"Longa eft injuria, longæ
"Ambages; fed fumma fequar faftigia rerum." VIRG.
WOW have we wander'd a long difmal night,
Led through blind paths by each deluding light! Now plung'd in mire, now by sharp brambles torn, With tempefts beat, and to the winds a scorn! Loft, weary'd, fpent! but fee the Eastern star And glimmering light dawns kindly from afar : Bright goddess, hail! while we by thee survey The various errors of our painful way ; While, guided by fome clew of heavenly thread, The labyrinth perplex'd we backward tread, Through rulers' avarice, pride, ambition, hate, Perverse cabals, and winding turns of state,
The fenate's rage, and all the crooked lines
Of incoherent plots and wild designs;
Till, getting out where first we enter'd in,
A new bright race of glory we begin.
As, after Winter, Spring's glad face appears,
As the bleft shore to fhip-wreck'd mariners,
Succefs to lovers, glory to the brave,
Health to the fick, or freedom to the flave;
Such was great Cæfar's day! the wondrous day,
That long in Fate's dark bosom hatching lay,
Heaven to abfolve, and fatisfaction bring,
For twenty years of misery and fin!
What fhouts, what triumph, what unruly joy,
Swell'd every breast, did every tongue employ,
With rays direct, whilst on his people shone
The King triumphant from the martyr's throne!
Was ever prince like him to mortals given ?
So much the joy of earth and care of heaven!
Under the preffure of unequal fate,
Of fo erect a mind, and foul fo great!
So full of meeknefs, and fo void of pride,
When borne aloft by Fortune's highest tide!
Mercy, like heaven, 's his chief prerogative,
His joy to fave, and glory to forgive.
All forms compos'd, and tempefts rage asleep,
He, Halcyon like, fat brooding o'er the deep.
He faw the royal bark fecurely ride,
No danger threatening from the peaceful tide;
And he who, when the winds and feas were high,
Oppos'd his skill, and did their rage defy,
No diminution to his honour thought,
T' enjoy the pleasure of the calm he brought.
(Should he alone be so the people's slave
As not to fhare the bleffings that he gave?)
But not till, full of providential care,
He chofe a pilot in his place to steer:
One in his father's councils and his own
Long exercis'd, and grey in bufinefs grown;
Whose confirm'd judgment and fagacious wit
Knew all the fands on which rafh monarchs split;
Of rifing winds could, ere they blew, inform,
And from which quarter to expect the ftorm.
Such was, or fuch he feem'd, whom Cæfar chofe,
And did all empire's cares in him repofe;
That, after all his toils and dangers paft,
He might lie down and tafte fome cafe at laft.
Now ftands the statefiman of the helm poffeft,
On him alone three mighty nations reft;
Byrfa his name, bred at the wrangling bar,
And skill'd in arms of that litigious war;
But more to Wit's peacefuller arts inclin'd,
Learning's Mæcenas, and the Mufes' friend;
Him every Mufe in every age had fung,
His eafy flowing wit and charming tongue,
Had not the treacherous voice of power infpir'd
His mounting thoughts, and wild ambition fir'd;
Difdaining lefs alliances to own,
He now fets up for kinfman of the throne
And Anna, by the power her father gain'd,
Back'd with great Cæfar's abfolute command,
On false pretence of former contracts made,
Is forc'd on brave Britannicus's bed.
Thus rais'd, his infolence his wit out-vy'd,
And meaneft avarice maintain'd his pride:
When Cæfar, to confirm his infant state,
Drown'd in oblivion all old names of hate,
By threatening many, but excepting none
That paid the purchase of oblivion.
Byrfa his master's free-given mercy fold,
And royal grace retail'd for rebel gold :
That new state-maxim he invented first,
(To aged Time's last revolution curft)
That teaches monarchs to oblige their foes,
And their best friends to beggary expofe;
For thefe, he faid, would still beg on and ferve;
'Tis the old badge of loyalty to starve:
But harden'd rebels must by bribes be won,
And paid for all the mighty ills they 've done :
When wealth and honour from their treafons flow,
How can they chufe but very loyal grow?
This falfe ungrateful maxim Byrsa taught,
Vaft fums of wealth from thriving rebels brought;
Titles and power to thieves and traitors fold,
Swell'd his ftretch'd coffers with o'er-flowing gold.
Hence all these tears----in thefe firft feeds was fown
His country's following ruin, and his own.
Of that accurft and facrilegious crew,
Which great by merit of rebellion grew,
Had all unactive perish'd and unknown,
The falfe Antonius had fuffic'd alone,
To all fucceeding ages to proclaim
Of this state principle the guilt and shame.
Antonius early in rebellious race
Swiftly fet out, nor flackening in his pace,
The fame ambition that his youthful heat
Urg'd to all ills, the little daring brat
With unabated ardour does engage
The loathfome dregs of his decrepit age;
Bold, full of native and acquir'd deceit,
Of sprightly cunning and malicious wit;
Reftlefs, projecting still some new design,
Still drawing round the government his line,
Bold on the walls, or bufy in the mine:
Lewd as the ftews, but to the blinded eyes
Of the dull crowd as Puritan precife;:
Before their fight he draws the juggler's cloud
Of public intereft, and the people's good.
The working ferment of his active mind,
In his weak body's cask with pain confin'd,
Would burft the rotten veffel where 'tis pent,
But that 'tis tapt to give the treafon vent.
Such were the men that from the statefiman's hand, Not pardon only, but promotion gain'd:
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