'Tis his alike the ear and eye to charm,
To win with action, and with fenfe to warm; [20
Untaught in flowery periods to dispense
The lulling founds of sweet impertinence:
In frowns or fmiles he gains an equal prize,
Nor meanly fears to fall, nor creeps to rise;
Bids happier days to Albion be reftor'd,
Bids ancient Juftice rear her radiant sword;
From me, as from my country, claims applause,
And makes an Oxford's, a Britannia's cause.
While arms like these my stedfast fages wield, While mine is Truth's impenetrable fhield; 130 Say, fhall the Puny Champion fondly dare To' wage with force like this fcholastic war? Still vainly fcribble on with pert pretence, With all the rage of pedant impotence? Say, fhall I fofter this domestic peft,
This parricide, that wounds a mother's breast?
Thus in fome gallant ship, that long has bore
Britain's victorious crofs from shore to shore,
By chance, beneath her close fequefter'd cells
Some low-born worm, a lurkingmifchief,dwells; 140
Eats his blind way, and faps with fecret guile
The deep foundations of the floating pile.
In vain the forest lent its stateliest pride,
Rear'd her tall mast, and fram'd her knotty fide;
The martial thunder's rage in vain she stood, 145
With every conflict of the ftormy flood;
More fure the reptile's little arts devour,
Than wars, or waves, or Eurus' wintry power.
Ye fretted pinnacles, ye fanes fublime,
Ye towers that wear the moffy veft of time! 150
Ye maffy piles of old munificence,
At once the pride of learning and defence;
Ye cloisters pale, that lengthening to the fight,
To contemplation, step by step, invite ;
[155
Ye high arch'd walks, where oft the whispers clear
Of harps unfeen have fwept the poet's ear;
Ye temples dim, where pious duty pays
Her holy hymns of ever-echoing praise ;
Lo! your lov'd Ifis, from the bordering vale,
With all a mother's fondness bids you hail!- 160
Hail, Oxford, hail! of all that's good and great,
Of all that's fair, the guardian and the feat;
Nurse of each brave pursuit, each generous aim,
By truth exalted to the throne of fame!
Like Greece in science and in liberty,
As Athens learn'd, as Lacedemon free!
Ev'n now, confeft to my adoring eyes,
In awful ranks thy gifted fons arise.
Tuning to knightly tale his British reeds,
Thy genuine bards immortal Chaucer leads: 170
His hoary head o'erlooks the gazing quire,
And beams on all around celestial fire.
With graceful step fee Addison advance,
The sweetest child of Attic elegance :
See Chillingworth the depths of Doubt explore, 175
And Selden ope the rolls of ancient lore:
To all but his belov'd embrace deny'd,
See Locke lead Reason, his majestic bride :
See Hammond pierce religion's golden mine,
And spread the treasur'd stores of Truth divine, 180
All who to Albion gave the arts of peace,
And beft the labours plann'd of letter'd ease ;
Who taught with truth, or with perfuafion mov'd;
Who footh'd with numbers, or with sense improv'd;
Who rang'd the powers of reafon, or refin'd, 185
All that adorn'd or humanis'd the mind;
Each priest of health, that mix'd the balmy bowl,
To rear frail man, and stay the fleeting foul;
All crowd around, and echoing to the sky,
Hail, Oxford, hail! with filial transport cry. 190
And fee yon fapient train! with liberal aim,
'Twas theirs new plans of liberty to frame;
And on the Gothic gloom of flavish sway
To fhed the dawn of intellectual day.
With mild debate each musing feature glows, 195 And well-weigh'd counfels mark their meaning brows.
"Lo! these the leaders of thy patriot line,"
A Raleigh, Hamden, and a Somers shine.
Thefe from thy fource the bold contagion caught,
Their future fons the great example taught: 200
While in each youth, th' hereditary flame
Still blazes, unextinguifh'd and the fame!
Nor all the talks of thoughtful peace engage, "Tis thine to form the hero as the fage.
I fee the fable-fuited prince advance
With lilies crown'd, the spoils of bleeding France,
Edward. The Muses in yon cloister's shade
Bound on his maiden thigh the martial blade :
Bade him the fteel for British freedom draw,
And Oxford taught the deeds that Creffy saw. 210
And fee, great father of the facred band,
Patriot King before me seems to stand.
He by the bloom of this gay vale beguil'd,
That chear'd with lively green the shaggy wild,
Hither of yore, forlorn forgotten maid,
The Muse in prattling infancy convey'd ;
From Vandal rage the helpless virgin bore,
And fix'd her cradle on my friendly shore:
Soon grew the maid beneath his fostering hand,
Soon stream'd her bleffings o'er the enlighten'd land.
Though fimple was the dome, where first to dwell
She deign'd, and rude her early Saxon cell,
Lo! now fhe holds her state in sculptur'd bowers,
And proudly lifts to heaven her hundred towers,
'Twas Alfred first, with letters and with laws, 225
Adorn'd, as he advanc'd, his country's caufe:
He bade relent the Briton's ftubborn foul,
And footh'd to foft fociety's controul
A rough untutor'd age. With raptur'd eye
Elate he views his laurel'd progeny:
Serene he fmiles to find, that not in vain
He form'd the rudiments of Learning's reign;
Himself he marks in each ingenuous breast,
With all the founder in the race exprest:
Conscious he fees, fair Freedom still survive
In yon bright domes, ill-fated fugitive!
(Glorious, as when the goddess pour'd the beam
Unfullied on his ancient diadem ;)
Well pleas'd, that at his own Pierian springs
She refts her weary feet, and plumes her wings; 240
That here at last she takes her destin'd stand,
Here deigns to linger, ere fhe leave the land.
WRITTEN IN WHICHWOOD FOREST.
THE hinds how bleft, who ne'er beguil'd
To quit their hamlet's hawthorn-wild ;
Nor haunt the croud, nor tempt the main,
For fplendid care, and guilty gain!
When morning's twilight-tinctur'd beam
Strikes their low thatch with flanting gleam,
VOL. II.
|