To the King, upon His Majesty's Happy Return

The rising sun complies with our weak sight,First gilds the clouds, then shows his globe of lightAt such a distance from our eyes, as thoughHe knew what harm his hasty beams would do.

But your full majesty at once breaks forthIn the meridian of your reign. Your worth,Your youth, and all the splendour of your state,(Wrapp'd up, till now, in clouds of adverse fate!)With such a flood of light invade our eyes,And our spread hearts with so great joy surprise,That if your grace incline that we should live,You must not, sir! too hastily forgive.Our guilt preserves us from th'excess of joy,Which scatters spirits, and would life destroy.All are obnoxious! and this faulty land,Like fainting Esther, does before you stand,Watching your sceptre. The revolted seaTrembles to think she did your foes obey.

Great Britain, like blind Polypheme, of late,In a wild rage, became the scorn and hateOf her proud neighbours, who began to thinkShe, with the weight of her own force, would sink.But you are come, and all their hopes are vain;This giant isle has got her eye again.Now she might spare the ocean, and opposeYour conduct to the fiercest of her foes.Naked, the Graces guarded you from allDangers abroad; and now your thunder shall.Princes that saw you, diff'rent passions prove,For now they dread the object of their love;Nor without envy can behold his height,Whose conversation was their late delight.So Semele, contented with the rapeOf Jove disguisèd in a mortal shape,When she beheld his hands with lightning fill'd,And his bright rays, was with amazement kill'd.

And though it be our sorrow, and our crime,To have accepted life so long a timeWithout you here, yet does this absence gainNo small advantage to your present reign;For, having view'd the persons and the things,The councils, state, and strength of Europe's kings,You know your work; ambition to restrain,And set them bounds, as Heaven does to the main.We have you now with ruling wisdom fraught,Not such as books, but such as practice, taught.So the lost sun, while least by us enjoy'd,Is the whole night for our concern employ'd;He ripens spices, fruits, and precious gums,Which from remotest regions hither comes.

This seat of yours (from th'other world removed)Had Archimedes known, he might have provedHis engine's force, fix'd here; your power and skillMake the world's motion wait upon your will.

Much suffring monarch! the first English bornThat has the crown of these three nations worn!How has your patience, with the barb'rous rageOf your own soil, contended half an age?Till (your tried virtue, and your sacred word,At last preventing your unwilling sword)Armies and fleets which kept you out so long,Own'd their great sov'reign, and redress'd his wrong;When straight the people, by no force compell'd,Nor longer from their inclination held,Break forth at once, like powder set on fire,And, with a noble rage, their king require.So th'injured sea, which from her wonted course,To gain some acres, avarice did force,If the new banks, neglected once, decay,No longer will from her old channel stay;Raging, the late got land she overflows,And all that's built upon't to ruin goes.

Offenders now, the chiefest, do beginTo strive for grace, and expiate their sin.All winds blow fair, that did the world embroil;Your vipers treacle yield, and scorpions oil.

If then such praise the Macedonian got,For having rudely cut the Gordian knot,What glory's due to him that could divideSuch ravell'd interests; has the knot untied,And without stroke so smooth a passage made,Where craft and malice such impeachments laid?

But while we praise you, you ascribe it allTo His high hand, which threw the untouch'd wallOf self-demolish'd Jericho so low;His angel 'twas that did before you go,Tamed savage hearts, and made affections yield,Like ears of corn when wind salutes the field.

Thus, patience-crown'd, like Job's, your trouble ends,Having your foes to pardon, and your friends;For, though your courage were so firm a rock,What private virtue could endure the shock?Like your Great Master, you the storm withstood,And pitied those who love with frailty show'd.

Rude Indians, tort'ring all the royal race,Him with the throne and dear-bought sceptre graceThat suffers best. What region could be found,Where your heroic head had not been crown'd?

The next experience of your mighty mindIs, how you combat Fortune, now she's kind.And this way, too, you are victorious found;She flatters with the same success she frown'd.While to yourself severe, to others kind,With pow'r unbounded, and a will confined,Of this vast empire you possess the care,The softer parts fall to the people's share.Safety, and equal government, are thingsWhich subjects make as happy as their kings.

Faith, Law, and Piety, (that banished train!)Justice and Truth, with you return again.The city's trade, and country's easy life,Once more shall flourish without fraud or strife.Your reign no less assures the ploughman's peace,Than the warm sun advances his increase;And does the shepherds as securely keepFrom all their fears, as they preserve their sheep.

But, above all, the Muse-inspirèd trainTriumph, and raise their drooping heads again!Kind Heaven at once has, in your person, sentTheir sacred judge, their guard, and argument.

Nec magis expressi vultus per ahenea signa,Quam per vatis opus mores, animique, virorumClarorum apparent.... HOR.

'Macedonian': Alexander.

TO A LADY,