Prologue

Ye rightful sovereigns of a fertile soil, Where copious plenty pays the laborer's toil; Where growing commerce freights each flowing tide. With CERES' bounty, and with NEPTUNE'S pride: Since your brave fires their savage inmates crush'd, The tocsin silenc'd, and the war-whoop hush'd; The hostile canvass less'ning from your shore, The last remains of curst invasion bore; Dead be the mem'ry of a noble foe; Where bled the hero, let the olive grow. Let dove-eyed peace succeed to war's alarms, Bid savage rancor rust on useless arms; Her amplest boon to modest merit give, And guard those arts by which your glories live. Your approbation's smiles let genius share; From chilling frosts its budding blossoms spare. Let not the panders of your taste opposé The foreign bramble, to the native rose.

With nothing higher than a noble aim, Your CANDOR'S all the author dares to claim. Untaught by rules, he makes his guide the heart, And modest nature deems the pride of art. No tragic tale from hist'ry forms his plan; His facts are passions, and their hist'ry, man.

While in the court the supple pander shines, And cheerless virtue in the dungeon pines; The elder world's disasters rise to view, To foil the stubborn virtues of the new: While these in contrast on the stage appear; There the proud despot—the firm patriot here; That rob'd in power—this, arm'd with nature's laws;— From scenes like these, the bard his moral draws.—

O, learn, Columbia's sons, to prize your land, Where no bold tyrant dares to lift his hand; Where rules a chief, whose power is all your own, Virtue, his sceptre—and the laws, his throne; Where, to obey—is every freeman's pride, And, to rebel—were worse than suicide!

To captious critics, vers'd in scenic laws, He dares not trust the merits of his cause. View then, ye lib'ral, with a candid eye, Kill not the bird, that first attempts to fly, But aid his efforts with parental care, 'Till his weak pinions learn to ply the air, 'Till the young pupil dare aloft to rise, And soar, with bolder flights, his native skies.