Grow ripe in years, and old in piety;
Till Christians, yet unborn, be taught to die.
Then in full age, and hoary holiness,
Retire, great teacher! to thy promis'd bliss:
Untouch'd thy tomb, uninjur'd be thy dust,
As thy own fame among the future just;
Till in last sounds the dreadful trumpet speaks;
Till Judgment calls; and quicken'd Nature wakes:
Till through the utmost earth, and deepest sea,
Our scatter'd atoms find their destin'd way,
In haste to clothe their kindred souls again,
Perfect our state, and build immortal man :
Then fearless thou, who well sustain'st the fight,
To paths of Joy, or tracts of endless light,
Lead up all those who heard thee, and believ'd;
'Midst thy own flock, great shepherd, be receiv'd;
And glad all Heaven with millions thou hast sav'd.
CARMEN SECULARE, FOR THE YEAR MDCC.
Adspice, venturo lætantur ut omnia sæclo:
O mihi tam longæ maneat pars ultima vitæ,
Spiritus et, quantum sat erit tua dicere facta!
VIRG. Eclog. 4.
THY elder look, great Janus, cast.
Into the long records of ages past:
Review the years in fairest action dress'd
With noted white, superior to the rest;
Æras deriv'd, and chronicles begun,
From empires founded, and from battles won;
Show all the spoils by valiant kings achiev'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:
Confess the various attributes of fame
Collected and complete in William's name :
To all the listening world relate,
(As thou dost his story read),
That nothing went before so great,
And nothing greater can succeed.
Thy native Latium was thy darling care,
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 heroes of thy Roman race;
And let the justest palm the victor's temples grace.
The son of Mars reduc'd the trembling swains,
And spread his empire o'er the distant plains:
But yet the Sabines' violated charms
Obscur'd the glory of his rising arms.
Numa the rights of strict religion knew ;
On every altar laid the incense due;
Unskill'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 fought,
And by their strict examples taught,
How wild desires should be controll'd,
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 rose.
And, while with clemency Augustus reign'd,
The monarch was ador'd; the city chain'd.
With justest honour be their merits dress'd;
But be their failings too confess'd:
Their virtue, like their Tyber's flood,
Rolling its course, design'd the country's good.
But oft the torrent's too impetuous speed
From the low earth tore some polluting weed;
And with the blood of Jove there always ran,
Some viler part, some tincture of the man.
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 majesty impair; Rome by degrees advancing more in age,
Shew'd sad remains of what had once been fair; Till Heaven a better race of men supplies: And glory shoots new beams from western skies.
Turn then to Pharamond, and Charlemain,
And the long heroes 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.
From Didier and imperial Adolph trace
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 list 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.
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 reflection let remembrance raise:
Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise :
But as thou dwell'st upon that heavenly name,1
To grief for ever sacred, as to fame,
Oh! read it to thyself; in silence weep;
And thy convulsive sorrows inward keep;
Lest Britain's grief should waken at the sound;
And blood gush fresh from her eternal wound.
Whither wouldst thou further look?
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