University of Virginia Library

And lo! to the first HENRY the bold arm
Of popular resistance opes (tho' yet
In dim disclosure) thro' the breaking clouds
The fane of British liberty! Ev'n now
The murky remnant of the gloom rolls off,
While frowns the weak usurper; and its towers
(At the firm bidding of her chosen chiefs)
Flash on the sight! Behold, the portals wide
Expanding, her majestic mien appears!
And, as she waves (the banner of her fame)
The glorious charter, her prophetic eye
Quick glancing o'er her EDWARD's laws, descries
Her infant senate rising into form;
Surveys it struggling with the Tudor race,
And many a despot; sees a STUART strive,
Mad in tyrannic impotence, to curb
Her parliament new-strung with vigorous nerve
At each vindictive stroke; and raptur'd views
Her statesmen glowing with the haughty sense
Of recent victory, which had burst the bounds
Of speech, giv'n eloquence free scope, and brav'd
All mortal check;—'till, now, her triumphs hail
That æra, when the people, peers, and prince,
Thro' acts that fix the limits of their power,
Announce her empire!—Here, 'tis here begun
The period of philosophy, who beam'd
The rising lustre on her conscript tribes;
Gave them to feel their own appropriate rights;
Develope, with precision's clearer ken,
The constitutive principles; and solve
By just analysis, what freedom's force,
Aided by various circumstance, combin'd.