FREDERIC PRINCE OF WALES.
CONTENT S.
OF refervoirs, and their use of draining fens, and building bridges, cutting canals, repairing harbours, and stopping inundations, making rivers navigable, building light-houses; of agriculture, gardening, and planting for the nobleft ufes ; of commerce; of public roads; of public buildings, viz. fquares, ftreets, manfions, palaces, courts of justice, fenate - houses, theatres, hofpitals, churches, colleges; the variety of worthies produced by the latter; of colonies. The flavetrade cenfured, &c.
REAT Hope of Britain !-Here the Muse essays A theme, which, to attempt alone, is praise. Be Her's a zeal of Public Spirit known! A princely zeal!—á Spírit all your own!
Where never Science beam'd a friendly ray,
Where one vaft blank neglected Nature lay;
From Public Spirit there, by arts employ'd,
Creation, varying, glads the cheerless void,
Hail, arts! where fafety, treasure, and delight,
On land, cn wave, in wondrous works unite!
Thofe wondrous works, O Muse! fucceffive raise,
And point their worth, their dignity, and praise !
What though no ftreams, magnificently play'd,
Rife a proud column, fall a grand cascade ;
Through nether pipes, which nobler ufe renowns, 15
Lo! ductile rivulets vifit diftant towns!
Now vanish fens, whence vapours rife no more,
Whofe agueish influence tainted heaven before.
The folid ifthmus finks a watery space,
And wonders, in new state, at naval grace.
Where the flood deepening rolls, or wide extends,
From road to road yon arch, connective, bends:.
Where ports were choak'd; where mounds, in vain,
There harbours open, and there breaches close ;
To keels, obedient, fpreads each liquid plain,
And bulwark moles repel the boisterous main.
When the funk fun no homeward fail befriends,
On the rock's brow the light-house kind afcends,
And from the shoaly, o'er the gulfy way,
Points to the pilot's eye the warning ray.
Count ftill, my Muse (to count, what Mufe can
The works of Public Spirit, freedom, peace!
By them fhall plants, in forests, reach the skies;
Then lose their leafy pride, and navies rise
(Navies, which to invafive foes explain,
Heaven throws not round us rocks and seas in vain): The fail of commerce in each sky afpires,
And property affures what toil acquires.
Who digs the mine or quarry, digs with glee;
No flave! His option and his gain are free:
Him the fame laws the fame protection yield,
Who plows the furrow, or who owns the field.
Unlike, where tyranny the rod maintains
́O'er turfless, leafless, and uncultur'd plains,
Here herbs of food and phyfic plenty showers.
Gives fruits to blush, and colours various flowers.
Where fands or ftony wilds once ftarv'd the year,
Laughs the green lawn, and nods the golden ear:
White fhine the fleecy race, which fate fhall doom
The feast of life, the treasure of the loom.
On plains now bare shall gardens wave their groves; While fettling fongfters woo their feather'd loves. Where pathless woods no grateful openings knew, Walks tempt the ftep, and viftas court the view. See the parterre confess expansive day; The grot, elufive of the noon-tide ray.
Up yon green flope a length of terrace lies,
Whence gradual landscapes fade in distant skies.
Now the blue lake reflected heaven displays;
Now darkens, regularly-wild, the maze.
Urns, obelisks, fanes, ftatues intervene ;
Now centre, now commence, or end the scene.
Lo, proud alcoves! lo, soft sequester'd bowers !
Retreats of focial, or of studious hours!
Rank above rank here fhapely greens afcend;
There others natively-grotefque depend.
The rude, the delicate, immingled tell
How Art would Nature, Nature Art excel;
And how, while these their rival charms impart,
Art brightens Nature, Nature brightens Art;
Thus, in the various, yet harmonious space,
Blend order, fymmetry, and force, and grace.
When thefe from Public Spirit fimile, we fee
Free-opening gates, and bowery pleasures free ;
For fure great fouls one truth can never miss,
Blifs not communicated is not blifs.
Thus Public Spirit, liberty, and peace,
Carve, build, and plant, and give the land increase ;
From peasant hands imperial works arise,
And British hence with Roman grandeur vies;
Not grandeur that in pompous whim appears,
That levels hills, that vales to mountains rears;
That alters nature's regulated grace,
Meaning to deck, but deftin'd to deface.
Though no proud gates, with China's taught to vie, 85 Magnificently useless strike the eye;
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