Ere yet perfidious Cromwell dar'd profane
The sacred senate, and with impious feet
Tread on the powers of magistrates and laws,
While every arm was chill'd with cold amaze,
Nor one in all that dauntless train was found
To pierce the ruffian's heart; and now thy name
Was heard in thunder through th' affrighted shores
Of pale Iberia, of submissive Gaul,
And Tagus, trembling to his utmost source.
O ever faithful, vigilant, and brave,
Thou bold assertor of Britannia's fame,
Unconquerable Blake: propitious Heaven
At this great era, and the sage decree 15
Of Albion's senate, perfecting at once,
What by Eliza 6 was so well begun,
So deeply founded, to this favour'd shore
The goddess drew, where grateful she bestow'd
Th' unbounded empire of her father's floods,
And chose thee, London, for her chief abode,
Pleas'd with the silver Thames, its gentle stream,
And smiling banks, its joy-diffusing hills,
Which, clad with splendour, and with beauty grac'd,
O'erlook his lucid bosom; pleas'd with thee,
Thou nurse of arts, and thy industrious race;
Pleas'd with their candid manners, with their free
Sagacious converse, to inquiry led,

Why, though deriv'd from Neptune, though rever'd
Among the nations, by the gods endow'd,
Thou never yet from eldest times hast found
One permanent abode; why oft expell'd
Thy favour'd seats, from clime to clime hast borne
Thy wandering steps; why London late hath seen
(Thy lov'd, thy last retreat) desponding care
O'ercloud thy brow: O listen, while the Muse,
Th' immortal progeny of Jove, unfolds
The fatal cause. What time in Nysa's cave
Th' ethereal train, in honour to thy sire,
Shower'd on thy birth their blended gifts, the power
Of war was absent; hence, unbless'd by Mars,
Thy sons relinquish'd arms, on other arts
Intent, and still to mercenary hands

The sword entrusting, vainly deem'd, that wealth
Could purchase lasting safety, and protect
Unwarlike Freedom; hence the Alps in vain
Were pass'd, their long impenetrable snows
And dreary torrents; swoln with Roman dead,
Astonish'd Trebia 28 overflow'd its banks
In vain, and deep-dy'd Trasimenus roll'd
Its crimson waters; Cannæ's signal day
The fame alone of great Amilcar's son
Enlarg'd, while still undisciplin'd, dismay'd,
Her head commercial Carthage bow'd at last

And zeal for knowledge; hence the opening mind To nilitary Rome: th' unalter'd will

Resigns its errours, and unseals the eye
Of blind Opinion; Merit hence is heard
Amidst its blushes, dawning arts arise,
The gloomy clouds, which ignorance or fear
Spread o'er the paths of Virtue, are dispell'd,
Servility retires, and every heart

With public cares is warm'd; thy merchants hence,
Illustrious city, thou dost raise to fame:
How many names of glory may'st thou trace
From earliest annals down to Barnard's 27 times!
And, O! if like that eloquence divine,
Which forth for Commerce, for Britannia's rights,
And her insulted majesty he pour'd,
These humble measures flow'd, then too thy walls
Might undisgrac'd resound thy poet's name,
Who now all-fearful to thy praise attunes
His lyre, and pays his grateful song to thee,
Thy votary, O Commerce! Gracious Power,
Continue still to hear my vows, and bless
My honourable industry, which courts
No other smile but thine; for thou alone
Can'st wealth bestow with independence crown'd:
Nor yet exclude contemplative repose,
But to my dwelling grant the solemn calm
Of learned leisure, never to reject
The visitation of the tuneful Maids,
Who seldom deign to leave their sacred haunts,
And grace a mortal mansion; thou divide
With them my labours; pleasure I resign,
And all devoted to my midnight lamp,
Ev'n now, when Albion o'er the foaming breast
Of groaning Tethys spreads its threat'ning fleets,
I grasp the sounding shell, prepar'd to sing
That hero's valour, who shall best confound
His injur'd country's foes; ev'n now I feel
Celestial fires descending on my breast,
Which prompt thy daring suppliant to explore,

25 The act of navigation.

26 Queen Elizabeth was the first of our princes who gave any considerable encouragement to trade.

27 Sir John Barnard.

Of Heaven in every climate hath ordain'd,
And every age, that empire shall attend
The sword, and steel shall ever conquer gold.
Then from thy sufferings learn; th' auspicious hour
Now smiles; our wary magistrates have arm'd
Our hands; thou, goddess, animate our breasts
To cast inglorious indolence aside,

