Those sculptured halls my feet shall never tread, Where varnish'd Vice and Vanity, combined To dazzle and seduce, their banners spread, And forge vile shackles for the freeborn mind; While Insolence his wrinkled front uprears, And all the flowers of spurious Fancy blow; And Title his ill-woven chaplet wears, Full often wreath'd around the miscreant's brow; Where ever-dimpling Falsehood, pert and vain, Presents her cup of stale Profession's froth; 90 And pale Disease, with all his bloated train, Torments the sons of gluttony and sloth. STROPHE. In Fortune's car behold that minion ride, With either India's glittering spoils oppress'd; So moves the sumpter-mule in harness'd pride, That bears the treasure which he cannot taste. For him let venal bards disgrace the bay, And hireling minstrels wake the tinkling string; Her sensual snares let faithless Pleasure lay; And jingling bells fantastic Folly ring; 100 Disquiet, doubt, and dread shall intervene, And Nature, still to all her feelings just, In vengeance hang a damp on every scene, Shook from the baneful pinions of Disgust. ANTISTROPHE. Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts, By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove, or cell, Where the poised lark his evening ditty chaunts, And Health, and Peace, and Contemplation dwell. There Study shall with Solitude recline, And Friendship pledge me to his fellow swains, 110 And Toil and Temperance sedately twine The slender cord that fluttering life sustains; And fearless Poverty shall guard the door, And Taste unspoil'd the frugal table spread, And Industry supply the humble store, And Sleep unbribed his dews refreshing shed; White-mantled Innocence, ethereal sprite! Shall chase far off the goblins of the night, And Independence o'er the day preside, Propitious power! my patron and my pride! 120 [Footnote 1: 'Baptised with blood:' Charlemagne obliged four thousand Saxon prisoners to embrace the Christian religion, and immediately after they were baptized, ordered their throats to be cut. Their prince, Vitikind, fled for shelter to Gotrick, king of Denmark.] [Footnote 2: 'Adriatic wave:' although Venice was built a considerable time before the era here assigned for the birth of Independence, the republic had not yet attained to any great degree of power and splendour.] [Footnote 3: 'Neptune's wide domain:' the Low Countries, and their revolt from Spain, are here alluded to.] [Footnote 4: 'Uri's rocks:' alluding to the known story of William Tell and his associates.] [Footnote 5: 'Calvi's rocky shore:' the noble stand made by Paschal Paoli, and his associates, against the usurpations of the French king.] * * * * * SONG.