God bless us all from factious foes, And French fraternal kiss; And grant the king may never make Another _Duke_ like this.[173] [Illustration] No. XX. ODE TO JACOBINISM. March 26, 1798. I. Daughter of Hell, insatiate power, Destroyer of the human race, Whose iron scourge and madd’ning hour Exalt the bad, the good debase; Thy mystic force, despotic sway, Courage and innocence dismay, And patriot monarchs vainly groan With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone! II. When first to scourge the sons of earth, Thy sire his darling child design’d, Gallia receiv’d the monstrous birth— VOLTAIRE inform’d thy infant mind; Well-chosen nurse! his sophist lore He bade thee many a year explore! He mark’d thy progress, firm though slow, And statesmen, princes, leagued with their invet’rate foe. III. Scared at thy frown terrific, fly The morals (antiquated brood); Domestic Virtue, social Joy, And Faith that has for ages stood: Swift they disperse, and with them go The friend sincere, the gen’rous foe.— Traitors to God and man avow’d, By thee now rais’d aloft, now crush’d beneath the crowd. IV. Revenge, in blood-stain’d robe arrayed, Immersed in gloomy joy profound; Ingratitude, by guilt dismay’d, With anxious eye wild glancing round, Still on thy frantic steps attend: With Death, thy victim’s only friend, Injustice, to the truth severe, And Anguish, dropping still the life-consuming tear. V. Oh swiftly on my country’s head, Destroyer, lay thy ruthless hand; Nor yet in Gallic terrors clad, Nor circled by the _Marseilles band_, (As by th’ initiate thou art seen), With thund’ring cannon, _guillotine_, With screaming Horror’s funeral cry, Fire, Rapine, sword, and chains, and ghastly Poverty. VI. Thy sophist veil, dread goddess, wear, Falsehood insidiously impart; Thy philosophic train, be there, To taint the mind, corrupt the heart; The gen’rous virtues of our isle, Teach us to hate and to revile; Our glorious Charter’s faults to scan, Time-sanction’d truths despise, and preach THY RIGHTS OF MAN. AN ENGLISH JACOBIN. [The original poem, of which the above is an imitation, is subjoined:—