Æras deriv'd, and chronicles begun,
From empires founded, and from battles won;
Shew all the spoils by valiant kings atchiev'd,
And groaning nations by their arms reliev'd ;
The wounds of patriots in their country's cause,
And happy power sustain’d by wholesome laws ;
In comely rank call every merit forth,
Imprint on every act its standard-worth ;
The glorious parallels then downward bring
To modern wonders, and to Britain's king;
With equal justice, and historic care,
Their laws, their toils, their arms, with his compare ;
Confuss the various attributes of fame
Collected and complete in William's naine;
To all the listening world relate

(As thou dost his story read), That nothing went before so great, And nothing greater can succeed.

II.
Thy native Latium was thy darling cate,
Prudent in peace, and terrible in war :
The boldest virtues that have govern'd earth
From Latium's fruitful womb derive their birth.

Then turn to her fair-written page ;
From dawning childhood to establish'd age

The glories of her empire trace ;
Confront the heros of thy Roman race ;
And let the justest palm the victor's temples grace.

III.
The son of Mars reduc'd the trembling swains,
And spread his empire o'er the distant plains :

}

But yet the Sabins violated charms
Obscur'd the glory of his rising arms.
Numa the rights of strict religion knew;
On every altar laid the incense due;

Unfkill'd to dart the pointed spear,
Or lead the forward youth to noble war,
Stern 'Brutus was with too much horror good,
Holding his fasces stain'd with filial blood.
Fabius was wise, but with excess of care
He sav'd his country, but prolong'd the war.
While Decius, Paulus, Curius, greatly fougirt,

And by their strict examples taught

How wild desires should be contrould,
And how much brighter virtue was than gold :
They scarce their swelling thirst of fame could hide;
And boasted poverty with too much pride.
Excess in youth made Scipio less rever'd:
And Cato, dying, seem'd to own, he fear'd.
Julius with honour tam'd Rome's foreign foes;
But patriots fell, ere the dictator rofe.
And, while with clemency Auguftus reign'd,
The monarch was ador'd; the city chain'd.

IV.
With justeft honour be their merits drest;

But be their failings too confeft:

Their virtue like their Tyber's flood
Rolling, its course defign'd their country's good.
But of the torrent's too impetuous fpeed
From the low earth core some poliuting weed ;

And

M 2

And with the blood of Jove there always ran - Some viler part, some tincture of the man.

a

Few virtues after these so far prevail,
But that their vices more than turn the scale :
Valour, grown wild by pride, and power by rage,

Did the true charms of inajesty impair ;
Rome by degrees, advancing more in age,

Shew'd sad remains of what had oncé been fair;
Till Heaven a better race of men supplies ;
And glory-shoots new beams from western skies.

VI.
Turn then to Pharamond and Charlemain,
And, the long heros of the Gallic strain ;
Experienc'd chiefs, for hardy prowess known,
And bloody wreaths in venturous-battles won.
From the first William, our great Norman king,
The bold. Plantagenets and Tudors bring ;
Illustrious virtues, who by turns have rose,
In foreign fields to check Britannia's foes ;
With happy laws her empire to sustain ;
And with full power assert her ambient main.
But sometimes, too industrious to be great,
Nor patient to expect the turns of fate,
They open'd camps, deform’d by civil fight,
And made proud conquest trample over right;
Disparted Britain mourn'd their doubtful sway,
And dreaded both, when neither would obey.

VII,: From

VII.
From Didier and imperial Adolph tráce
The glorious offspring of the Nassau race,
Devoted lives to public liberty ;
The chief still dying, or the country free.
Then see the kindred blood of Orange flow,
From warlike Cornet, through the loins of Beau;
'Through Chalon next, and there with Nassau join,
From Rhone's fair banks transplanted to the Rhine.
Bring next the royal lift of Stuarts forth,
Undaunted minds, that rul'd the rugged north ;
Till Heaven's decrees by ripening times are shown;
Till Scotland's kings ascend the English throne;
And the fair rivals live for ever one.

VIII.
Janus, mighty deity,
Be kind; and, as thy searching eye
Does our modern story trace,
Finding some of Stuart's race

Unhappy, pass their annals by :
No harsh refle&tion let remembrance raise :
Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise :
But, as thou dwell'st upon that heavenly name
To grief for ever sacred, as to fame,
Oh! read it to thyself; in silence weep;
And thy convulsive sorrows inward keep;
Left Britain's grief should waken at the sound,
And blood gulh fresh froin her eternal wound.

}

:

IX.
Whither wouldst thou further look :
Read William's acts, and close the ample book :
Peruse the wonders of his dawning life :-

How, like Alcides, he began ;
With infant patience calm'd seditious strife;
And quelld the snakes which round his cradle raman

X. Describe his youth, attentive to alarms, By dangers form’d, and perfected in arms : When conquering, mild i when conquer'd, not dif

grac'd ;
By wrongs not lessen'd, nor by triumphs rais'd:

Superior to the blind events
Of little human accidents ;

And constant to his first decree,
To curb the proud, to set the injur'& free;
'To bow the haughty neck, and raise the suppliant
knee.

XI.
His opening years to riper manhood brings
And see the hero perfect in the king:
Imperious arms by manly reason fway'd,
And power supreme by free consent obey'd ;
With how much haste lis mercy meets his foes,
And how unbounded his forgiveness flows ;
With what defire he makes his subjects blefs'd,
His favours granted ere his throne address’d:
What trophies o'er our captiv'd hearts he rears,
By arts of peace more potent, than by wars :

How