Thus while around the wave-subjected soil Impels the native to repeated toil, Industrious habits in each bosom reign, And industry begets a love of gain. 300 Hence all the good from opulence that springs,[35] With all those ills superfluous treasure brings, Are here displayed. Their much-loved wealth imparts Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts: But view them closer, craft and fraud appear; 305 E'en liberty itself is bartered here. At gold's superior charms all freedom flies; The needy sell it, and the rich man buys; A land of tyrants and a den of slaves, Here wretches seek dishonorable graves, 310 And calmly bent, to servitude conform, Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm.[36] Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires[37] of old, Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold; War in each breast, and freedom on each brow; 315 How much unlike the sons of Britain now! Fired at the sound, my genius spreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring; Where lawns[38] extend that scorn Arcadian pride,[39] And brighter streams than famed Hydaspis[40] glide. 320 There all around the gentlest breezes stray; There gentle music melts on every spray; Creation's mildest charms are there combined, Extremes are only in the master's mind! Stern o'er each bosom Reason holds her state, 325 With daring aims irregularly great; Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of human kind pass by; Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, By forms unfashioned, fresh from Nature's hand, 330 Fierce in their native hardiness of soul, True to imagined right, above control, While even the peasant boasts these rights to scan, And learns to venerate himself as man. Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictured here; 335 Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear: Too blest indeed, were such without alloy: But fostered even by Freedom ills annoy: That independence Britons prize too high Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; 340 The self-dependent lordlings[41] stand alone, All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown. Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held, Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled;[42] Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar, 345 Repressed ambition struggles round her shore, Till, over-wrought, the general system feels Its motions stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.