So shall your barks pursue my branching bed, Slope after slope, to every fountain's head, Seat your contiguous towns on all my shores, And charge my channel with their seaward stores. Freedom and Peace shall well reward your care, My guardian mounds protect the friendly pair; Or if delirious War shall dare draw nigh, And eastern storms o'ercast the western sky, My soil shall rear the chief to guide your host, And drive the demon cringing from the coast; Yon verdant hill his sylvan seat shall claim, And grow immortal from his deathless fame. Then shall your federal towers my bank adorn, And hail with me the great millennial morn That gilds your capitol. Thence earth shall draw Her first clear codes of liberty and law; There public right a settled form shall find, Truth trim her lamp to lighten humankind, Old Afric's sons their shameful fetters cast, Our wild Hesperians humanize at last, All men participate, all time expand The source of good my liberal sages plann'd. This said, he plunges in the sacred flood; That closes calm and lulls the cradled god. Exulting at his words, the gallant crew Brace the broad canvass and their course pursue: For now the breathing airs, from ocean born, Breeze up the bay, and lead the lively morn That lights them to their port. Tis here they join Their bold precursors in the work divine; And here their followers, yet a numerous train, Wind o'er the wave and swell the new domain. For impious Laud, on England's wasted shore, Renews the flames that Mary fed before; Contristed sects his sullen fury fly, To seek new seats beneath a safer sky; Where faith and freedom yield a forceful charm, And toils and dangers every bosom warm. Amid the tried unconquerable train, Whom tyrants press and seas oppose in vain, See Plymouth colons stretch their standards o'er, Face the dark wildmen and the wintry shore; See virtuous Baltimore ascend the wave, See peaceful Penn its unknown terrors brave; Swedes, Belgians, Gauls their various flags display, Full pinions crowding on the watery way; All from their different ports, their sails unfurl'd, Point their glad streamers to the western world. Book V. Argument.