The Minstrel; or the Progress of Genius

XXXVIII

‘But ah! the Historic Muse has never dared
‘To pierce those hallowed bowers: ’tis Fancy’s beam,
‘Poured on the vision of the enraptured Bard,
‘That paints the charms of that delicious theme.
‘Then hail sweet Fancy’s ray! and hail the dream
‘That weans the weary soul from guilt and woe!
‘Careless what others of my choice may deem,
‘I long where Love and Fancy lead to go,
‘And meditate on heaven; enough of earth I know.’

XXXIX

‘I cannot blame thy choice (the Sage replied),
‘For soft and smooth are Fancy’s flowery ways.
‘And yet, even there, if left without a guide,
‘The young adventurer unsafely plays.
‘Eyes, dazzled long by Fiction’s gaudy rays,
‘In modest Truth no light nor beauty find.
‘And who, my child, would trust the meteor-blaze,
‘That soon must fail, and leave the wanderer blind,
‘More dark and helpless far, than if it ne’er had shined?

XL

‘Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart,
‘And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight:
‘To joy each heightening charm it can impart,
‘But wraps the hour of woe in tenfold night.
‘And often, where no real ills affright,
‘Its visionary fiends, an endless train,
‘Assail with equal or superior might,
‘And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain,
‘And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain.

XLI

‘And yet, alas! the real ills of life
‘Claim the full vigour of a mind prepared;
‘Prepared for patient, long, laborious strife,
‘Its guide Experience, and Truth its guard.
‘We fare on earth, as other men have fared:
‘Were they successful? Let not us despair.
‘Was disappointment oft their sole reward?
‘Yet shall their tale instruct, if it declare,
‘How they have borne the load ourselves are doomed to bear.

XLII

‘What charms the Historic Muse adorn, from spoils,
‘And blood, and tyrants, when she wings her flight,
‘To hail the patriot Prince, whose pious toils
‘Sacred to science, liberty, and right,
‘And peace, through every age divinely bright,
‘Shall shine the boast and wonder of mankind!
‘Sees yonder sun, from his meridian height,
‘A lovelier scene, than Virtue thus inshrined
‘In power, and man with man for mutual aid combine!

XLIII

‘Hail, sacred Polity, by Freedom reared!
‘Hail, sacred Freedom, when by Law restrained!
‘Without you what were man? A grovelling herd,
‘In darkness, wretchedness, and want enchained.
‘Sublimed by you, the Greek and Roman reigned
‘In arts unrivalled: O, to latest days,
‘In Albion may your influence, unprofaned,
‘To godlike worth the generous bosom raise,
‘And prompt the Sage’s lore, and fire the Poet’s lays.

XLIV

‘But now let other themes our care engage.
‘For lo, with modest, yet majestic grace,
‘To curb Imagination’s lawless rage,
‘And from within the cherished heart to brace,
‘Philosophy appears. The gloomy race,
‘By Indolence and moping Fancy bred,
‘Fear, Discontent, Solicitude give place,
‘And Hope and Courage brighten in their stead,
‘While on the kindling soul her vital beams are shed.

XLV

‘Then waken from long lethargy to life
‘The seeds of happiness, and powers of thought;
‘Then jarring appetites forego their strife,
‘A strife by ignorance to madness wrought.
‘Pleasure by savage man is dearly bought
‘With fell revenge, lust that defies controul,
‘With gluttony and death. The mind untaught,
‘Is a dark waste, where fiends and tempests howl;
‘As Phœbus to the world, is Science to the soul.

XLVI

‘And Reason, now, through Number, Time, and Space,
‘Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye,