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O cruel loss! as if the golden fleece,

With so much cost and labour bought, And from afar by a great hero brought,

Had sunk ev'n in the ports of Greece. O cursed War! who can forgive thee this? Houses and towns may rise again; And ten times easier 'tis To rebuild Paul's, than any work of his: That mighty task none but himself can do,

Nay, scarce himself too, now; For, though his wit the force of age withstand, His body, alas! and time, it must command; And Nature now, so long by him surpass'd, Will sure have her revenge on him at last.

ODE, FROM CATULLUS.

ACME AND SEPTIMIUS.

WHILST on Septimius' panting breast
(Meaning nothing less than rest)
Acme lean'd her loving head,
Thus the pleas'd Septimius said:
"My dearest Acme, if I be
Once alive, and love not thee
With a passion far above
All that e'er was called love;
In a Libyan desert may

1 become some lion's prey;
Let him, Acme, let him tear

My breast, when Acme is not there."
The god of love, who stood to hear him
(The god of love was always near him)
Pleas'd and tickled with the sound,
Sneez'd aloud; and all around
The little Loves, that waited by,
Bow'd, and blest the augury.
Acme, enflam'd with what he said,
Rear'd her gently-bending head;
And, her purple mouth with joy
Stretching to the delicions boy,
Twice (and twice could scarce suffice)
She kist bis drunken rolling eyes.

ec My little life, my all!" (said she)
So may we ever servants be

To this best god, and ne'er retain
Our hated liberty again!

So may thy passion last for me,
As I a passion have for thee,

Greater and fiercer much than can
Be conceiv'd by thee a man!
Into my marrow is it gone,
Fixt and settled in the bone;
It reigns not only in my heart,

But runs, like life, through every part.”
She spoke; the god of love aloud
Sneez'd again; and all the crowd
Of little Loves, that waited by,

Bow'd, and blest the augury.

This good omen thus from Heaven
Like a happy signal given,

Their loves and lives (all four) embrace,
And hand in hand run all the race.
To poor Septimius (who did now
Nothing else but Acme grow)
Acme's bosom was alone

The whole world's imperial throne;

And to faithful Acme's mind
Septimius was all human-kind.
If the gods would please to be
But advis'd for once by me,
I'd advise them, when they spy
Any illustrious piety,

To reward her, if it be she-
To reward him, if it be he-
With such a husband, such a wife;
With Acme's and Septimius' life.

ODE

Virg.

UPON HIS MAJESTY'S RESTORATION AND RETURN.
-Quod optanti divûm promittere nemo
Auderet, volvenda dies, en, attulit ultro.
Now blessings on you all, ye peaceful stars,
Which meet at last so kindly, and dispense
Your universal gentle influence

To calm the stormy world, and still the rage of wars!
Nor, whilst around the continent
Plenipotentiary beams ye sent,

Did your pacific lights disdain
In their large treaty to contain

The world apart, o'er which do reign

Your seven fair brethren of great Charles his wain;
No star amongst ye all did, I believe,

Such vigorous assistance give,
As that which, thirty years ago,
At Charles's birth 3, did, in despite
Of the proud Sun's meridian light,
His future glories and this year foreshow.
No less effects than these we may
Be assur'd of from that powerful ray,

Which could out-face the Sun, and overcome the day,

Auspicious star! again arise,

And take thy noon-tide station in the skies,
Again all heaven prodigiously adorn;
For lo! thy Charles again is born.
He then was born with and to pain;
With and to joy he's born again.
And, wisely for this second birth,
By which thou certain were to bless

The land with full and flourishing happiness,

Thou mad'st of that fair month thy choice, In which heaven, air, and sea, and earth, And all that's in them, all, does smile and does rejoice.

'Twas a right season; and the very ground Ought with a face of Paradise to be found,

Then, when we were to entertain

Felicity and Innocence again.

