I care not that in Arno's plain, Or on the sportive banks of Seine, From public themes the Muse's choir Content with polish'd ease retire. Where priests the studious head command, Where tyrants bow the warlike hand To vile ambition's aim, Say, what can public themes afford, Save venal honours to a hateful lord, Reserved for angry heaven and scorn'd of honest fame? IV.--2. But here, where Freedom's equal throne To all her valiant sons is known; Where all are conscious of her cares, And each the power, that rules him, shares; Here let the bard, whose dastard tongue Leaves public arguments unsung, Bid public praise farewell: Let him to fitter climes remove, Far from the hero's and the patriot's love, And lull mysterious monks to slumber in their cell. IV.--3. O Hastings, not to all Can ruling Heaven the same endowments lend: Yet still doth Nature to her offspring call, That to one general weal their different powers they bend, Unenvious. Thus alone, though strains divine Inform the bosom of the Muse's son; Though with new honours the patrician's line Advance from age to age; yet thus alone They win the suffrage of impartial fame. The poet's name He best shall prove, Whose lays the soul with noblest passions move. But thee, O progeny of heroes old, Thee to severer toils thy fate requires: The fate which form'd thee in a chosen mould, The grateful country of thy sires, Thee to sublimer paths demand; Sublimer than thy sires could trace, Or thy own Edward teach his race, Though Gaul's proud genius sank beneath his hand. V.--1. From rich domains, and subject farms, They led the rustic youth to arms; And kings their stern achievements fear'd, While private strife their banners rear'd. But loftier scenes to thee are shown, Where empire's wide establish'd throne No private master fills: Where, long foretold, the People reigns; Where each a vassal's humble heart disdains; And judgeth what he sees; and, as he judgeth, wills. V.--2. Here be it thine to calm and guide The swelling democratic tide; To watch the state's uncertain frame, And baffle Faction's partial aim: But chiefly, with determined zeal, To quell that servile band, who kneel To Freedom's banish'd foes; That monster, which is daily found Expert and bold thy country's peace to wound; Yet dreads to handle arms, nor manly counsel knows. V.--3.