Miscellaneous Poe ms.

As Wretches chain’d ami Iab’rir.g at the Oar,

Jn Sight of Italy's delightful Shore,

Reflect on their unhappy Fate the more :

Thy Laws have still their Force. Above the restOf Gothic Kingdoms, happy Jllion, bless!

Long since their undent Freedom they have lost,And servilely of their Subjection boast.

Thy better Fate the vain Attempts resistsOf faithless Monarchs, and designing Priests;Unshaken yet, the Government subsists.

While Streams of Blood the Continent o’erflow,.Redd’ning the Maefe, the Danube, and the Pa ;Thy Thames, auspicious Me ! her Thunder fends,To crush thy Foes, and to relieve her Friends,Say Muse, since no Surprize, or foreign Stroke,Can' hurt her, guarded by her Walls of Oak,Since wholesome Laws her Liberty transferTo future Ages, what can Albion fear ?

Can she the dear-bought Treasure throw away?Have Universities so great a Sway ?

The Muse is silent, cautious to reflectOn Mansions where the Muses keep their Seat.Barren of Thought, and niggardly of Rhyme,My creeping Number she forbids to climb :Vent’ring too far, my weary Genius fails,

And o’er my drooping Senses Sleep prevails.

An Antique Pile, near Thames 's silver Stream.,Was the first Object of my airy Dream ;

In antient Times a consecrated Fane,

But since apply to Uses more prophane :

Fill’d with a popular debating Throng,

Oft in the Right, and oftner in the Wrong;

Of Good and Bad the variable Test,

Where the Religion that was voted bestIs still inclin’d to persecute the rest.

On the high Fabrick stood a Monster fell,

Of hideous Form, second to none in Hell,