Shall we again (good Heaven!) that blessed pair be

hold,

Which the abused people fondly sold

For the bright fruit of the forbidden tree,

By seeking all like gods to be? Will Peace her halcyon nest venture to build Upon a shore with shipwrecks fill'd, And trust that sea, where she can hardly say She has known these twenty years one calmy day?

3 The star that appeared at noon, the day of the king's birth, just as the king his father was riding to St. Paul's to give thanks to God for that blessing.

ODES.

Ah! mild and gall-less dove,
Which dost the pure and candid dwellings love,
Canst thou in Albion still delight?

Still canst thou think it white?

Will ever fair Religion appear
In these deform'd ruins? will she clear
Th' Augean stables of her churches here?
Will Justice hazard to be seen

Where a high court of justice e'er has been?
Will not the tragic scene,

And Bradshaw's bloody ghost, affright her there,
Her, who shall never fear?

Then may Whitehall for Charles's seat be fit,
If Justice shall endure at Westminster to sit.
Of all, methinks, we least should see
The chearful looks again of Liberty.
That name of Cromwell, which does freshly still
The curses of so many sufferers fill,

Is still enough to make her stay,
And jealous for a while remain,
Lest, as a tempest carried him away,
Some hurricane should bring him back again.
Or, she might justlier be afraid
Lest that great serpent, which was all a tail,
(And in his poisonous folds whole nations pri-
soners made)

Should a third time perhaps prevail
To join again, and with worse sting arise,
As it had done when cut in pieces twice.

Return, return, ye sacred Four!
And dread your perish'd enemies no more.

Your fears are causeless all, and vain,
Whilst you return in Charles's train;
For God does him, that he might you, restore,
Nor shall the world him only call
Defender of the Faith, but of you all.
Along with you plenty and riches go,
With a full tide to every port they flow,

With a warm fruitful wind o'er all the country
blow.

Honour does, as ye march, her trumpet sound,

The Arts encompass you around,
And, against all alarms of Fear,
Safety itself brings up the rear.
And, in the head of this angelic band,

Lo! how the goodly prince at last does stand
(O righteous God!) on his own happy land:
'Tis happy now, which could with so much ease
Recover from so desperate a disease;

A various complicated ill,
Whose every symptom was enough to kill;
In which one part of three frenzy possest,
And lethargy the rest:

'Tis happy, which no bleeding does endure,
A surfeit of such blood to cure:
'Tis happy, which beholds the flame
In which by hostile hands it ought to burn,

Or that which, if from Heaven it came,
It did but well deserve, all into bonfire turn.
We fear'd (and almost touch'd the black degree
Of instant expectation)

That the three dreadful angels we,
Of famine, sword, and plague, should here esta-

blish'd see,
(God's great triumvirate of desolation!)
To scourge and to destroy the sinful nation.
Justly might Heaven Protectors such as those,
And such committees, for their safety, impose
Upon a land which scarcely better chose.

We fear'd, that the fanatic war,
Which men against God's houses did declare,
Would from the Almighty enemy bring down
A sure destruction on our own.

We read th' instructive histories which tell
Of all those endless mischiefs that befel
The sacred town which God had lov'd so well,
After that fatal curse had once been said,
"His blood be upon ours and on our children's
head."

We know, though there a greater blood was spilt,
'Twas scarcely done with greater guilt.

We know those miseries did befal
Whilst they rebell'd against that prince, whom all
The rest of mankind did the love and joy of man-
kind call.

Already was the shaken nation

Into a wild and deform'd chaos brought,

And it was hasting on (we thought)
Even to the last of ills-annihilation:
When, in the midst of this confused night,
Lo! the blest Spirit mov'd, "and there was light;"
For, in the glorious general's previous ray,

We saw a new created day:

We by it saw, though yet in mists it shone,
The beauteous work of Order moving on.
Where are the men who bragg'd that God did bless,
And with the marks of good success

Sign his allowance of their wickedness?
Vain men! who thought the Divine Power to find
In the fierce thunder and the violent wind:
God came not till the storm was past;
In the still voice of Peace he came at last!
The cruel business of destruction

May by the claws of the great fiend be done;
Here, here we see th' Almighty's hand indeed,
Both by the beanty of the work we see't, and by
the speed.

