CHARITY. Quo nihil majus meliusve terris Nec dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum Tempora priscum. HOR. Lib. IV. Ode 2. FAIREST and foremost of the train, that wait Or felt but in the soul that heaven selects; Who seeks to praise thee, and to make thee known To other hearts, must have thee in his own. Come, prompt me with benevolent desires, And though disgraced and slighted, to redeem By various ties attaches man to man: He made at first, though free and unconfined, Steered Britain's oak into a world unknown, The rights of man were sacred in his view; The simple native of the new found isle; He spurned the wretch, that slighted or withstood Nor would endure that any should controul In baser souls unnumbered evils meet, To thwart its influence, and its end defeat. While Cook is loved for savage lives he saved, See Cortez odious for a world enslaved! Where wast thou then, sweet Charity? where then, Wast thou in monkish cells and nunneries found, Nor age nor infancy could find thee there. The hand, that slew till it could slay no more, Was glued to the sword-hilt with Indian gore. Their prince, as justly seated on his throne As vain imperial Philip on his own, Tricked out of all his royalty by art, That stripped him bare, and broke his honest heart, For scorning what they taught him to detest. The cankered spoil corrodes the pining state, How would they take up Israel's taunting strain! The robber and the murderer weak as we? Thou, that hast wasted earth, and dared despise Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies, Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid Shook principalities and kingdoms down, And made the mountains tremble at his frown? The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers And waste them, as thy sword has wasted ours. 'Tis thus Omnipotence his law fulfils, And vengeance executes what justice wills. Again the band of commerce was designed To associate all the branches of mankind; And if a boundless plenty be the robe, Trade is the golden girdle of the globe. Wise to promote whatever end he means, God opens fruitful nature's various scenes: Each climate needs what other climes produce, And offers something to the general use; |