SELECT POEMS.

TRUE FREEDOM.

BY COWPER.

HE is the freeman whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves besides. There's not a chain
That hellish foes, confed'rate for his harm,

Can wind around him, but he casts it off
With as much ease as Sampson his green withes.
He looks abroad into the varied field

Of Nature, and though poor, perhaps, compar'd
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scen'ry all his own.
His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers; his t' enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspir'd,
Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling sayMy Father made them all.
Are they not his by a peculiar right,
And by an emphasis of int'rest his,

Whose eye they fill with tears of holy joy,

Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind

B

With worthy thoughts of that unwearied love
That plann'd, and built, and still upholds a world,
So cloth'd with beauty, for rebellious man?
Yes-ye may fill your garners, ye that reap
The loaded soil, and ye may waste much good
In senseless riot; but ye will not find,

In feast or in the chase, in song or dance,
A liberty like his, who, unimpeach'd
Of usurpation, and to no man's wrong,
Appropriates nature as his Father's work,
And has a richer use of yours than you.
He is indeed a freeman; free by birth,
Of no mean city, plann'd or ere the hills
Were built, the fountains open'd, or the sea,
With all his roaring multitude of waves.
His freedom is the same in ev'ry state,
And no condition of this changeful life,
So manifold in cares, whose ev'ry day
Brings its own evil with it, makes it less :
For he has wings that neither sickness, pain,
Nor penury, can cripple or confine:

holds

No nook so narrow but he spreads them there
With ease, and is at large. Th' oppressor
His body bound, but knows not what a range
His spirit takes, unconscious of a chain;

And that to bind him is a vain attempt,

Whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells. Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste His works.

Admitted once to his embrace,