That once again, in bright battalions rang'd,
Our thousands and ten thousands may be seen
Their country's only rampart, and the dread
Of wild Ambition. Mark the Swedish hind:
He, on his native soil should danger lour,
Soon from the entrails of the dusky mine
Would rise to arms; and other fields and chiefs
With Helsingburgh 29 and Steinboch soon would share
The admiration of the northern world:
Helvetia's hills behold, th' aërial seat
Of long-supported Liberty, who thence,
Securely resting on her faithful shield,
The warrior's corselet flaming on her breast,
Looks down with scorn on spacious realms, which
In servitude around her, and, her sword [groan
With dauntless skill high brandishing, defies
The Austrian eagle, and imperious Gaul:
And O could those ill-fated shades arise
Whose valiant ranks along th' ensanguin'd dust
Of Newbury 30 lay crowded, they could tell,

28 Trebia, Trasimenus lacus, and Cannæ, famous for the victories gained by Hannibal over the Ro

mans.

29 Helsinburgh, a small town in Schonen, celebrated for the victory which count Steinboch gained over the Danes with an army for the most part composed of Swedish peasants, who had never seen an enemy before: it is remarkable, that the defeated troops were as complete a body of regular forces as any in all Europe.

30 The London trained bands, and auxiliary regiments, (whose inexperience of danger, or any kind of service, beyond the easy practice of their postures in the Artillery Ground, had till then too cheap an estimation) behaved themselves to

How their long-matchless cavalry, so oft
O'er hills of slain by ardent Rupert led,
Whose dreaded standard Victory had wav'd,
Till then triumphant, there with noblest blood
From their gor'd squadrons dy'd the restive spear
Of London's firm militia, and resign'd
The well-disputed field; then, goddess, say,
Shall we be now more timid, when behold,
The black'ning storm now gathers round our heads,
And England's angry Genius sounds to arms?
For thee, remember, is the banner spread;
The naval tower to vindicate thy rights
Will sweep the curling foam: the thund'ring bomb
Will roar, and startle in the deepest grots
Old Nereus' daughters; with combustion stor'd
For thee our dire volcanos of the main,
Impregnated with horrour, soon will pour
Their flaming ruin round each hostile fleet:
Thou then, great goddess, summon all thy powers,
Arm all thy sons, thy vassals, every heart
Inflame and you, ye fear-disclaiming race,
Ye mariners of Britain, chosen train
Of Liberty and Commerce, now no more
Secrete your generous valour; hear the call
Of injur'd Albion; to her foes present
Those daring bosoms, which alike disdain
The death-disploding cannon, and the rage
Of warring tempests, mingling in their strife
The seas and clouds: though long in silence hush'd
Hath slept the British thunder; though the pride
Of weak Iberia hath forgot the roar;
Soon shall her ancient terrours be recall'd,
When your victorious shouts affright her shores:
None now ignobly will your warmth restrain,
Nor hazard more indignant Valour's curse,
Their country's wrath, and Time's eternal scorn;
Then bid the Furies of Bellona wake,
And silver-mantled Peace with welcome steps
Anon shall visit your triumphant isle.
And, that perpetual safety may possess
Our joyous fields, thou, Genius, who presid'st
O'er this illustrious city, teach her sons
To wield the noble instruments of war;
And let the great example soon extend
Through every province, till Britannia sees
Her docile millions fill the martial plain.
Then, whatsoe'er our terreurs now suggest
Of desolation and th' invading sword;
Though with his massy trident Neptune heav'd
A new-born isthmus from the British deep,
And to its parent continent rejoin'd
Our chalky shore; though Mahomet could
His powerful crescent with the hostile Gaul,
And that new Cyrus of the conquer'd East,
Who now in trembling vassalage unites
The Ganges and Euphrates, could advance
With his auxiliar host; our warlike youth
With equal numbers 32, and with keener zeal

For children, parents, friends, for England fir'd,
Her fertile glebe, her wealthy towns, her laws,
Her liberty, her honour, should sustain
The dreadful onset, and resistless break

