heart is true?

And, rising to repel or to subdue,
Is it by rocks and woods that man prevails?