For you alone, worthy a better fate,

O, may this happy change not come too late!
Great in your fufferings !-But, my Mufe, forbear;
Nor damp the public gladness with a tear:
The hero has receiv'd their juft complaint,
Grac'd with the name of our fam'd patron-faint:
Like him, with pleafure he foregoes his reft,
And longs, like him, to fuccour the distress'd.
Firm to his friends, tenacious of his word,
As juftice calls, he draws or fheaths the fword:
Matur'd by thought, his councils shall prevail;
Nor fhall his promife to his people fail.

He comes, defire of nations! England's boaft!
Already has he reach'd the Belgian coaft.
Our great deliverer comes! and with him brings
A progeny of late-fucceeding kings,

Fated to triumph o'er Britannia's foes
In diftant years, and fix the world's repofe.
The floating fquadrons now approach the fhore;
Loft in the failors fhouts, the cannons roar:
And now, behold, the fovereign of the main,
-High on the deck, amidst his fhining train,
Surveys the fubject flood. An eastern gale
Plays through the shrouds, and swells in every fail :
Th' obfequious waves his new dominion own,
And gently waft their monarch to his throne.

૬.

40

44

Now the glad Britons hail their king to land,

Hang on the rocks, and blacken all the strand :
But who the filent extafy can fhow,
The paffions which in nobler befoms glow?

52

Who can describe the godlike patriot's zeal?
Or who, my Lord, your generous joys reveal?
Ordain'd, once more, our treasure to advance,
Retrieve our trade, and fink the pride of France,
Once more the long-neglected arts to raise,

And form each rifing genius for the bays.

Accept the prefent of a grateful fong;

This prelude may provoke the learned throng:
To Cam and Ifis shall the joyful news,
By me convey'd, awaken every Mufe.
Ev'n now the vocal tribe in verfe confpires;
And I already hear their founding lyres: -
To them the mighty labour I refign,

Give up the Theme, and quit the tuneful Nine.
So when the fpring first fmiles among the trees,
And bloffoms open to the vernal breeze,
The watchful nightingale, with early strains,
Summons the warblers of the woods and plains,
But drops her mufick, when the choir appear,
And liftens to the concert of the year.

56

60

64

68

72

To the Honourable JAMES CRAGGS, Efq; Secretary at War, at Hampton-Court. 1717.

HOUGH Britain's hardy troops demand your care,

TH

And chearful friends your hours of leisure share ;

O, Craggs, for candour known! indulge awhile
My fond defire, and on my labour smile :

Nor count it always an abufe of time
To read a long epiftle, though in rhyme.

To

To you I fend my thoughts, too long confin'd,
And ease the burden of a loyal mind;

To you my fecret tranfports I disclose,
That rife above the languid powers of profe.
But, while thefe artlefs numbers you perufe,
Think 'tis my heart that dictates, not the Muse;
My heart, which at the name of Brunswick fires,
And no affiftance from the Muse requires.

Believe me, Sir, your breast, that glows with zeal
For George's glory, and the public weal,
Your breaft alone feels more pathetic heats;
Your heart alone with stronger raptures beats.
When I review the great examples past,

And to the former ages join the last;
Still, as the godlike heroes to me rise,
In arms triumphant, and in councils wife,
The king is ever present to my mind;
His greatness, trac'd in every page, I find:
The Greek and Roman pens his virtues tell,
And under shining names on Brunswick dwell.
At Hampton while he breathes untainted air,
And feems, to vulgar eyes, devoid of care;
The British Mufes to the grove will press,
Tune their melodious harps, and claim access :
But let them not too rafhly touch the strings ;
For fate allows no folitude to kings.

Hail to the fhades, where William, great in arms,
Retir'd from conqueft to Maria's charms!
Where George ferene in majefty appears,
And plans the wonders of fucceeding years!

There, as he walks, his comprehensive mind
Surveys the globe, and takes-in all mankind:
While, Britain, for thy fake he wears the crown;
To spread thy power as wide as his renown :
To make thee umpire of contending states,
And poife the balance in the world's debates.
From the smooth terrass as he cafts his eye,
And fees the current fea-ward rolling by;
What schemes of commerce rife in his designs!
Pledges of wealth! and unexhausted mines!
Through winds and waves, beneath inclement skies,
Where stars, diftinguish'd by no name, arise,
Our fleets fhall undiscover'd lands explore,
And a new people hear our cannons roar.

The rivers long in ancient story fam'd,

Shall flow obfcure, nor with the Thames be nam`d.
Nor fhall our poets copy from their praise,

And Nymphs and Syrens to thy honour raife;
Nor make thy banks with Tritons fhells refound,
Nor bind thy brows with humble fedges round:
But paint thee as thou art; a peopled ftream!
The boaft of merchants, and the failors theme!
Whofe fpreading floods unnumber'd fhips fuftain,
And pour whole towns afloat into the main;
While the redundant feas waft up fresh ftores,
The daily tribute of far-diftant fhores.

Back to thy fource I try thy filver-train,
That gently winds through many a fertile plain
Where flocks and lowing herds in plenty feed,
And fhepherds tune at eafe the vocal reed:

Ere

Ere yet thy waters meet the briny tide,
And freighted veffels down thy channel ride;
Ere yet thy billows leave their banks behind,
Swell into state, and foam before the wind:
Thy fovereign's emblem! in thy courfe compleat!
When I behold him in his lov'd retreat,
Where rural scenes their pleafing views disclose,
A fylvan deity the monarch shows;

And if he only knew the woods to grace,
To rouze the ftag, and animate the chace:
While every hour, from thence, his high commands,
By fpeedy winds convey'd to various lands,
Control affairs; give weighty councils birth;
And sway the mighty rulers of the earth.
Were he, our island's glory and defence,.
To reign unactive, at the world's expence;
Say, generous Craggs, who then should quell the rage
Of lawless faction, and reform the age?

Who should our dear-bought liberties maintain ?
Who fix our leagues with France, and treat with Spain?
Who check the headstrong Swede; affuage the Czar;
Secure our peace, and quench the northern war?
The Turk, though he the Chriftian name defies,
And curfes Eugene, yet from Eugene flies,
His caufe to Brunswick's equity dare trust;
He knows him valiant, and concludes him just :
He knows his fame in early youth acquir'd,
When turban'd hofts before his fword retir'd.

Thus while his influence to the poles extends,
Or where the day begins, or where it ends,