T'enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey. Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat Then what is man? And what man, seeing this, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth Just estimation priz'd above all price, I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Of all your empire; that where Britain's pow'r Sure there is need of social intercourse, Benevolence, and peace, and mutual aid, Between the nations, in a world that seems To toll the death-bell of its own decease, And by the voice of all its elements To preach th' gen'ral doom. When were the winds Let slip with such a warrant to destroy? When did the waves so haughtily o'erleap C Fires from beneath, and meteors from above, Portentous, unexampled, unexplain'd, Have kindled beacons in the skies; and th' old More frequent, and forgone her usual rest. Still they are frowning signals, and bespeak b Alluding to the calamities at Jamaica. August 18, 1783. d Alluding to the fog that covered both Europe and Asia during the summer of 1783. Displeasure in his breast who smites the earth And 'tis but seemly, that, where all deserve To what no few have felt, there should be peace, And brethren in calamity should love. Alas for Sicily! rude fragments now While God performs upon the trembling stage How does the earth receive him?—With what signs Pours she not all her choicest fruits abroad, Her sweetest flow'rs, her aromatic gums, She quakes at his approach. Her hollow womb, Conceiving thunders, through a thousand deeps And fiery caverns roars beneath his foot. The hills move lightly, and the mountains smoke, For he has touch'd them. From th' extremest point Of elevation down into th' abyss His wrath is busy, and his frown is felt. The rocks fall headlong, and the vallies rise, The rivers die into offensive pools, And, charg'd with putrid verdure, breathe a gross What solid was, by transformation strange, And fugitive in vain. The sylvan scene |