120 When all these splendours bursting on my sight Shall stand unveiled, and to my ravished sense Unlock the glories of the world unknown.
1773
Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade1
Cease, Wilberforce, to urge thy generous aim! Thy Country knows the sin, and stands the shame! The Preacher, Poet, Senator in vain Has rattled in her sight the Negro's chain;
5 With his deep groans assail'd her startled ear, And rent the veil that hid his constant tear; Forc'd her averted eyes his stripes to scan, Beneath the bloody scourge laid bare the man, Claim'd Pity's tear, urg'd Conscience' strong control,
10 And flash'd conviction on her shrinking soul. The Muse too, soon awak'd, with ready tongue At Mercy's shrine applausive0 paeans rung; approving And Freedom's eager sons, in vain foretold A new Astrean reign,� an age of gold: reign of justice
15 She knows and she persists�Still Afric bleeds, Uncheck'd, the human traffic still proceeds; She stamps her infamy to future time,
5. When God came down to deliver the Ten Commandments "there were thunders and lightnings . . . so that all the people . . . trembled" (Exodus 19.16). 1. On April 18, 1791, the politician and humanitarian Wilberforce (1759�1833) presented a motion in the House of Commons to abolish the slave trade. The motion was rejected a day later by a vote of 163 to 88. Sixteen years passed before the trade was outlawed in the British West Indies (1807), and another twenty-six before it was abolished in the rest of the British Empire (1833).
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E PISTLE TO W ILLIAM W ILBERFORCE, E SQ. / 3 3 And on her harden'd forehead seals the crime. In vain, to thy white standard gathering round, 20 Wit, Worth, and Parts and Eloquence are found: In vain, to push to birth thy great design, Contending chiefs, and hostile virtues join; All, from conflicting ranks, of power possest To rouse, to melt, or to inform the breast. 25 Where seasoned tools of Avarice prevail, A Nation's eloquence, combined, must faiclass="underline" Each flimsy sophistry by turns they try; The plausive0 argument, the daring lie, specious The artful gloss, that moral sense confounds,
30 Th' acknowledged thirst of gain that honour wounds: Bane of ingenuous minds, th' unfeeling sneer, Which, sudden, turns to stone the falling tear: They search assiduous, with inverted skill, For forms of wrong, and precedents of ill;
35 With impious mockery west the sacred page, And glean up crimes from each remoter age: Wrung Nature's tortures, shuddering, while you tell, From scoffing fiends bursts forth the laugh of hell; In Britain's senate, Misery's pangs give birth
40 To jests unseemly, and to horrid mirth� Forbear!�thy virtues but provoke our doom, And swell th' account of vengeance yet to come; For, not unmark'd in Heaven's impartial plan, Shall man, proud worm, contemn his fellow-man?
45 And injur'd Afric, by herself redrest, Darts her own serpents at her Tyrant's breast. Each vice, to minds deprav'd by bondage known, With sure contagion fastens on his own; In sickly languors melts his nerveless frame,
50 And blows to rage impetuous Passion's flame: Fermenting swift, the fiery venom gains The milky innocence of infant veins; There swells the stubborn will, damps learning's fire, The whirlwind wakes of uncontrol'd desire,
55 Sears the young heart to images of woe, And blasts the buds of Virtue as they blow.0 bloom
Lo! where reclin'd, pale Beauty courts the breeze, Diffus'd on sofas of voluptuous ease; With anxious awe, her menial train around,
60 Catch her faint whispers of half-utter'd sound; See her, in monstrous fellowship, unite At once the Scythian, and the Sybarite;2 Blending repugnant vices, misallied, Which frugal nature purpos'd to divide;
65 See her, with indolence to fierceness join'd, Of body delicate, infirm of mind, With languid tones imperious mandates urge; With arm recumbent wield the household scourge;
2. I.e., the contraries of pastoral wildness and effeminate voluptuousness.
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34 / ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD
And with unruffled mien, and placid sounds, 70 Contriving torture, and inflicting wounds.
Nor, in their palmy walks and spicy groves, The form benign of rural Pleasure roves; No milk-maid's song, or hum of village talk, Sooths the lone Poet in his evening walk:
75 No willing arm the flail unwearied plies,
- Where the mix'd sounds of cheerful labour rise; No blooming maids and frolic swains are seen To pay gay homage to their harvest queen: No heart-expanding scenes their eyes must prove so Of thriving industry, and faithful love: But shrieks and yells disturb the balmy air, Dumb sullen looks of woe announce despair, And angry eyes through dusky features glare. Far from the sounding lash the Muses fly,
85 And sensual riot drowns each finer joy.
Nor less from the gay East, on essenc'd wings, Breathing unnam'd perfumes, Contagion springs; The soft luxurious plague alike pervades The marble palaces, and rural shades;
90 Hence, throng'd Augusta0 builds her rosy bowers, London And decks in summer wreaths her smoky towers; And hence, in summer bow'rs, Art's costly hand Pours courtly splendours o'er the dazzled land: The manners melt�One undistinguish'd blaze
95 O'erwhelms the sober pomp of elder days; Corruption follows with gigantic stride, And scarce vouchsafes his shameless front to hide: The spreading leprosy taints ev'ry part, Infects each limb, and sickens at the heart.
ioo Simplicity! most dear of rural maids, Weeping resigns her violated shades: Stern Independance from his glebe0 retires, cidtivated land And anxious Freedom eyes her drooping fires; By foreign wealth are British morals chang'd,
105 And Afric's sons, and India's, smile aveng'd.
For you, whose temper'd ardour long has borne Untir'd the labour, and unmov'd the scorn; In Virtue's fasti0 be inscrib'd your fame, records And utter'd yours with Howard's honour'd name,3
no Friends of the friendless�Hail, ye generous band! Whose efforts yet arrest Heav'n's lifted hand, Around whose steady brows, in union bright, The civic wreath, and Christian's palm unite: Your merit stands, no greater and no less,
us Without, or with the varnish of success; But seek no more to break a Nation's fall, For ye have sav'd yourselves�and that is all. Succeeding times your struggles, and their fate, With mingled shame and triumph shall relate,
3. John Howard (1726-1790), philanthropist and prison and public health reformer.
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T HE R IGHTS OF W OMAN / 3 5 120 While faithful History, in her various page, Marking the features of this motley age, To shed a glory, and to fix a stain, Tells how you strove, and that you strove in vain. 1791 1791
The Rights of Woman1
Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial" Law's despite, biased Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!
5 Go forth arrayed in panoply" divine; suit of armor That angel pureness which admits no stain; Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign, And kiss the golden sceptre of thy reign.
Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store
10 Of bright artillery glancing from afar; Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's roar, Rlushes and fears thy magazine0 of war. storehouse of arms