| |
| NO 1 more let ancient times their heroes boast, | |
| Since all their fame in George’s praise is lost; | |
| Not Greece—her Alexanders; Cæsars—Rome | |
| For worth and virtue view our Monarch’s tomb. | |
| Restless ambition dwelt in Cæsar’s mind, | 5 |
| He murder’d nations and enslaved mankind: | |
| He found a gen’rous people great and free, | |
| And gave them tyrants for their liberty. | |
| The glorious Alexander, half divine, | |
| Whose godlike deeds in ancient records shine, | 10 |
| Dropt his divinity at every feast; | |
| And lost the god and hero in the beast. | |
| Shall then our monarch be with these compared, | |
| Or George’s glory with a Cæsar shared: | |
| No—we indignant spurn the unworthy claim: | 15 |
| George shines unrivall’d in the lists of fame: | |
| For while he reign’d, each virtue, every grace | |
| Beam’d from his throne, and sparkled in his face: | |
| While justice, goodness, liberty inspired, | |
| And Britain’s freedom all his conduct fired. | 20 |
| His people’s father was his highest boast; | |
| And in that name was all the sovereign lost. | |
| Justice which left the world since Saturn’s reign, | |
| In him returning blest these realms again; | |
| Even rigid justice with compassion join’d, | 25 |
| Sweetly uniting in his generous mind. | |
| But why should we on separate features dwell, | |
| When the great picture does in each excel? | |
| No single virtues strike us with surprise; | |
| All come united to the admiring eyes. | 30 |
