The poetical works of James Thomson ...

232 LIBERTY. PART V.
And rich, as unsqueezed favourite, to them,
Is he who can his virtue boast alone!
Britons! be firm! -nor let corruption sly
Twine round your heart indissoluble chains!
The steel of Brutus burst the grosser bonds
By Caesar cast o'er Rome; but still remain'd
The soft enchanting fetters of the mind,
And other Caesars rose. Determined, hold
Your independence; for, that once destroy'd,
Unfounded, Freedom is a morning dream,
That flits aerial from the spreading eye.'Forbid it, Heaven! that ever I need urge
Integrity in office on my sons!
Inculcate common honour - not to rob -
And whom?- the gracious, the confiding hand,
That lavishly rewards? the toiling poor,
Whose cup with many a bitter drop is mix'd;
The guardian public; every face they see,
And every friend; nay, in effect themselves.
As in familiar life, the villain's fate
Admits no cure; so, when a desperate age
At this arrives, I the devoted race
Indignant spurn, and hopeless soar away.'But, ah too little known to modern times!
Be not the noblest passion past unsung;
That ray peculiar, from unbounded love
Effused, which kindles the heroic soul;
Devotion to the public. Glorious flame!
Celestial ardour! in what unknown worlds,
Profusely scatter'd through the blue immense,