Yet could my praise, like spicy odours shed,
In everlasting fong embalm the dead;
To realms that weeping heard the lofs I'd tell,
What courage, fenfe, and faith, with Brandon fell!
But Britain more than one for glory breeds,
And polish'd Talbot to the charge succeeds;
Whofe far-projecting thoughts, maturely clear,
Like glaffes, draw their distant objects near.
Good parts, by gentle breeding much refin'd,
And stores of learning, grace his ample mind;
A cautious virtue regulates his ways,
And honour gilds them with a thousand rays.
To ferve his nation, at his Queen's command,
He parts, commiffion'd for the Gallick land:
With pleasure Gaul beholds him on her shore,
And learns to love a name fhe fear'd before.
Once more aloft, there meet for new debates,
The Guardian Angels of Europa's states :
And mutual concord shines in every face,
And every bofom glows with hopes of peace;
While Britain's fteps, in one confent, they praise,
Then gravely mourn their other realms delays;
Their doubtful claims, through feas of blood pursued,
Their fears that Gallia fell but half fubdued;
And all the reasonings which attempt to show
That war should ravage in the world below.
"Ah, fall'n estate of man! can rage delight,
"Wounds please the touch, or ruin charm the fight!
"Ambition make unlovely Mischief fair!
"Or ever Pride be Providence's care!
"When stern Oppreffors range the bloody field,
'Tis just to conquer, and unfafe to yield :
"There fave the nations; but no more purfue,
"Nor in thy turn become Oppreffor too."
Our rebel angels for Ambition fell,
And, war in Heaven produc'd a Fiend in Hell.
Thus, with a foft concern for man's repose,
The tender Guardians join to moan our woes;
Then awful rife, combin'd with all their might,
To find what Fury, 'scap'd the den of night,
The pleasing labours of their love withstands,
And spreads a wild distraction o'er the lands.
Their glittering pinions found in yielding air,
And watchful Providence approves the care.
In Flandria's foil, where camps have mark'd the plain,
The Fiend, impetuous Discord, fix'd her reign;
A tent her royal feat. With full resort
Stern fhapes of Horror throng'd her bufy court;
Blind Mischief, Ambush close concealing Ire,
Loud Threatenings, Ruin arm'd with sword and fire;
Affaulting Fiercenefs, Anger wanting breath,
High reddening Rage, and various forms of death;
Dire Imps of darkness, whom with gore the feeds,
When war beyond its point of good proceeds.
In Gallick armour, call'd with alter'd name
Great love of Empire, to the field she came;
Now, ftill fupporting Feud, she strives to hide
Beneath that name, and only change the fide:
But, as the whirl'd the rapid wheels around,
Where mangled limbs in heaps pollute the ground
(A fullen
(A fullen joylefs fport); with searching eye,
The fhining Chiefs regard her as they fly;
Then, hovering, dart their beams of heavenly light:
She starts, the Fury stands confess'd to fight;
And grieves to leave the foil, and yells aloud,
He yells are answer'd by the fable crowd;
And all on bat-like wings (if Fame be true)
From Chriftian lands to Northern climates flew,
But rifing murmurs from Britannia's fhore
With speed recall her watchful Guardian o'er.
He spreads his pinions, and, approaching near,
These hints, in fcatter'd words, affault his ear:
The People's power-The Grand Alliance crofs'd,
The Peace is separate-Our Religion 's loft.
Led by the blatant voice along the skies,
He comes, where Faction over cities flies;
A talking Fiend, whom fnaky locks disgrace,
And numerous mouths deform her dufky face;
Whence Lies are utter'd, Whisper foftly founds,
Sly Doubts amaze, or Inuendo wounds.
Within her arms are heaps of Pamphlets feen,
And these blafpheme the Saviour, those the Queen;
Affociate Vices: thus with tongue and hand,
She shed her venom o'er the troubled land.
Now vex'd that Difcord, and the baneful train
That tends on Difcord, fled the neighbouring plain,
She rag'd to madnefs; when the Guardian came,
And downwards drove her with a fword of flame.
A mountain, gaping to the nether Hell,
Receiv'd the Fury, railing as he fell :
The mountain clofing o'er the Fury lies,
And ftops her paffage, where the means to rife;
And when she strives, or fhifts her fide for ease,
All Britain rocks amidst her circling feas.
Now Peace, returning after tedious woes,
Reftores the comforts of a calm repose;
Then bid the warriors fheath their fanguin'd arm,
Bid angry trumpets cease to found alarms:
Guns leave to thunder in the tortur'd air,
Red ftreaming colours furl around the spear;
And each contending realm no longer jar,
But, pleas'd with reft, unharness all the war.
She comes, the Bleffing comes; where'er she moves
New-Springing Beauty all the land improves :
More heaps of fragrant flowers the field adorn,
More fweet the birds falute the rofy morn;
More lively green refreshes all the leaves,
And in the breeze the corn more thickly waves,
She comes, the Bleffing comes in easy state,
And forms of brightness all around her wait:
Here fmiling Safety, with her bofom bare,
Securely walks, and chearful Plenty there;
Here wondrous Sciences with eagles' fight;
There Liberal Arts, which make the world polite ;
And open Traffick, joining hand in hand,
With honeft Industry, approach the land.
O, welcome, long-defir'd, and lately found!
Here fix thy feat upon the British ground;
Thy fhining train around the nation fend,
While by degrees the loading taxes end :
While Caution calm, yet still prepar'd for arms,
And foreign Treaties, guard from foreign harms:
While equal Juftice, hearing every cause,
Makes every fubject join to love the laws.
Where Britain's Patriots in Council meet,
Let public fafety reft at Anna's feet:
Let Oxford's fchemes the path to Plenty fhow,
And through the realm increasing Plenty go.
Let Arts and Sciences in glory rife,
And pleas'd the world has leisure to be wife;
Around their Oxford and their St. John ftand,
Like plants that flourish by the Master's hand :
And fafe in hope the fons of Learning wait,
Where Learning's felf has fix'd her fair retreat.
Let Traffick, cherish'd by the Senate's care,
On all the feas employ the wafting air:
And Induftry, with circulating wing,
Through all the land the goods of Traffick bring.
The bleffings fo difpos'd will long abide,
Since Anna reigns, and Harley's thoughts prefide,
Great Ormond's arms the fword of caution wield,
And hold Britannia's broad-protecting shield;
Bright Bolingbroke and worthy Dartmouth treat,
By fair dispatch, with every foreign State;
And Harcourt's knowledge, equitably fhown,
Makes Justice call his firm decrees her own.
Thus all that Poets fancied Heaven of old,
May for the Nation's present emblem hold:
There Jove imperial fway'd; Minerva wife,
And Phoebus cloquent, adorn'd the skies;
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