I. "'Tis mine, the sway from pole to pole—" Attend! 'tis Superstition's boast— "The sceptre mine that awes the soul "In Lapland wilds, on India's coast. "Caffraria's trembling chiefs to Me "And Gambian monarchs bow the servile knee. "My rites thy countless multitudes, Cathay, "And Niphon's bloody isles obey. "Before his monster-idols prone, "Or Lama's never vacant throne, "The Tartar crouches to my rod. "Columbia's savage at my nod "Cries to the Spirit of the midnight wood, "Or sooths the fancied Power that thunders in the flood.
II. "But chief o'er Thee, once dreaded Foe, "Thee, self-proclaim'd the Eternal's Son, "My favourite wreaths of triumph glow; "From Thee my fairest realms are won. "Thy harvests fill the wondering East— "I call my locust-armies to the feast[1]. "The living clouds from Arab deserts rise; "And darkness wraps the noontide skies: "An Eden spreads before their face; "Behind, a naked wilderness. "Has aught escaped them? At my glance "My Euphratéan Horse advance[2]; "From plain to plain in whirlwind havoc shoot, "And grind with iron hoofs each desolated root.
III. "And now the adverse clime I greet[3]. "There, central in thy new domain, "His throne the exiled Dragon's seat[4], "Behold my dread Vicegerent reign! "Before him, lo! with rival zeal, "Thy captives once, ten vassal monarchs kneel[5], "Bend to his foot the gold-encircled brow, "And as to Heaven in homage bow. "Sublime his triple crown he rears; "Treads in the dust his vanquish'd peers[6]; "With irreversible decree "Metes out the land, divides the sea[7]; "Annuls thy laws, degrades thee with a nod, "And in Jehovah's fane exalts himself as God[8].
IV. "In him my delegated sway "Soon shall the farthest North adore, "And Adel's plains of orient day, "And California's evening shore; "And Fuego join the firm accord, "Till Earth with all her tongues proclaim him Lord. "And Thou, who dar'st with Me the sceptre share— "What outcry shakes the stagnant air? "Why heaves and swells yon torpid deep? "Ten thousand moons have seen it sleep! "Why undulates the stedfast ground?"— Amazed she eyes the regions round. Then with instinctive dread her look she bends Where her Vicegerent's throne in hallow'd state ascends.
V. On seven proud hills of old renown The imperial fortress rears its crest[9]: Around unnumber'd bulwarks frown; And terror chills the conscious West. A lamb, fair sign of peace and love, Trac'd in the broider'd banner floats above. But mark the walls beneath! The emblem vain Waves o'er the scourge, the rack, the chain, Illustration from 'Poems, Sacred and Moral' by Thomas Gisborne, third edition published in 1803
On seven proud hills of old Renown The Imperial Fortress rears its Crest:
And nameless forms of torturing power: And still to each embattled tower, And each tall parapet along, Fierce bands in fable armour throng: And oft in flames the bolt of vengeance hurl'd Uproots opposing thrones, and awes the prostrate world.
VI. Even now behold the signs display'd Of roused alarm, of vengeful ire! Volumes of smoke the pile o'ershade; Each roaring turret pours its fire. For lo, the keen-eyed Guards descry In human guise an Angel Foe draw nigh! Still as more fierce the vollied lightning glows, His form dilates, his stature grows. Nor spear nor sword he deigns to wield; Backward he flings his radiant shield: Beside yon bulwark takes his stand; The buttress grasps with giant hand; Shakes, Sampson-like, the nodding towers amain, And opes the mighty rent, that ne'er shall close again.
VII. "So wait, Abhorred Pile, thy fall—" Ere yet anew he seeks the skies, "So nurse beneath thy ruin'd wall "Thy serpent brood," the Victor cries. "So wait thy fall, so nurse thy brood "O'ergorged and drunk with Saints' and Martyrs' blood[10]; "Till, closed the number'd years by Heaven assign'd[11] "The scorners of its law to blind, "And prove by more than Pagan rage "The votaries of the sacred page; "He, Lord of Angels and of Men, "In Thee still crucified again[12], "Comes, robed in clouds, to vindicate His name, "And sink thy mouldering wrecks in everduring flame[13].
