ye

We too are friends to loyalty. We love
The king who loves the law, respects his bounds,
And reigns content within them. Him we serve
Freely and with delight, who leaves us free.
But recollecting still that he is man,

335
We trust him not too far. King though he be,
And king in England too, he may be weak
And vain enough to be ambitious still,
May exercise amiss his proper powers,
Or covet more than freemen choose to grant : 340
Beyond that mark is treason. He is ours,
To administer, to guard, to adorn the state,
But not to warp or change it. We are his,
To serve him nobly in the common cause
True to the death, but not to be his slaves.

345 Mark now the difference, that boast

your

love
Of kings, between your loyalty and ours.
We love the man ; the paltry pageant you.
We the chief patron of the commonwealth ;
You the regardless author of its woes.

350
We for the sake of liberty, a king;
You chains and bondage for a tyrant's sake.
Our love is principle, and has its root
In reason, is judicious, manly, free;
Yours, a blind instinct, crouches to the rod,

355 And licks the foot that treads it in the dust. Were kingship 2 as true treasure as it seems, Sterling, and worthy of a wise man's wish, I would not be a king to be beloved Causeless, and daub'd with undiscerning praise, 360 12 If this be kingly, then farewell for me

All kingship, and may I live poor and free. Tab. Tulk.

Where love is mere attachment to the throne,
Not to the man who fills it as he ought.

Whose freedom is by sufferance, and at will
Of a superior, he is never free.
Who lives, and is not weary of a life

36
Exposed to manacles, deserves them well.
The state that strives for liberty, though foiled
And forced to abandon what she bravely sought,
Deserves at least applause for her attempt,
And pity for her loss. But that's a cause

370 Not often unsuccessful; power usurp'd Is weakness when opposed ; conscious of wrong 'Tis pusillanimous and prone to flight. But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess

37 All that the contest calls for ; spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts The surest presage of the good they seek 13.

Then shame to manhood, and opprobrious more To France, than all her losses and defeats

380 Old or of later date, by sea or land, Her house of bondage worse than that of old Which God avenged on Pharaoh,—the Bastile. Ye horrid towers, the abode of broken hearts, Ye dungeons and ye cages of despair,

385 That monarchs have supplied from age to age With music such as suits their sovereign ears,

13 The author hopes that he shall not be censured for unnecessary warmth upon so interesting a subject. He is aware that it is become almost fashionable to stigmatize such sentiments as no better than empty declamation. But it is an ill symptom, and peculiar to modern times.

390

395

The sighs and groans of miserable men!
There's not an English heart that would not leap
To hear that ye were fallen at last, to know
That even our enemies, so oft employed
In forging chains for us, themselves were free.
For he that values liberty, confines
His zeal for her predominance within
No narrow bounds; her cause engages him
Wherever pleaded. 'Tis the cause of man.
There dwell the most forlorn of human kind,
Immured though unaccused, condemn'd untried,
Cruelly spared, and hopeless of escape.
There like the visionary emblem seen

400
By him of Babylon, life stands a stump,
And filletted about with hoops of brass,
Still lives, though all its pleasant boughs are gone.
To count the hour-bell and expect no change ;
And ever as the sullen sound is heard,

405 Still to reflect that though a joyless note To him whose moments all have one dull pace, Ten thousand rovers in the world at large Account it music; that it summons some To theatre or jocund feast or ball;

410 The wearied hireling finds it a release From labour; and the lover that has chid Its long delay, feels every welcome stroke Upon his heart-strings trembling with delight :To fly for refuge from distracting thought

415 To such amusements as ingenious woe Contrives, hard-shifting and without her tools ;To read engraven on the mouldy walls, In staggering types, his predecessor's tale,

S. C.-9.

P

A sad memorial, and subjoin his own :

420 To turn purveyor to an overgorged And bloated spider", till the pamper'd pest Is made familiar, watches his approach, Comes at his call, and serves him for a friend: To wear out time in numbering to and fro 425 The studs that thick emboss his iron door, Then downward and then upward, then aslant And then alternate, with a sickly hope By dint of change to give his tasteless task Some relish, till the sum exactly found

430 In all directions, he begins again :Oh comfortless existence! hemm'd around With woes, which who that suffers, would not kneel. And beg for exile, or the pangs of death ? That man should thus encroach on fellow man 15, 435

14 With spiders I had friendship made,
And watch'd them in their sullen trade, &c.

Byron. Prisoner of Chillon. 15 And this place our forefathers made for man,

This is the process of our love and wisdom
To each poor brother who offends against us,
Most innocent, perhaps—and what if guilty ?
Is this the only cure ? Merciful God !
Each pure and natural outlet shrivelled up
By ignorance and parching poverty,
His energies roll back upon his heart,
And stagnate and corrupt; till changed to poison,
They break out on him, like a loathsome plague spot.
Then we call in our pampered mountebanks-
And this is their best cure! uncomforted
And friendless solitude, groaning and tears,
And savage faces, at the clanking hour,
Seen through the steams and vapour of his dungeon,

440

445

Abridge him of his just and native rights,
Eradicate him, tear him from his hold
Upon the endearments of domestic life
And social, nip his fruitfulness and use,
And doom him for perhaps an heedless word
To barrenness and solitude and tears,
Moves indignation ; makes the name of king,
(Of king whom such prerogative can please,)
As dreadful as the Manichean God,
Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,
And we are weeds without it. All constraint,
Except what wisdom lays on evil men,
Is evil; hurts the faculties, impedes
Their progress in the road of science; blinds
The eyesight of discovery, and begets
In those that suffer it, a sordid mind
Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit
To be the tenant of man's noble form.
Thee therefore still, blame-worthy as thou art,
With all thy loss of empire, and though squeezed
By public exigence till annual food
Fails for the craving hunger of the state,
Thee I account still happy, and the chief
Among the nations, seeing thou art free!
My native nook of earth! Thy clime is rude,

450

455

460

By the lamp's dismal twilight! so he lies
Circled with evil, till his very

soul
Unmoulds its essence, hopelessly deformed
By sights of evermore deformity.

Coleridge. Remorse.