He who had seen the noble British heir,

Even in that ill disadvantageous light
With which misfortune strives t'abuse our sight-
He who had seen him in his cloud so bright-
He who had seen the double pair
Of brothers, heavenly good! and sisters, hea-
venly fair!-

Might have perceiv'd, methinks, with ease, (But wicked men see only what they please) That God had no intent t'extinguish quite

The pious king's eclipsed right.
He who had seen how by the Power Divine
All the young branches of this royal line
Did in their fire, without consuming, shine-
How through a rough Red-sea they had been led,
By wonders guarded, and by wonders fed-
How many years of trouble and distress
They 'ad wander'd in their fatal wilderness,
And yet did never murmur or repine;-

Might, methinks, plainly understand,
That, after all these conquer'd trials past,
Th' Almighty mercy would at last
Conduct them, with a stong unerring hand,
To their own promis'd land:
For all the glories of the Earth

Ought to b' entail'd by right of birth;
And all Heaven's blessings to come down
Upon his race, to whom alone was given
The double royalty of Earth and Heaven;
Who crown'd the kingly with the martyr's

crown,

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The martyrs' blood was said, of old, to be

The seed from whence the church did
grow.

The royal blood which dying Charles did sow
Becomes no less the seed of royalty:

"Twas in dishonour sown;

We find it now in glory grown,
The grave could but the dross of it devour;
"Twas sown in weakness, and 'tis rais'd in
power."

We now the question well decided see,
Which eastern wits did once contest,

At the great monarch's feast,

"Of all on earth what things the strongest be?" And some for women, some for wine, did plead; That is, for folly and for rage,

Two things which we have known indeed

Strong in this latter age;

But, as 'tis prov'd by Heaven, at length,
The king and Truth have greatest strength,
When they their sacred force unite,

And twine into one right:

No frantic commonwealths or tyrannies;
No cheats, and perjuriès, and lies;

No nets of human policies;

Besides, ev'n in this world below,

To those who never did ill-fortune know,
The good does nauseous or insipid grow.
Consider man's whole life, and you'll confess
The sharp ingredient of some bad success
Is that which gives the taste to all his happiness.
But the true method of felicity

Is, when the worst

Of human life is plac'd the first,
And when the child's correction proves to be
The cause of perfecting the man:
Let our weak days lead up the van;

Let the brave second and Triarian band
Firm against all impression stand:
The first we may defeated see;

The virtue of the force of these are sure of vic-
tory.

Such are the years, great Charles! which now we

see

Begin their glorious march with thee:
Long may their march to Heaven, and still
triumphant be!

Now thou art gotten once before,
Ill-fortune never shall o'er-take thee more.

Cast a disdainful look behind;

No stores of arms or gold (though you could join To see 't again, and pleasure in it find,
Those of Peru to the great London mine);
No towns; no fleets by sea, or troops by land;
No deeply-entrench'd islands, can withstand,
Or any small resistance bring,

Against the naked Truth and the unarmed king.
The foolish lights which travellers beguile

End the same night when they begin ;
No art so far can upon Nature win

As e'er to put out stars, or long keep meteors
in.

Where's now that ignus fatuus, which ere-while
Misled our wandering isle?

Where's the impostor Cromwell gone?
Where's now that falling-star, his son?

Where's the large comet now, whose raging

flaine

So fatal to our monarchy became;

Things which offend when present, and affright,
In memory well-painted move delight.

