Still, like the fabled heavenly lust of old,
Try'd all his strength, and all his charms,
To grasp the virgin to his arms.

He shook his thunder, and he rain'd his gold,
Till long departed Justice came below,

With awful step she march'd, and dreadful to behold,

Like the German, stern and bold,

Her vengeance certain, tho' her motion slow.
Lead on Astraea, thy triumphant way,
And to th' affrighted world display
Aloft thy bloody banner, to chastise
Successful rapine, and absolve the skies.
Down from the Alpine hills her armies pour,
Eridanus is with amazement struck,
And wonders why the mountain shook.
Convulsions never felt before,

Such thunder never heard to roar,
Since Phaeton fell headlong from the sky
She now no second fall can fear,
But thinks the God himself is nigh,
When she beholds his eagle there.

Let wise Impiety be dumb,
Like her own thoughtless Deity become,
Which neither rule nor order keeps,

But in eternal ease supinely sleeps.
Madness! behold God's strange mysterious way,
How sure his arrows fly, no random play;
So lingering is his wrath! so fatal his delay!

To raise the weak, and mortify the proud,
See, marching from afar,

His ministers of wrath, a formidable crowd,
With all the horrid clang of a tumultuous war,
Fierce as his lightning, as his thunder loud;
Loud as the water-falls of Nile,
When they with mighty flow

Roll from some Ethiopian hill,

And drown or deafen all below.

When Savoy's Eugene and his fortunes lead the way,

O Italy! how fair is thy pretence

Of Nature's strong and rocky fence! In vain thy rivers swell, in vain thy Alps obstruct his stay.

When he of old to victory was flown,

The moon of Ottoman began to wane, The lesser stars grew pale, which fill'd her eastern

train;

Nor does the Turkish Majesty alone

Bow to his awful name,

But onward marching, his triumphant fame Knocks at Versailles, and shakes the Celtic throne. Where purple cruelty, in haughty state, Presides, tyrannically great;

Moves arbitrary in his orb of light,

Till, urg'd by the decrees of Fate,

From his high solstice in his fullest blaze,
He takes his ignominious flight,

Rolls backward his diminish'd rays,

And in succeeding darkness ends the glory of his days.

Yet sleep not, Albion; for, with armed hand, And watchful eyes, thy foes around thee stand. Nay, thy own sons, with thy best blessings fed, Conspire against thy sacred head,

To drive thee to the last extreme; While their black malice, and ungrateful wit, Does like the Augur's razor seem, Which cut the hone that sharpen'd it.

But Heaven has nodded with a firm consent To guard thy island from her cruel foes, And all their fruitless treachery prevent, Who dare with force, or golden arms oppose Thy navy, and thy parliament.

Vol. XV.

ODE II.

ΤΟ

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE,

ON HIS

CEASING TO BE MINISTER.

BY SIR WILLIAM BROWNE, KNT. M.D. F. R.S.

THE Minister that's brave and just,
True to his King's and Country's trust,
Defies the tyrant Faction;
Howe'er its many heads may stare,
Grown dreadful with a Gorgon air
Of general distraction.

Not threatning Barnard, who commands
The restless city's furious bands,
And brandishes her dagger;

Not thundering Pulteney, though he awes
The Senate to desert his cause;
His steady soul can stagger.

Th' impending storm, that louder grows
From shrinking friends and swelling foes,
Intrepidly he faces:

Untouch'd with guilt, he knows no fears,
And only greater yet appears,
Divested of his places.

Thus Somers, for great service done,
Thus Marlborough, for realms o'er-run,
Were by their Country treated;
Who now quaff Nectar's flowing tide,
With just Godolphin by their side,
Celestially seated.

Thus our great founder William rose,
By opposition of his foes,

To his immortal glory :

Thus our brave George advanc'd to fame,
And still shall have Old Steady's name
In everlasting story.

George thus address'd his brother Gods, Assembled in their blest abodes,

And Britain's fate debating: 'Long have the Stuarts ceas'd to reign, "Since James's Priests and foreign Queen 'Drove on his abdicating.

'Soon as he from the Church withdrew His grace, by solemn promise due, And broke all limitation ;