FIRST of mankind bid we our eagles pause Before the pure tribunal of the mind, Where swordless justice shall the sentence find, And righteous reason arbitrate the cause! First of mankind, whom yet no power o'erawes, One kin let us confederate and bind; Let the great instrument be made and signed, The mould and pattern of earth's mightier laws! Crown with this act the thousand years of thought, O English Race, and wheresoever roams Thy sea-flown brood, and bulwarked states has wrought Far as the loneliest wave of ocean foams, Thy children's love with veneration brought Shall warm thy hearthstone from their million homes. |