Enjoy then all thy afflictions now—
Thy royal father's came at last;
Thy martyrdom's already past:
And different crowns to both ye owe.
No gold did e'er the kingly temples bind,

Than thine more try'd and more refin'd,
As a choice medal for Heaven's treasury,
God did stamp first upon one side of thee
The image of his suffering humanity:

On th' other side, turn'd now to sight, does shine
The glorious image of his power divine!

So, when the wisest poets seek

In all their liveliest colours to set forth
A picture of heroic worth,

Which o'er our heads in such proud horrour stood, (The pious Trojan or the prudent Greek)

Insatiate with our ruin and our blood?

The fiery tail did to vast length extend;
And twice for want of fuel did expire,

And twice renew'd the dismal fire:

Though long the tail, we saw at last its end.
The flames of one triumphant day.
Which, like an anti-comet here,
Did fatally to that appear,
For ever frighted it away:

Then did th' allotted hour of dawning right
First strike our ravish'd sight;

Which Malice or which Art no more could stay,
Than witches' charms can a retardment bring
To the resuscitation of the Day,

Or resurrection of the Spring.
We welcome both, and with improv'd delight
Bless the preceding Winter, and the Night!
Man ought his future happiness to fear,
If he be always happy here-

He wants the bleeding marks of grace,
The circumcision of the chosen race.
If no one part of him supplies

The duty of a sacrifice,

He is, we doubt, reserv'd entire
As a whole victim for the fire..

They chuse some comely prince of heavenly
birth,

(No proud gigantic son of Earth,
Who strives t'usurp the gods' forbidden seat)
They feed him not with nectar, and the meat
That cannot without joy be ate;

But, in the cold of want, and storms of adverse
chance,

They harden his young virtue by degrees:
The beauteous drop first into ice does freeze,
And into solid crystal next advance.

His murder'd friends and kindred he does see,
And from his flaming country flee:
Much is he tost at sea, and much at land;
Does long the force of angry gods withstand:
He does long troubles and long wars sustain,
Ere he his fatal birth-right gain.
With no less time or labour can
Destiny build up such a man,
Who's with sufficient virtue fill'd

His ruin'd country to rebuild.

Nor without cause are arms from Heaven,

To such a hero by the poets given

No human metal is of force t' oppose

So mary and so violent blows.

Such was the helmet, breast-plate, shield | The starry worlds, which shine to us, afar,
Which Charles in all attacks did wield:
And all the weapons Malice e'er could try,
Of all the several makes of wicked Policy,
Against this armour struck, but at the stroke,
Like swords of ice, in thousand pieces broke.
To angels and their brethren spirits above,
No show on Earth can sure so pleasant prove,
As when they great misfortunes see
With courage borne, and decency.

Take ours at this time for a star.
With wine all rooms, with wine the conduits, flow;
And we, the priests of a poetic rage,
Wonder that in this golden age

So were they borne when Worcester's dismal day
Did all the terrɔurs of black Fate display!
So were they borne when no disguises' cloud

His inward royalty could shrowd;
And one of th' angels whom just God did send
To guard him in his noble flight

.

(A troop of angels did him then attend!)
Assur'd me, in a vision th' other night,
That he (and who could better judge than he?)
Did then more greatness in him see,
More lustre and more majesty,

Than all his coronation-pomp can show to human
eye.

Him and his royal brothers when I saw

New marks of honour and of glory From their affronts and sufferings draw, And look like heavenly saints e'en in their gatory;

The rivers too should not do so.
There is no Stoic, sure, who would not now
Ev'n some excess allow ;

And grant that one wild fit of cheerful folly
Should end our twenty years of dismal melan-
choly.

Where's now the royal mother, where,

To take her mighty share

In this so ravishing sight,

And; with the part she takes, to add to the de
light?

Ah! why art thou not here,
Thou always best, and now the happiest queen!
To see our joy, and with new joy be seen;
God has a bright example made of thee,

To show that woman-kind may be
Above that sex which her superior seems,
In wisely managing the wide extremes
Of great affliction, great Felicity.

