Ambition in its widest havock trace
Thro' widow'd cities, and unpeopl'd states.
And is this all!
Are these the threaten'd terrors of your reign?
O dream of fancy'd power!
Quit, quit, th' affected shew,
This pageantry of grief, and labour'd pomp of woe.
Draw the pleasing scene,
Where dreadful thunders never rowl, nor giddy tempests low'r.
Scenes delighting!
Peace inviting,
Passions sooth'd, and tumult dying;
Aera's rowling,
Fears controuling,
Always new, and always flying.
We dread we know not what, we fear we know not why,
Our cheated fancy shrinks, nor sees to die
Is but to slumber into immortality.
All reconciling name!
In space unbounded as in power;
Where fancy limits cannot frame;
Nor reason launch beyond the shore:
An equal state from all distinction free,
Spread like the wide expanse of vast immensity.
Seditious tumults there obey,
And feuds their zeal forget:
Debated empires own one common sway,
There learn'd disputes unite;
Nor crowded volumes the long war maintain:
There rival chiefs combine