Th' immense array; thus ev'n the lightest thought
E'er to invade Britannia's calm repose,
Must die the moment that auspicious Mars
Her sons shall bless with discipline and arms;
| That exil'd race, in superstition nurs'd,
The servile pupils of tyrannic Rome,
With distant gaze despairing shall behold
The guarded splendours of Britannia's crown;
Still from their abdicated sway estrang'd,
With all th' attendants on despotic thrones,
Priests, ignorance, and bonds; with watchful step
Gigantic Terrour, striding round our coast,
Shall shake his gorgon ægis, and the hearts
Of proudest kings appal; to other shores
Our angry fleets, when insolence and wrongs
To arms awaken our vindictive power,
Shall bear the hideous waste of ruthless war;
But liberty, security, and fame,

Shall dwell for ever on our chosen plains.

To illustrate the following poem, to vindicate the subject from the censure of improbability, and to show by the concurring evidence of the best historians, that such disinterested public virtue did once exist, I have thought, it would not be improper to prefix the subsequent narration.

While Darius, the father of Xerxes, was yet on the throne of Persia, Cleomenes and Demaratus were kings in Lacedæmon, both descended from Hercules. Demaratus was unfortunately exposed by an uncertain rumour, which rendered his legitimacy suspected, to the malice and treachery of his colleague, who had conceived a personal resentleaguement against him; for Cleomenes, taking advantage of this report, persuaded the Spartans to examine into the birth of Demaratus, and refer the difficulty to the oracle of Delphi; and was assisted in his perfidious designs by a near relation of Demaratus, named Leutychides, who aspired to succeed him in his dignity. Cleomenes found means to corrupt the priestess of Delphi, who declared Demaratus not legitimate. Thus, by the base practices of his colleague Cleomenes, and of his kinsman Leutychides, Demaratus was expelled

wonder; and were, in truth, the preservation of that army that day. For they stood as a bulwark and rampire to defend the rest; and when their wings of horse were scattered and dispersed, kept their ground so steadily, that though prince Rupert himself led up the choice horse to charge millions of fighting men to this kingdom, may be them, and endured the storm of small shot, he relied on; it is not easy to conceive, how the could make no impression on their stand of pikes; united force of the whole world could assemble tobut was forced to wheel about. Clarend. book vii.gether, and subsist in an enemy's country greater page 347. numbers, than they would find opposed to them here.

* If the computation, which allots near two

Plutarch in his Laconic Apothegms reports, that

from his regal office in the commonwealth, a La- | to fight till the last extremity. Xerxes, notwithcedæmonian, distinguished in action and counsel, standing, in the confidence of his power, sent amand the only king of Sparta, who, by obtaining the bassadors to the Grecians to demand their arms, to Olympic prize in the chariot-race, had increased bid them disperse, and become his friends and the lustre of his country. He went into voluntary allies; which proposals being received with disbanishment, and, retiring to Asia, was there pro-dain, he commanded the Medes and Cissians to tected by Darius; while Leutychides succeeded to seize on the Grecians, and bring them alive into the regal authority in Sparta. Upon the death of his presence. These nations immediately attacked Cleomenes, Leonidas became king, who ruled in the Grecians, and were soon repulsed with great conjunction with this Leutychides, when Xerxes, slaughter; fresh troops still succeeded; but with the son of Darius, invaded Greece. The number no better fortune than the first, being opposed to of land and naval forces which accompanied that an enemy not only superior in valour and resolumonarch, together with the servants, women, and tion, but who had the advantage of discipline, and other usual attendants on the army of an eastern were furnished with better arms both offensive and prince, amounted to upwards of five millions, as defensive. reported by Herodotus, who wrote within a few years after the event, and publicly recited his his-the Persian king offered to invest Leonidas with the tory at the Olympic games. In this general as- sovereignty of Greece, provided he would join his sembly not only from Greece itself, but from every arms to those of Persia. This offer was too consipart of the world, wherever a colony of Grecians derable a condescension to have been made before was planted, had he greatly exceeded the truth, he a trial of their force, and must therefore have been must certainly have been detected, and censured proposed by Xerxes after such a series of ill sucby some among so great a multitude; and such a cess, as might probably have depressed the insovoluntary falsehood must have entirely destroyed lence of his temper; and it may be easily adthat merit and authority, which have procured to mitted, that the virtue of Leonidas was proof Herodotus the veneration of ail posterity, with the against any temptations of that nature. Whether appellation of the Father of History. On the first this be a fact or not, thus much is certain, that news of this attempt on their liberty, a convention, Xerxes was reduced to extreme difficulties by this composed of deputies from the several states of resolute defence of Thermopyla; till he was extriGreece, was immediately held at the isthmus of cated from his distress by a Malian, named EpiCorinth to consult on proper measures for the pub-altes, who conducted twenty thousand of the Perlic safety. The Spartans also sent messengers to inquire of the oracle at Delphi into the event of the war, who returned with an answer from the priestess of Apollo, that either a king, descended from Hercules, must die, or Lacedæmon would be entirely destroyed. Leonidas immediately offered to sacrifice his life for the preservation of Lacedæmon; and, marching to Thermopyla, possessed himself of that important pass with three hundred of his countrymen; who, with the forces of some other cities in the Peloponnesus, together with the Thebans, Thespians, and the troops of those states which adjoined to Thermopyla, composed an army of near eight thousand men.

