THESE times touch moneyed worldlings with dismay : [air Even rich men, brave by nature, taint the With words of apprehension and despair: While tens of thousands, thinking on the affray, Men unto whom sufficient for the day Are cheerful as the rising sun in May. ENGLAND! the time is come when thou shouldst wean Thy heart from its emasculating food; seen The truth should now be better understood; England! all nations in this charge agree: Of thy offences be a heavy weight: Oh, grief! that earth's best hopes rest all with thee! OCTOBER, 1803. WHEN, looking on the present face of things, I see one man, of men the meanest too! I measure back the steps which I have trod; TO THE MEN OF KENT. OCTOBER, 1803. Now is the time to prove your hardiment! Left single, in bold parley, ye of yore, before ; No parleying now! In Britain is one We all are with you now from shore to shore : Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death! ANOTHER year!-another deadly blow! Another mighty empire overthrown! And we are left, or shall be left, alone; The last that dare to struggle with the foe. 'Tis well! from this day forward we shall know That in ourselves our safety must be sought; That by our own right hands it must be wrought, [low. That we must stand unpropped, or be laid O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer! Be men who hold its many blessings dear, We shall exult, if they who rule the land Wise, upright, valiant ; not a servile band, Who are to judge of danger which they fear, And honour which they do not understand. ODE. WHO rises on the banks of Seine, And binds her temples with the civic wreath? What joy to read the promise of her mien ! How sweet to rest her wide-spread wings beneath! But they are ever playing, And stands on tiptoe, conscious she is fair, And spreads her arms-as if the general | If, when that interference hath relieved him, air Alone could satisfy her wide embrace. Melt, principalities. before her melt! Her love ye hailed-her wrath have felt; But she through many a change of form hath gone, [creature, And stands amidst you now, an armèd Whose panoply is not a thing put on, But the live scales of a portentous nature; That, having wrought its way from birth to birth, [to the earth! Stalks round-abhorred by Heaven, a terror I marked the breathings of her dragon My soul, a sorrowful interpreter, Before the ominous aspect of her spear; Seemed to bisect her orbèd shield, As stretches a blue bar of solid cloud Across the setting sun, and through the fiery west. So did she daunt the earth, and God defy! And, wheresoe'er she spread her sovereignty, Pollution tainted all that was most pure. Have we not known-and live we not to tell He must sink down to languish In worse than former helplessness-and lie Till the caves roar,-and, imbecility Again engendering anguish, The same weak wish returns, that had before deceived him. THE CLOUDS, ungering yet, extend in solid bars By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield Where ruthless mortals wage incessant wars. near; TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ON THE FINAL Is it a mirror?-or the nether sphere Didst first lead forth this pilgrimage sublime, With unabating effort, see, the palm A great man's happiness; thy zeal shall find A PROPHECY. FEBRUARY, 1807. HIGH deeds, O Germans, are to come from you! [the reeds, Great Pan himself low-whispering through "Be thankful, thou; for if unholy deeds Ravage the world, tranquillity is here!" trace Go back to antique ages, if thine eyes For his field-pastime, high and absolute, [found, COMPOSED WHILE THE AUTHOR WAS Thus in your books the record shall be true, enslave NOT 'mid the world's vain objects! that [vaunted skill The free-born soul,-that world whose In selfish interest perverts the will, Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave; [trance; True to herself-the mighty Germany, threw. flame." All power was given her in the dreadful! Not there! but in dark wood and rocky cave, Here, mighty nature! in this school sublime For her consult the auguries of time, And through the human heart explore my | Like echo, when the hunter-train at dawn Have roused her from her sleep: and forest-lawn, [resound way, [may, And look and listen-gathering, whence I Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain. Cliffs, woods, and caves her viewless steps And babble of her pastime !-On, dread power! COMPOSED AT THE same time anD ON With such invisible motion speed thy flight, THE SAME OCCASION. I DROPPED my pen :-and listened to the wind Through hanging clouds, from craggy height to height, [herdsman's bower, Through the green vales and through the That all the Alps may gladden in th might, Here, there, and in all places at one hour ALAS! what boots the long, laborious quest Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill; Or pains abstruse-to elevate the will, schools More for mankind at this unhappy day Than all the pride of intellect and thought? AND is it among rude untutored dales, There, and there only, that the heart is true? And, rising to repel or to subdue, |