How well those different virtues thee become,
Daughter of triumphs, wife of martyrdom!
pur-Thy princely mind with so much courage bore
Affliction, that it dares return no inore;
With so much goodness us'd felicity,

Methought I saw the three Judean youths
(Three unhurt martyrs for the noblest truths!)
In the Chaldean furnace walk;

How cheerfully and unconcern'd they talk!
No hair is sing'd, no smallest beauty blasted!

Like painted lamps they shine unwasted!
The greedy fire itself dares not be fed
With the blest oil of an anointed head.

The honourable flame

(Which rather light we ought to name)
Does like a glory compass them around,
And their whole body's crown'd.

What are those two bright creatures which we see
Walk with the royal three
In the same ordeal fire,

And mutual joys inspire?

Sure they the beauteous sisters are,

Who, whilst they seek to bear their share,
Will suffer no affliction to be there.
Less favour to those three of old was shown:
To solace with their company

The fiery trials of adversity!

Two angels join with these, the other had but

one.

Come forth, come forth, ye men of God belov'd!
And let the power now of that flame,

Which against you so impotent became,
On all your enemies be prov'd.
Come, mighty Charles ! desire of nations! come;
Come, you triumph exile, home.

He's come, he's safe at shore; 1 hear the noise
Of a whole land which does at once rejoice,
I hear th' united people's sacred voice.

The sea which circles us around,
Ne'er sent to land so loud a sound;
The mighty shout sends to the sea a gale,

And swells up every sail :

The bells and guns are scarcely heard at all;
The artificial joy's drown'd by the natural.
All England but one bonfire seems to be,
One Etna shooting flames into the sea:

That it cannot refrain from coming back to thee,
'Tis come, and seen to-day in all its bravery !.
Who's that heroic person leads it on,

And gives it, like a glorious bride,
(Richly adorn'd with nuptial pride)
Into the hands now of thy son?

'Tis the good general, the man of praise.
Whom God at last, in gracious pity,
Did to th' enthralled nation raise,
Their great Zerubbabel to be;
To loose the bonds of long captivity,
And to rebuild their temple and their city!
For ever blest may he and his remain,
Who, with a vast, though less appearing, gain,
Preferr'd the solid great above the vain,
And to the world this princely truth has shown-→→
That more 'tis to restore, than to usurp a crown!
Thou worthiest person of the British story!

(Though 'tis not small the British glory)
Did I not know my humble verse must be
But ill-proportion'd to the height of thee,
Thou and the world should see
How much my Muse, the fee of flattery,
Does make true praise her labour and design;
An Iliad or an neid should be thine.
And ill should we deserve this happy day,
If no acknowledgments we pay
To you, great patriots of the two
Most truly other houses now,

Who have redeem'd from hatred and from shame
A parliament's once venerable name;

And now the title of a house restore,
To that which was but slaughter house before,
If my advice, ye worthies! might be ta'en,
Within those reverend places,

Which now your living presence graces,
Your marble statnes always should remain,
To keep alive your useful memory,
And to your successors th' example be
Of truth, religion, reason, loyalty:

For, though a firmly settled-peace
May shortly inake your public labour cease,
The grateful nation will with joy consent,

That in this sense you should be said,
(Though yet the name sounds with some
dread)

To be the long, the endless, parliament.

ON THE QUEEN'S REPAIRING
SOMERSET HOUSE.

On either side dwells Safety and Delight;
Wealth on the left, and Power upon the right.
T'assure yet my defence on either hand,
Like mighty forts, in equal distance stand
Two of the best and stateliest piles which e'er
Man's liberal piety of old did rear;

Where the two princes of th' apostles' band,
My neighbours and my guards, watch and com-
mand

My warlike guard of ships, which farther lie,
Might be my object too, were not the eye
Stopt by the houses of that wondrous street,
Which rides o'er the broad river like a fleet.

