Lib'ral in all things elfe, yet nature here Proportion'd well, half mufcle and half bone, A mind well lodg'd, and masculine of course. And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires. He bears it with meek manliness of foul, To him that treads upon his free-born toe, One One step beyond the bound'ry of the laws Fires him at once in freedom's glorious cause. Is feldom felt, though fometimes feen and heard; Not form'd like us, with fuch Herculean pow'rs, Give him his lass, his fiddle and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, With which he shouts and carols, Vive le Roy, Vigilant Vigilant over all that he has made, Kind Providence attends with gracious aid, He can encourage flav'ry to a smile, And fill with difcontent a British isle. A. Freeman and flave then, if the cafe be fuch, Stand on a level, and you prove too much. If all men indifcriminately fhare, His foft'ring pow'r, and tutelary care, As well be yok'd by defpotifm's hand, As dwell at large in Britain's charter'd land. B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to fhow, That flaves, howe'er contented, never know. The mind attains beneath her happy reign, The growth that nature meant she should attain. She ventures onward with a prosp'rous force, Religion, Religion, richest favour of the skies, Stands most reveal'd before the freeman's eyes; Liberty chaces all that gloom away; The foul, emancipated, unopprefs'd, Free to prove all things and hold fast the best, Courage in arms, and ever prompt to show Guards well what arts and industry have won, Oh Oh liberty! the pris'ner's pleafing dream, Loft without thee th' ennobling powers of verse, Its clearest tone, the rapture it infpires; Place me where winter breathes his keeneft air, And I will fing if liberty be there ; And I will fing at liberty's dear feet, In Afric's torrid clime or India's fierceft heat. A. Sing where you please, in fuch a cause I grant. An English Poet's privilege to rant, But is not freedom, at leaft is not our's Too apt to play the wanton with her pow'rs, Grow freakish, and o'erleaping ev'ry mound B. Agreed. But would you fell or flay your horse For bounding and curvetting in his courfe Or if, when ridden with a careless rein, He break away, and feek the diftant plain? No. |