In thriving arts long time had Holland grown,

Crouching at home and cruel when abroad;

Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own;

Our king they courted, and our merchants awed.[98]

Trade, which like blood should circularly flow,

Stopped in their channels, found its freedom lost;

Thither the wealth of all the world did go,

And seemed but shipwrecked on so base a coast.

For them alone the heavens had kindly heat,

In eastern quarries ripening precious dew;[99]

For them the Idumæan balm did sweat,

And in hot Ceylon spicy forests grew.

The sun but seemed the labourer of the year;

Each waxing moon supplied her watery store,[100]

To swell those tides, which from the Line did bear

Their brim-full vessels to the Belgian shore.

Thus, mighty in her ships, stood Carthage long,

And swept the riches of the world from far;

Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong;

And this may prove our second Punic war.[101]

What peace can be, where both to one pretend?

(But they more diligent, and we more strong,)

Or if a peace, it soon must have an end;

For they would grow too powerful, were it long.

Behold two nations then, engaged so far,

That each seven years the fit must shake each land;

Where France will side to weaken us by war,

Who only can his vast designs withstand.

See how he feeds the Iberian[102] with delays,

To render us his timely friendship vain;

And while his secret soul on Flanders preys,

He rocks the cradle of the babe of Spain.[103]

Such deep designs of empire does he lay

O'er them, whose cause he seems to take in hand;

And prudently would make them lords at sea,

To whom with ease he can give laws by land.

This saw our king; and long within his breast

His pensive counsels balanced to and fro;

He grieved the land he freed should be oppressed,

And he less for it than usurpers do.[104]

His generous mind the fair ideas drew

Of fame and honour, which in dangers lay;

Where wealth, like fruit on precipices, grew,

Not to be gathered but by birds of prey.

The loss and gain each fatally were great;

And still his subjects called aloud for war:

But peaceful kings, o'er martial people set,

Each other's poize and counterbalance are.

He first surveyed the charge with careful eyes,

Which none but mighty monarchs could maintain;

Yet judged, like vapours that from limbecks rise,

It would in richer showers descend again.

At length resolved to assert the watery ball,

He in himself did whole Armadas bring;

Him aged seamen might their master call,

And chuse for general, were he not their king.[105]

It seems as every ship their sovereign knows,

His awful summons they so soon obey;—

So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows,

And so to pasture follow through the sea.[106]

To see this fleet upon the ocean move,

Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies;

And heaven, as if there wanted lights above,

For tapers made two glaring comets rise.[107]

Whether they unctuous exhalations are,

Fired by the sun, or seeming so alone;

Or each some more remote and slippery star,

Which loses footing when to mortals shewn;

Or one, that bright companion of the sun,[108]

Whose glorious aspect sealed our new-born king;

And now, a round of greater years begun,

New influence from his walks of light did bring.