Him only honor'd, only lov’d we find,
Who fights not to destroy, but save mankind:
PELIDES' fury may our wonder move,
But god-like HECTOR is the man we love.
See WILLIAM'S sword a tyrant's pride disarm ;
See LEWIS trembling under MARLB'RO'S arm:
Say, which to human kind are friends or foes;
And who detests not These, and loves not Those?
Conquest unjust can ne'er command applause ;
'Tis not the vict'ry charms you, but the cause:
Not Caesar's self can feign the patriot's part,
Nor his false virtues hide his poison'd heart:
But round thy brows the willing laurels twine,
Whose voice wak'd Freedom in the savage mine!
Yes truly glorious, only great is he,
Who conquers, or who bleeds for liberty.
"Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
"From Macedonia's madman to the Swede."
Like baleful comets flaming in the skies,
At destin'd times th' appointed scourges rise;
Awhile in streaming lustre sweep along,
And fix in wonder's gaze th' admiring throng;
But Reason's eye detects the spurious ray,
And the false blaze of glory dies way.
Now all th' aerial cells of wit explore; The mazy rounds of science travel o'er; Search all the deep recesses of the mind, And see, if there true Honor sit enshrin'd.
Alas, nor wit nor science this can boast,
Oft' dash'd with error, oft' in caprice lost!
Transient as bright the short-liv'd bubbles fly!
And modes of wit, and modes of science die.
See Rab'lais once the idol of the age;
Yet now neglected lies the smutted page!
Of once renown'd Des Cartes how low the fall,—
His glory with his whirlpools vanish all!
See folly, wit-and weakness, wisdom stain,
And Villars witty-Bacon wise in vain!
Oft' vice corrupts what sense and parts refine,
And clouds the splendor of the brightest line,
Sullies what Congreve, and what Dryden writ,—
This, fashion's slave: as that, the slave of wit.
In vain fair Genius bids the laurel shoot,
The deadly worm thus eating at the root:
Corroded thus, the greenest wreaths decay,
And all the poet's honors fall away;
Quick as autumnal leaves, the laurels fade,
And drop on Rochester's and Otway's head.
Where then is found TRUE HONOR, heavenly
Ask LONSDALE, ask your heart-she dictates there.
The lasting honor, and bid glory live:
On Virtue's basis only fame can rise,
To stand the storms of age, and reach the skies:
Arts, conquest, greatness, feel the stroke of fate,
Shrink sudden, and betray th' incumbent weight;
Time with contempt the faithless props surveys,
"And buries madmen in the heaps they raise."
'Tis Virtue only can the bard inspire, And fill his raptur'd breast with lasting fire: Touch'd by th' ethereal ray each kindled line Beams strong still Virtue feeds the flame divine; Where-e'er she treads she leaves her footsteps bright, In radiant tracts of never-dying light;
These shed the lustre o'er each sacred name,
Give SPENSER's clear, and SHAKSPERE's noble flame;
Blaze to the skies in MILTON's ardent song,
And kindle the brisk-sallying fire of YOUNG ;
These gild each humble verse in modest GAY;
These give to SWIFT the keen, soul-piercing ray;
Mildly through ADDISON'S chaste page they shine,
And glow and warm in POPE's immortal line.
Nor less the sage must live by Virtue's aid;
Truth must support him, or his glories fade;
And truth and virtue differ but in name:
Like light and heat-distinguish'd, yet the same.
To truth and virtue the ascent is sure;
The wholesome stream implies the fountain pure;
To taste the spring we oft' essay in vain:
Deep lies the source, too short is reason's chain;
But those the issues of pure truth we know,
Which in clear strength through virtue's channel
Error in vain attempts the foul disguise,
Still tasted in the bitter wave of vice;
Drawn from the springs of Falsehood all confess
Each baneful drop that poisons happiness;
Gordon's thin shallows, Tindal's muddy page,
And Morgan's gall, and Woolston's furious rage;
Th' envenom'd stream that flows from Toland's
And the rank dregs of Hobbes and Mandeville.
Detested names! yet sentenc'd ne'er to die:
Snatch'd from oblivion's grave by infamy!
Insect-opinions, hatch'd by folly's ray,
Bask in the beam that wing'd them, for a day:
Truth, Phoenix-like immortal, though she dies,
With strength renew'd shall from her ashes rise.
See how the lustre of th' ATHENIAN sage
Shines through the lengthen'd gloom of many an age!
Virtue alone so wide the beam could spread,
And throw the lasting glory round his head.
See NEWTON chase conjecture's twilight ray,
And light up nature into certain day!
He wide creation's trackless mazes trod ;
And in each atom found the ruling God.
Unrival'd pair! with truth and virtue fraught!
Whose lives confirm'd whate'er their reason taught?
Whose far-stretch'd views, and bright examples join'd At once t' enlighten and persuade mankind!
Hail names rever'd! which time and truth proclaim The first and fairest in the list of fame.
Kings, statesmen, patriots, thus to glory rise;
On virtue grows their fame, or soon it dies;
But grafted on the vigorous stock, 'tis seen
Brighten'd by age, and springs in endless green:
Pride, folly, vice, may blossom for an hour,
Fed by court sun-shine, and poetic show'r;
But the pale tendrils, nurs'd by flattery's hand,
Unwearied tendance, fresh supplies demand;
By heats unnatural push'd to sudden growth,
They sicken at th' inclement blasts of truth;
Shook by the weakest breath that passes by,
Their colors fade, they wither, droop, and die.
See god-like patriots, gen'rous, wise, and good,
Stand in the breach, and stem corruption's flood!
See martyr-bishops at the stake expire,
Smile on the faggot, and defy its fire!
How great in exile HYDE and TULLY shone!
How ALFRED's virtues brighten❜d all his throne !
From worth like this unbidden glories stream;
Nor borrow'd blaze it asks, nor fortune's beam;
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