(Ufelefs, where rocks a furer barrier lend,
Where feas encircle, and where fleets defend ;)
What though no arch of triumph is affign'd
To laurel'd pride, whose sword has thinn'd mankind; 90
Though no vaft wall extends from coast to coast,
No pyramid afpires, fublimely loft;
Yet the fafe road through rocks fhall winding tend,
And the firm caufeway o'er the clays afcend.
Lo! ftately streets, lo! ample fquares invite
The falutary gale, that breathes delight.
Lo! ftructures mark the charitable foil
For cafual ill, maim'd valour, feeble toil
Worn out with care, infirmity, and age;
The life here entering, quitting there the ftage:
The babe of lawlefs birth, doom'd elfe to moan,
To starve or bleed for errors not his own!
Let the frail mother 'fcape the fame defil'd,
If from the murdering mother 'scape the child!
Oh, guard his youth from fin's alluring voice;
From deeds of dire neceffity, not choice!
His grateful hand, thus never harmful known,
Shall on the public welfare build his own.
Thus worthy crafts, which low-born life divide, Give towns their opulence, and courts their pride. 110 Sacred to pleasure structures rife elate,
To that still worthy of the wife and great.
Sacred to pleasure then fhall piles ascend ?
They fhall-when pleasure and inftruction blend.
Let theatres from Public Spirit fhine!
Such theatres, as, Athens, once were thine!
See! the gay Mufe of pointed wit poffeft,
Who makes the virtuous laugh, the decent jeft:
What though the mock, the mocks with honest aim,
And laughs each favorite folly into shame,
With liberal light the tragic charms the age:
In folemn-training robes the fills the stage;
There human nature, mark'd in different lines,
Alive in character diftinctly fhines.
Quick paffions change alternate on her face;
Her diction mufic, as her action grace.
Inftant we catch her terror-giving cares,
Pathetic fighs, and pity-moving tears;
Inftant we catch her generous glow of foul,
Till one great ftriking moral crowns the whole.
Hence in warm youth, by scenes of virtue taught,
Honour exalts, and love expands the thought;
Hence pity, to peculiar grief affign'd,
Grows wide benevolence to all mankind.
Where various edifice the land renowns,
There Public Spirit plans, exalts, and crowns.
She chears the mansion with the spacious hall,
Bids painting live along the ftoried wall;
Seated, the fmiling eyes th' unclofing door,
And much the welcomes all, but most the poor; 149
She turns the pillar, or the arch the bends,
The choir she lengthens, or the choir extends;
She rears the tower, whofe height the heavens admire;
She rears, the rounds, she points the leffening spire;
At her command the college-roofs afcend
(For Public Spirit still is learning's friend),
Stupendous piles, which ufeful pomp compleats,
Thus rife Religion's, and thus Learning's feats:
There moral truth and holy science spring,
And give the sage to teach, the bard to sing,
There fome draw health from herbs and mineral veins, Some fearch the systems of the heavenly plains;
Some call from history past times to view,
And others trace old laws, and sketch out new ;
Thence faving rights by legislators plann'd,
And guardian patriots thence inspire the land.
Now grant, ye powers, one great, one fond defire,
And, granting, bid a new Whitehall aspire!
Far let it lead, by well-pleas'd Thames furvey'd,
The fwelling arch, and stately colonnade;
Bid courts of justice, fenate-chambers join,
Till various all in one proud work combine!
But now be all the generous Goddess feen,
When most diffus'd the fhines, and most benign!
Ye fons of mifery, attract her view!
Ye fallow, hollow-eyed, and meagre crew!
Such high perfection have our arts attain'd,
That now few fons of toil our arts demand ?
Then to the public, to itself, we fear,
Ev'n willing industry grows useless here,
Are we too populous at length confefs'd,
From confluent ftrangers refug'd and redress'd?
Has war fo long withdrawn his barbarous train,
That peace o'erftocks us with the fons of men?
So long has plague left pure the ambient air,
That want must prey on those disease would spare?
Hence beauteous wretches (beauty's foul difgrace!)
Though born the pride, the fhame of human race;
Fair wretches hence, who nightly streets annoy,
Live but themselves and others to deftroy.
Hence robbers rife, to theft, to murder prone,
First driven by want, from habit desperate grown ;
Hence for ow'd trifles oft our jails contain
(Torn from mankind) a miserable train;
Torn from, in fpite of nature's tenderest cries,
Parental, filial, and connubial ties :
The trader, when on every fide distreft,
Hence flies to what expedient frauds fuggeft;
To prop his question'd credit's tottering state,
Others he first involves to fhare his fate;
Then for mean refuge muft felf-exil'd roam,
Never to hope a friend, nor find a home,
This Public Spirit fees, the fees and feels! Her breaft the throb, her eye the tear reveals; (The patriot throb that beats, the tear that flows 195 For others welfare, and for others woes)
And what can I (fhe faid) to cure their grief?
Shall I or point out death, or point relief?
Forth fhall I lead them to fome happier foil,
To conqueft lead them, and enrich with spoil? 200
Bid them convulfe a world, make nature groan,
And spill, in hedding others blood, their own?
No, no-fuch wars do thou, Ambition, wage!
Go fterilize the fertile with thy rage!
Whole nations to depopulate is thine;
To people, culture, and protect, be mine!
Then range the world, Discovery!-Strait he goes
'O'er feas, o'er Libya's fands, and Zembla's fnows;
He fettles where kind rays till now have fmil'd
(Vain fmile!) on fome luxuriant houfelefs wild.
How many fons of want might here enjoy
What Nature gives for age but to destroy?
Blush, blush, O fun (fhe cries) here vainly found,
To rife, to fet, to roll the feafons round!
Shall heaven diftil in dews, descend in rain,
From earth gush fountains, rivers flow-in vain ?
There fhall the watery lives in myriads stray,
And be, to be alone each other's prey?
Unfought fhall here the teeming quarries own
The various fpecies of mechanic stone?
From structure this, from sculpture that confine?
Shall rocks forbid the latent gem to fhine?
Shall mines, obedient, aid no artist's care,
Nor give the martial fword, and peaceful fhare?
Ah! fhall they never precious ore unfold,
To fmile in filver, or to flame in gold?
Shall here the vegetable world alone,
For joys, for various virtues, reft unknown?
While food and phyfic, plants and herbs supply,
Here muft they shoot alone to bloom and die ?
Shall fruits, which none but brutal eyes furvey,
Untouch'd grow ripe, untasted drop away?
Shall here th' irrational, the favage kind,
Lord it o'er ftores by heaven for man design'd,
And trample what mild funs benignly raife,
While man must lose the use, and heaven the praise ?
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