Seans v'er its humble gate, & thinks the while There should my hand no stinted boon assign To wretched hearts with sorrows such as mine! That generous wish can soothe unpitied care, Hope! when I mourn, with sympathizing mind, The wrongs of fate, the woes of human kind, Thy blissful omens bid my spirit see The boundless fields of rapture yet to be ; I watch the wheels of Nature's mazy plan, Come, bright Improvement! on the car of Time, And rule the spacious world from clime to clime; Thy handmaid arts shall every wild explore, Trace every wave, and culture every shore. On Erie's banks, where tigers steal along, And the dread Indian chants a dismal song, Shall start to view the glittering haunts of men, In Lybian groves, where damned rites are done, That bathe the rocks in blood, and veil the sun, Truth shall arrest the murd'rous arm profane, Wild Obi flies -the veil is rent in twain. Where barb'rous hordes on Scythian mountains roam, Truth, Mercy, Freedom, yet shall find a home; Where'er degraded Nature bleeds and pines, From Guinea's coast to Sibir's dreary mines, Truth shall pervade th' unfathom'd darkness there, And light the dreadful features of despair.— Hark! the stern captive spurns his heavy load, And asks the image back that heaven bestowed! Fierce in his eye the fire of valour burns, Oh! sacred Truth! thy triumph ceas'd a while, And Hope, thy sister, ceas'd with thee to smile, When leagu'd Oppression pour'd to Northern wars Her whisker'd pandoors and her fierce hussars, Way'd her dread standard to the breeze of morn, |