An ODE to MANKIND. Address'd to the Prince. Robert Craggs Nugent, Earl Nugent Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.002 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. II. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 220-228. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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An ODE to MANKIND . Address'd to the Prince . By the Same . INTRODUCTION to the PRINCE . NOR me the glories of thy birth engage , With royal names to swell my pompous page : Nor meaner views allure , in soothing lays To court thy favour with officious praise . Yet praise it is , thus to address thine ear In strains no slave dare sing , no tyrant hear ; While warm for Britain's rights and nature's laws , I call forth Britain's HOPE in freedom's cause : Assert an empire which to ALL belongs , And vindicate a world's long suffer'd wrongs . These saving truths import thee most to know , The links that tie the mighty to the low ; What now , our fellow-subject , is your due , And , when our lord , shall be a debt on you . O ! may'st thou to the throne such maxims bring ! And feel the free-man while thou reign'st the king . Far hence the tribe , whose servile arts delude , And teach the great to spurn the multitude . Are those unworthy of the royal heir , Who claim the future monarch's duteous care ? Still may thy thoughts the godlike task pursue , And to the many ne'er prefer the few ! Still mayst thou fly thy fortune's specious friends , Who deal forth sov'reign grace to private ends ; In narrow streams divert the copious tide , Exalt one sect , and damn the world beside ; While with false lights directing partial rule , The lord of nations falls a party's tool . Such there have been — and such , in truth's despite , Disgrac'd the cause of liberty and right . But thou shalt rise superior to their arts , And fix thy empire in a people's hearts . Nor hence may faction boast her favour'd claim , Where selfish passions borow virtue's name : Free government alone preserves the free , And righteous rule is gen'ral liberty ; Their guiding law is freedom's native voice , The publick good defin'd by publick choice ; And justly should the bold offenders fall , Who dare invade the sov'reign rights of all ; A king who proudly makes these claims his own , Or they whose rage should shake a lawful throne . From truths like these proceeds a right divine , And may the pow'r that rais'd , preserve thy scepter'd line . To MANKIND : An ODE . I. IS there , or do the schoolmen dream ? Is there on earth a pow'r supreme , The delegate of heav'n ? To whom an uncontroul'd command , In ev'ry realm o'er sea and land , By special grace is giv'n ? II . Then say , what signs this god proclaim ? Dwells he amidst the diamond's flame , A throne his hallow'd shrine ? The borrow'd pomp , the arm'd array , Want , fear , and impotence betray : Strange proofs of pow'r divine ! III . If service due from human kind , To men in slothful ease reclin'd , Can form a sov'reign claim : Hail monarchs ! ye , whom heav'n ordains , Our toils unshar'd , to share our gains , Ye ideots , blind and lame ! IV . Superior virtue , wisdom , might , Create and mark the ruler's right , So reason must conclude : Then thine it is , to whom belong The wise , the virtuous , and the strong , Thrice sacred multitude ! V. In thee , vast ALL ! are these contain'd , For thee are those , thy parts ordain'd , So nature's systems roll : The scepter's thine , if such there be ; If none there is , then thou art free , Great monarch ! mighty whole ! VI . Let the proud tyrant rest his cause On faith , prescription , force , or laws , An host's or senate's voice ! His voice affirms thy stronger due , Who for the many made the few , And gave the species choice . VII . Unsanctify'd by thy command , Unown'd by thee , the scepter'd hand The trembling slave may bind . But loose from nature's moral ties , The oath by force impos'd belies The unassenting mind . VIII . Thy will's thy rule , thy good its end ; You punish only to defend What parent nature gave : And he who dare her gifts invade , By nature's oldest law is made Thy victim or thy slave . IX . Thus reason founds the just decree On universal liberty , Not private rights resign'd : Through various nature's wide extent , No private beings e'er were meant To hurt the gen'ral kind . X. Thee justice guides , thee right maintains , Th' oppressor's wrong , the pilf'rer's gains , Thy injur'd weal impair . Thy warmest passions soon subside , Nor partial envy , hate , nor pride , Thy temper'd counsels share . XI . Each instance of thy vengeful rage , Collected from each clime and age , Tho' malice swell the sum , Would seem a spotless scanty scroll , Compar'd with Marius' bloody roll , Or Sylla's hippodrome . XII . But thine has been imputed blame , Th' unworthy few assume thy name , The rabble weak and loud ; Or those who on thy ruins feast , The lord , the lawyer , and the priest ; A more ignoble crowd . XIII . Avails it thee , if one devours , Or lesser spoilers share his pow'rs , While both thy claim oppose ? Monsters who wore thy sully'd crown , Tyrants who pull'd those monsters down , Alike to thee were foes . XIV . Far other shone fair Freedom's hand , Far other was th' immortal stand , When Hampden fought for thee : They snatch'd from rapine's gripe thy spoils , The fruits and prize of glorious toils , Of arts and industry . XV. On thee yet foams the preacher's rage , On thee fierce frowns th' historian's page , A false apostate train : Tears stream adown the martyr's tomb ; Unpity'd in their harder doom , Thy thousands strow the plain . XVI . These had no charms to please the sense . No graceful port , no eloquence , To win the Muse's throng : Unknown , unsung , unmark'd they lie ; But Caesar's fate o'ercasts the sky , And Nature mourns his wrong . XVII . Thy foes , a frontless band , invade ; Thy friends afford a timid aid , And yield up half thy right . Ev'n Locke beams forth a mingled ray , Afraid to pour the flood of day On man's too feeble sight . XVIII . Hence are the motly systems fram'd , Of right transfer'd , of power reclaim'd ; Distinctions weak and vain . Wise Nature mocks the wrangling herd ; For unreclaim'd , and untransfer'd , Her pow'rs and rights remain . XIX . While law the royal agent moves , The instrument thy choice approves , We bow through him to you . But change , or cease th' inspiring choice , The sov'reign sinks a private voice , Alike in one , or few ! XX . Shall then the wretch , whose dastard heart Shrinks at a tyrant's nobler part , And only dares betray ; With reptile wiles , alas ! prevail , Where force , and rage , and priest-craft fail , To pilfer pow'r away ? XXI . O ! shall the bought , and buying tribe , The slaves who take , and deal the bribe , A people's claims enjoy ! So Indian murd'rers hope to gain The pow'rs and virtues of the slain , Of wretches they destroy . XXII . " Avert it , heav'n ! you love the brave , " You hate the treach'rous , willing slave , " The self-devoted head . " Nor shall an hireling's voice convey " That sacred prize to lawless sway , " For which a nation bled . " XXIII . Vain pray'r , the coward's weak resource ! Directing reason , active force , Propitious heaven bestows . But ne'er shall flame the thund'ring sky , To aid the trembling herd that fly Before the weaker foes . XXIV . In names there dwell no magick charms , The British virtues , British arms Unloos'd our fathers' band : Say , Greece and Rome ! if these shou'd fail , What names , what ancestors avail , To save a sinking land ? XXV . Far , far from us such ills shall be , Mankind shall boast one nation free , One monarch truly great : Whose title speaks a people's choice , Whose sovereign will a people's voice , Whose strength a prosp'rous state .