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And, even in penance, planning sins anew.
All evils here contaminate the mind,

That opulence departed leaves behind;

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For wealth was theirs; not far removed the date,
When Commerce proudly flourish'd through the state:
At her command the palace learnt to rise;
Again the long-fallen column sought the skies;
The canvas glow'd, beyond even Nature warm ;
The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form:
Till, more unsteady than the southern gale,
Commerce on other shores display'd her sail;
While nought remained of all that riches gave,
But towns unmann'd, and lords without a slave :
And, late, the nation found, with fruitless skill,
Its former strength was but plethoric ill.

Yet, still the loss of wealth is here supplied
By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride;
From these the feeble heart, and long-fallen mind,
An easy compensation seem to find.

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Here may be seen, in bloodless pomp array'd,

The pasteboard triumph and the cavalcade;
Processions form'd for piety and love,

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A mistress or a saint in every grove.

By sports like these are all their cares beguiled;

The sports of children satisfy the child:

Each nobler aim, repress'd by long control,

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Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul;

While low delights succeeding fast behind,
In happier meanne s occupy the mind:

As in those domes where Cæsars once bore sway,
Defaced by time, and tottering in decay:

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There in the ruin, heedless of the dead,

The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed;

And, wondering man could want the larger pile,
Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile.

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My soul, turn from them, turn we to survey, Where rougher climes a nobler race display; Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread, And force a churlish soil for scanty bread, No product here the barren hills afford,

But man and steel, the soldier and his sword;
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter, lingering, chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.

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Yet still, even here, content can spread a charm, 175 Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm.

Though poor the peasant's hut, his feasts though small, He sees his little lot, the lot of all;

Sees no contiguous palace rear its head,

To shame the meanness of his humble shed;
No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal,
To make him loathe his vegetable meal:
But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil,
Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil:
Cheerful, at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes;
With patient angle trolls the finny deep,

Or drives the venturous ploughshare to the steep;

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Or seeks the den where snow-tracks mark the way,

And drags the struggling savage into day.

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At night returning, every labour sped,

He sits him down, the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his loved partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board:
And haply, too, some pilgrim, thither led,
With many a tale repays the nightly bed.

Thus every good his native wilds impart,
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart;
And even those hills, that round his mansion rise,
Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies.
Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,
And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms;
And, as a child, when scaring sounds molest,
Clings close and closer to the mother's breast,
So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar,
But bind him to his native mountains more.

Such are the charms to barren states assign'd

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Their wants but few, their wishes all confined: 210
Yet, let them only share the praises due;

If few their wants, their pleasures are but few:
For every want, that stimulates the breast
Becomes a source of pleasure when redrest:
Whence from such lands each pleasing science flies, 215
That first excites desire, and then supplies;
Unknown to them, when sensual pleasures cloy,
To fill the languid pores with finer joy;

Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame,
Catch every nerve, and vibrate through the frame. 220
Their level life is but a smouldering fire,

Unquench'd by want, unfanned by strong desire;
Unfit for raptures, or, if raptures cheer
On some high festival of once a year,

In wild excess the vulgar breast takes fire,
Till, buried in debauch, the bliss expire.

But, not their joys alone, thus coarsely flow;
Their morals, like their pleasures, are but low;
For, as refinement stops, from sire to son
Unalter'd, unimproved, the manners run;
And love's and friendship's finely-pointed dart
Falls blunted from each indurated heart.
Some sterner virtues o'er the mountain's breast
May sit, like falcons, cowering on the nest;
But all the gentler morals, such as play
Through life's more cultured walks, and charm the
These, far dispersed, on timorous pinions fly,
To sport and flutter in a kinder sky.

To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign,

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way,

I turn; and France displays her bright domain. 240
Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease,
Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please,
How often have I led thy sportive choir,

With tuneless pipe, beside the murmuring Loire!
Where shading elms along the margin grew,
And, freshen'd from the wave, the zephyr flew :
And haply, though my harsh touch, faltering still,
But mock'd all tune, and marr'd the dancer's skill,
Yet would the village praise my wondrous power,

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And dance, forgetful of the noontide hour.
Alike all ages; dames of ancient days

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Have led their children through the mirthful maze;
And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,
Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

So blest a life these thoughtless realms display; 255 Thus, idly busy, rolls their world away.

Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear,
For honour forms the social temper here:
Honour, that praise which real merit gains,
Or even imaginary worth obtains,

Here passes current; paid from hand to hand,
It shifts, in splendid traffic, round the land:
From courts, to camps-to cottages-it strays,
And all are taught an avarice of praise;

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They please, are pleased; they give to get esteem, 265
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.
But, while this softer art their bliss supplies,
It gives their follies, also, room to rise;

For praise too dearly loved, or warmly sought,
Enfeebles all internal strength of thought;
And the weak soul, within itself unblest,
Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.
Hence, Ostentation here, with tawdry art,
Pants for the vulgar praise which fools impart ;
Here, Vanity assumes her pert grimace,

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And trims her robes of frieze with copper lace;

Here, beggar Pride defrauds her daily cheer,
To boast one splendid banquet once a year;

The mind still turns, where shifting fashion draws,
Nor weighs the solid worth of self-applause.
To men of other minds my fancy flies,

Embosom'd in the deep where Holland lies.
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land,
And, sedulous to stop the coming tide,
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward, methinks, and diligently slow,
The firm-connected bulwark seems to grow;
Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar,

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Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore:
While the pent ocean, rising o'er the pile,
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile;
The slow canal, the yellow-blossom'd vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail,
The crowded mart, the cultivated plain-
A new creation rescued from his reign.
Thus, while around, the wave-subjected soil
Impels the native to repeated toil,

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Industrious habits in each bosom reign,

And industry begets a love of gain.

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Hence, all the good from opulence that springs,
With all those ills superfluous treasure brings,

Are here display'd. Their much-loved wealth im-
Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts;

But view them closer-craft and fraud appear,
Even liberty itself is barter'd here.

At gold's superior charms all freedom flies,
The needy sell it, and the rich man buys;
A land of tyrants, and a den of slaves,
Here wretches seek dishonourable graves,
And, calmly bent, to servitude conform,
Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm.

[parts

Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires of old!

Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold;

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War in each breast, and freedom on each brow: 315 How much unlike the sons of Britain now!

Fired at the sound, my genius spreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring; Where lawns extend, that scorn Arcadian pride, And brighter streams than famed Hydaspes glide: 320 There, all around, the gentlest breezes stray, There, gentle music melts on every spray; Creation's wildest charms are there combined, Extremes are only in the master's mind; Stern o'er each bosom, Reason holds her state, With daring aims irregularly great: Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by; Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,

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