sian army into Greece through a pass, which lay higher up the country among the mountains of Eta: whereas the passage at Thermopyla was situated on the a-shore between those mountains and the Malian bay. The defence of the upper pass had been committed to a thousand Phocians, who upon the first sight of the enemy inconsiderately abandoned their station, and put themselves in array upon a neighbouring eminence; but the Persians wisely avoided an engagement, and with the utmost expedition marched to Thermopylæ.

Leonidas no sooner received information, that the barbarians had passed the mountains, and would soon be in a situation to surround him, than Xerxes was now advanced as far as Thessalia; he commanded the allies to retreat, reserving the when hearing, that a small body of Grecians was three hundred Spartans, and four hundred Theassembled at Thermopyla, with some Lacedæmo- bans, whom, as they followed him with reluctance nians at their head, and among the rest Leonidas, at first, he now compelled to stay. But the Thesa descendant of Hercules, he dispatched a single pians, whose number amounted to seven hundred, horseman before to observe their numbers, and dis- would not be persuaded by Leonidas to forsake cover their designs. When this horseman ap- him. Their commander was Demophilus, and the proached, he could not take a view of the whole most eminent amongst them for his valour was Dicamp, which lay concealed behind a rampart, for-thyrambus, the son of Harmatides. Among the merly raised by the Phocians at the entrance of Thermopyla on the side of Greece; so that his whole attention was engaged by those who were on guard before the wall, and who at that instant chanced to be the Lacedæmonians. Their manner and gestures greatly astonished the Persian. Some were amusing themselves in gymnastic exercises; others were combing their hair; and all discovered a total disregard of him, whom they suffered to depart, and report to Xerxes what he had seen: which appearing to that prince quite ridiculous, he sent for Demaratus, who was with him in the camp, and required him to explain this strange behaviour of his countrymen. Demaratus informed him, that it was a custom among the Spartans to comb down and adjust their hair, when they were determined

Lacedæmonians the most conspicuous next to Leonidas was Dieneces, who being told, that the multitude of Persian arrows would obscure the Sun, replied, "the battle would then be in the shade." Two brothers, named Alpheus and Marón, are also recorded for their valour, and were Lacedæmonians. Megistias a priest, by birth an Acarnanian, and held in high honour at Sparta, refused to desert Leonidas, though entreated by him to consult his safety; but sent away his only son, and remained himself behind to die with the Lacedæmonians.

Herodotus relates, that Leonidas drew up his men in the broadest part of Thermopyla; where, being encompassed by the Persians, they fell with great numbers of their enemies: but Plutarch,

shall not all posterity reflect on the virtue of these men, as the object of imitation, who, though the loss of their lives was the necessary consequence of their undertaking, were yet unconquered in their spirit; and among all the great names, delivered down to remembrance, are the only heroes, who obtained more glory in their fall than others from the brightest victories? With justice may they be deemed the preservers of the Grecian liberty, even preferably to those, who were conquerors in the battles fought afterwards with Xerxes; for the memory of that valour, exerted in the defence of Thermopylæ, for ever dejected the barbarians, while the Greeks were fired with emulation to equal such a pitch of magnanimity. Upon the whole, there never were any before these, who attained to immortality through the mere excess of virtue; whence the praise of their fortitude hath not been recorded by historians only, but hath been celebrated by numbers of poets, among others by Simonides the lyric.'

