Humanity, or the rights of nature, a poem in two books. By the author of sympathy [i.e. S. J. Pratt] |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
 | Humanity, or the rights of nature, a poem |  |
Such too, Britannia, were thy savage Sons,
Thro' all thy tribes the dread of Slav'ry runs,
Th'mild heroic, honest without laws,
They brav'd each peril in fair Freedom's cause.
But ah! full many an age in Gothic night,
Was veil'd th'effulgence of their native right;
Tho' like the rocky Barrier of their coast,
That Freedom now is her sublimest boast,
Full many an age dissension shook her Fane,
From Rome's fierce Cæsar to the stormy Dane.
In whelming tides pour'd in the Saxon clan,
And Normans finish'd what their rage began;
The savage Briton to his Mountains fled,
Alternate triumph'd and alternate bled;
War upon wars, on conquest conquests throng,
Vandal drove Goth, and Goth urg'd Gaul along;
On human flesh the savage Victors eat,
And mistic Druids shar'd the sanguine treat;
These to their altars, e'en while truth they taught,
The trembling sacrifice rapacious brought;
Impostor-priests before their Idols stood,
And talk'd of Heav'n with hands embru'd in blood;
Before their eyes imagin'd spectres glare,
Spirits were heard, and fancy'd ghosts were there,
Religion, Law, and Government their own,
Bloody their Altars, bloody was their Throne;
Thro' the vex'd Isle the sanguine edict spread
That Heav'n demanded mountains of the dead;
In the dark grove which Superstition trod,
Priests hid their spoils, yet commun'd with their God,
And muttering rites within the fearful gloom,
Stab a fresh victim and the feast resume;
Unfelt as yet the soft'ning ties of life,
Deep in the prisoner's breast the ruthless knife
The Female plung'd—could savage man do more!
Then idly prophesied as flow'd the gore;
A rage of slaughter then that sex possess'd,
Now with each grace of melting Pity blest.
Thro' all thy tribes the dread of Slav'ry runs,
Th'mild heroic, honest without laws,
They brav'd each peril in fair Freedom's cause.
But ah! full many an age in Gothic night,
Was veil'd th'effulgence of their native right;
Tho' like the rocky Barrier of their coast,
That Freedom now is her sublimest boast,
Full many an age dissension shook her Fane,
From Rome's fierce Cæsar to the stormy Dane.
98
And Normans finish'd what their rage began;
The savage Briton to his Mountains fled,
Alternate triumph'd and alternate bled;
War upon wars, on conquest conquests throng,
Vandal drove Goth, and Goth urg'd Gaul along;
On human flesh the savage Victors eat,
And mistic Druids shar'd the sanguine treat;
These to their altars, e'en while truth they taught,
The trembling sacrifice rapacious brought;
Impostor-priests before their Idols stood,
And talk'd of Heav'n with hands embru'd in blood;
Before their eyes imagin'd spectres glare,
Spirits were heard, and fancy'd ghosts were there,
Religion, Law, and Government their own,
Bloody their Altars, bloody was their Throne;
Thro' the vex'd Isle the sanguine edict spread
That Heav'n demanded mountains of the dead;
In the dark grove which Superstition trod,
Priests hid their spoils, yet commun'd with their God,
99
Stab a fresh victim and the feast resume;
Unfelt as yet the soft'ning ties of life,
Deep in the prisoner's breast the ruthless knife
The Female plung'd—could savage man do more!
Then idly prophesied as flow'd the gore;
A rage of slaughter then that sex possess'd,
Now with each grace of melting Pity blest.
| Humanity, or the rights of nature, a poem | |