Or tinkle in 'Change Alley, to amuse The leathern ears of stock-jobbers and jews. A. Vouchsafe, at least, to pitch the key of rhyme To themes more pertinent, if less sublime. When ministers and ministerial arts; Patriots, who love good places at their hearts; Generals who will not conquer when they may, I hear as mute as if a syren sung. Or tell me, if you can, what power maintains A Briton's scorn of arbitrary chains; That were a theme might animate the dead, And move the lips of poets cast in lead. B. The cause, though worth the search, may yet elude Conjecture and remark, however shrewd. They take perhaps a well-directed aim, A chilling flood on summer's drooping flowers; The peasants urge their harvest, ply the fork Proportion'd well, half muscle and half bone, A mind well-lodged, and masculine of course. Hence liberty, sweet liberty inspires, And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires. He bears it with meek manliness of soul; Is seldom felt, though sometimes seen and heard, And in his cage, like parrot fine and gay, Is kept to strut, look big, and talk away. Born in a climate softer far than our's, Not formed like us, with such Herculean powers, The Frenchman, easy, debonnair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, We never feel the alacrity and joy, With which he shouts and carols Vive le Roy, And fill with discontent a British isle. A. Freeman and slave then, if the case be such, Stand on a level; and you prove too much: If all men indiscriminately share His fostering power, and tutelary care, B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, however contented, never know. The mind attains beneath her happy reign The growth, that nature meant she should attain; The varied fields of science, ever new, Opening and wider opening on her view, Stands most revealed before the freeman's eyes; Liberty chases all that gloom away; The soul, emancipated, unoppressed, Free to prove all things and hold fast the best, Guards well what arts and industry have won, And freedom claims him for her first-born son. |