Pausanias, in his Laconics, considers the defence of Thermopyla by Leonidas, as an action superior to any achieved by his contemporaries, and to all the exploits of preceding ages. "Never," says he, "had Xerxes beheld Greece, and laid in ashes the city of Athens, had not his forces under Hydarnes been conducted through a path over mount Œta; and, by that means encompassing the Greeks, overcome and slain Leonidas." Nor is it improbable, that such a commander at the head of such troops should have maintained his post in so narrow a pass, till the whole army of Xerxes had perished by famine. At the same time his navy had been miserably shattered by a storm, and worsted in an engagement with the Athenians at Artemisium.

Diodorus Siculus, and others, affirm, that the Grecians attacked the very camp of Xerxes in the night. Both these dispositions are reconcileable to probability. He might have made an attack on the Persian camp in the night, and in the morning withdrawn his forces back to Thermopylæ, where they would be enabled to make the most obstinate resistance, and sell their lives upon the dearest terins. The action is thus described by Diodorus. "The Grecians, having now rejected all thoughts of safety, preferring glory to life, unanimously called on their general to lead them against the Persians, before they could be apprised, that their friends had passed round the mountains. Leonidas embraced the occasion, which the ready zeal of his soldiers afforded, and commanded them forthwith to dine, as men, who were to sup in Elysium. Himself in consequence of this command took a repast, as the means to furnish strength for a long continuance, and to give perseverance in danger. After a short refreshment the Grecians were now prepared, and received orders to assail the enemies in their camp, to put all they met to the sword, and force a passage to the royal pavilion; when, formed into one compact body with Leonidas himself at their head, they marched against the Persians, and entered their camp at the dead of night. The barbarians, wholly unprepared, and blindly conjecturing, that their friends were defeated, and themselves attacked by the united power of Greece, hurry together from their tents with the utmost disorder and consternation. Many were slain by Leonidas and his party, but much greater multitudes by their own troops, to whom in the midst of this blind confusion they were not distinguishable from enemies: for, as night took away the power of discerning truly, and the tumult was spread universally over the camp, a prodigious slaughter must naturally ensue. The want of command, of a watch-word, and of confidence in themselves, reduced the Persians to such a state of confusion, that they destroyed each other without distinction. Had Xerxes continued in the royal pavilion, the Grecians without difficulty might have brought the war to a speedy conclusion by his death; but he at the beginning of the tumult betook himself to flight with the utmost precipitation; when the Grecians, rushing into the tent, put to the sword most of those who were left behind: then, while night lasted, they ranged through the I shall now detain the reader no longer, than to whole camp in diligent search of the tyrant. When take this public occasion of expressing my sincere morning appeared, the Persians, perceiving the regard for the lord viscount Cobham, and the sense true state of things, held the inconsiderable num- of my obligations for the early honour of his friendber of their enemies in contempt; yet were so ter- ship; to him I inscribe the following poem; and rified at their valour, that they avoided a near en- herein I should be justified, independent of all pergagement; but enclosing the Grecians on every sonal motives, from his lordship's public conduct, side, showered their darts and arrows upon them so highly distinguished by his disinterested zeal, at a distance, and in the end destroyed their whole and unshaken fidelity to his country, not less in body. In this manner fell the Grecians, who under civil life than in the field: to him therefore a the conduct of Leonidas defended the pass of Ther-poem, founded on a character eminent for military mopylæ. All must admire the virtue of these glory, and love of liberty, is due from the nature men, who with one consent, maintaining the post of the subject. allotted by their country, cheerfully renounced their lives for the common safety of Greece, and esteemed a glorious death more eligible than to 'live with dishonour. Nor is the consternation of the Persians incredible. Who among those barbarians could have conjectured such an event? Who could have expected, that five hundred men would have dared to attack a million? Wherefore

To conclude, the fall of Leonidas and his brave companions, so meritorious to their country, and so glorious to themselves, hath obtained such a high degree of veneration and applause from passed ages, that few among the ancient compilers of history have been silent on this amazing instance of magnanimity, and zeal for liberty; and many are the epigrams and inscriptions now extant, some on the whole body, others on particulars, who died at Thermopyla, still preserving their memory in every nation conversant with learning, and at this distance of time still rendering their virtue the object of admiration and of praise.