VIII. "Servants of God! far hence repair; "Come forth, come forth, ere yet too late: "Who join her sins, her fate must share: "Fly, fly her sins, nor share her fate[14]!" Germania, starting at the sound, And Cimbrian cliffs the warning notes rebound. Swift o'er the Codan wave the echo flies[15]; And Scania to the call replies. Heard ye Helvetia's rising gales? Alps cry to Alps, and vales to vales. Lo, Albion, on her sea-beat plain, Claps her glad hands, and swells the strain. O'er Caledonian hills the murmur breaks; And snow-clad Thulè hears, and wonders as she wakes.
IX. Where'er the warning notes are spread, The carved saints, the graven stones, And shaggy cloaks of Hermits dead, And fabled martyrs' crumbling bones, And venal passports to the sky Flung to the moles and bats dishonour'd lie. There lie the tools of sanctimonious guile[16], By Priestcraft form'd his spells to pile And dupe the crowd that gazed from far. And hark, the cloister-doors unbar! The unprisoned victims hurry forth: Lo pale-eyed beauty, letter'd worth, To Heaven their raptures lift in grateful strife; And drink anew the gales of liberty and life.
X. No more obscured in barbarous tone The altar hears the mystic rite: No more shall Prayer with tongue unknown The vainly listening ear invite. As when around each favour'd head Inspiring beams the fiery emblem shed[17]; Even now from lands, by Ocean's roaring tide And shadowy mountains parted wide[18]; God's wondrous works proclaiming, Praise Her native voice is heard to raise. Lo Truth, escaped from Error's den, Her hallow'd fount unseals again[19]. From realm to realm the sacred currents haste, And heal with freshening dews the long-neglected waste.
XI. "Prepare the stake, the pile uprear—" The triple-crowned Tyrant cries. The Fiends of Persecution hear: A lurid gleam o'er Europe flies. Hark, ceaseless hammers forge the chain; And crowded dungeons are enlarged in vain. Behold unripen'd youth and nerveless age And female weakness mock their rage! See holy Wishart climb the pyre, Nor shrink though Beaton watch the fire: See mitred Ridley, bold in death, And dauntless Hooper gasp for breath: See Latimer augment the glorious band; And Cranmer eye serene the firm repentant hand!
XII. 'Tis past, 'tis past, the storm of blood! Again from yon meridian height Lo Truth renews the golden flood, And shouting nations hail the light; Earnest of those triumphant days By Seers foretold, by Bards in heaven-taught lays Invoked, when circling earth from pole to pole The sea of righteousness shall roll The cleansing wave to every shore: When Salem, raised to fall no more, As parents for their elder-born Lament, for Him she pierced shall mourn[20]: One common name bid Jew and Gentile cease; And Christ be Lord of All in universal peace.
↑The Papal claims to dethrone sovereigns and distribute kingdoms are well known. The Pontiff Eugene IV. about the year 1438, issued a Bull granting to the Portuguese all the countries which they should discover from Cape Non in Africa to the confines of India. See Robertson's History of America, 4th edit. vol. i. p. 59-61. In the year 1493, Pope Alexander VI. made a similar grant of America to the Spanish monarchs. And, to prevent this grant from interfering with his predecessor's donation to Portugal, he drew an imaginary line along the sea from pole to pole an hundred leagues to the Westward of the Azores; and bestowed all to the East of this line on the Portuguese, and all to the West of it on the Spaniards. Ibid. p. 140.
↑"—The great city" (Rome) "where also our Lord was crucified," figuratively, in the perversion of his religion, and the persecution of his faithful servants. So it is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. vi. ver. 6.—concerning apostatising Christians; "They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame."
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