WHEN God (the cause to me and men unknown) The stream's eternal siege they fixt abide,

Forsook the royal houses, and his own,
And both abandon'd to the common foe,
How near to ruind my glories go!

Nothing remain'd t' adorn this princely place
Which covetous hands could take, or rude de-
face.

In all my rooms and galleries I found
The richest figures torn, and all around
Dismember'd statues of great heroes lay;
Such Naseby's field seem'd on the fatal day!
And me, when nought for robbery was left,
They starv'd to death: the gasping walls were
cleft,

The pillars sunk, the roofs above me wept,
No sign of spring, or joy, my garden kept;
Nothing was seen which could content the eye,
Till dead the impious tyrant here did lie.

See how my face is chang'd, and what I am
Since my true mistress, and now foundress,

came !

It does not fill her bounty to restore
Me as I was (nor was I small beforej:
She imitates the kindness to her shown;
She does, like Heaven, (which the dejected throne
At once restores, fixes, and higher rears)
Strengthen, enlarge, exalt, what she repairs.
And now I dare, (though proud I must not be,
Whilst my great mistress I so humble sce
In all her various glories) now I dare
Ev'n with the proudest palaces compare.
My beauty and convenience will, I'm sure,
So just a boast with inodesty endure;
And all must to me yield, when I shall tell
How I am plac'd, and who does in me dwell.

Before my gate a street's broad channel goes,
Which still with waves of crowding people flows;
And every day there passes by my side,
Up to its western reach, the London tide,
The spring-tides of the term: my front looks
down

On all the pride and business of the town;
My other front (for, as in kings we see
The liveliest image of the Deity,

We in their houses should Heaven's likeness find,
Where nothing can be said to be behind)
My other fair and more majestic face
(Who can the fair to more advantage place?)
For ever gazes on itself below,

In the best mirror that the world can show.

And here behold, in a long bending row,
How two joint-cities make one glorious bow!
The midst, the noblest place, possess'd by ine,
Best to be seen by all, and all o'er-see!
Which way soe'er I turn my joyful eye,
Here the great court, there the rich town I spy ;

And the swoin stream's auxiliary tide,
Though both their ruin with joint power conspire,
Both to out-brave, they nothing dread but fire.
And here my Thames, though it more gentle
be

Than any flood so strengthen'd by the sea,
Finding by art his natural forces broke,
And bearing, captive-like, the arched yoke,
Does roar, and foam, and rage, at the disgrace,
But re-composes straight, and calms his face;
Is into reverence and submission strook,
As soon as from afar he does but look
Tow'rds the white palace where that king does
reign,

Who lays his laws and bridges o'er the main.

Amidst these louder honours of my seat;
And two vast cities, troublesomely great,
In a large various plain the country too
Opens her gentler blessings to my view:
In me the active and the quiet mind,
By different ways, equal content may find.
If any prouder virtuoso's sense
At that part of my prospect take offence,
By which the meaner cabbins are descry'd,
Of my imperial river's humbler side-
If they call that a blemish-let them know,
God, and my godlike mistress, think not so;
For the distress'd and the afflicted lie
Most in their care, and always in their eye.

And thou, fair River! who still pay'st to me
Just homage, in thy passage to the sea,
Take here this one instruction as thou go'st-
When thy mix't waves shall visit every coast;
When round the world their voyage they shall
make,

And back to thee some secret channels take;
Ask them what nobler sight they e'er did meet,
Except thy mighty master's sovereign fleet,
Which now triumphant o'er the main does ride,
The terrour of all lands, the ocean's pride.

From hence his kingdoms, happy now at last,
(Happy, if wise by their misfortunes past!)
From hence may omens take of that success
Which both their future wars and peace shall
bless.

The peaceful mother on mild Thames does build;
With her son's fabrics the rough sea is fill'd.

THE COMPLAINT.
In a deep vision's intellectual scene,
Beneath a bower for sorrow made,

Th' uncomfortable shade
Of the black yew's unlucky green,

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