« back to search

One may be 'Untaught "to bear the wrongs of base mankind, / The last, and hardest conquest of the mind!"'

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Author

Epistle to Admiral Keppel

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for Fielding and Walker

Date

1779

Metaphor

One may be 'Untaught "to bear the wrongs of base mankind, / The last, and hardest conquest of the mind!"'

Metaphor in Context

O! P******* the Muse disdains to think
A naval son of England e'er could sink
To sell his fame, and as an hireling rend
The unsuspecting bosom of a friend:
No! 'twas wild passion; pride and spleen combin'd
To rob of reason thy disorder'd mind;
Which, while delirious dreams its powers enthrall,
Mistook a statesman's smile for honour's call:
At length awaking, Freedom, like the Sun,
Shews thee the fatal course thy frenzy run;
And that of all by public hatred curst,
The baffled False Accuser ranks the first.
In Stuckley's end their dreadful fate we view,
Whose plots the ruin of the brave pursue:
Stuckley! that knight of perfidy! who sold
The blood of Raleigh for a tyrant's gold:
Full on himself his own dire arts recoil'd;
First of the wages of his sin despoil'd,
Then justly doom'd his head abhorr'd to hide,
In frantic penury the traitor died;
Worst of bad men!--Yet see a name appear,
Which deeper brands of detestation sear;
Whose soul would rob, by basest passion led,
The brave of honour, and the poor of bread:
Who, plac'd the stream of Charity to guide,
And o'er her hallow'd temple to preside,
In darkness entering at a private door,
Profanes, with vile abuse, her sacred store:
O! if our Isle, who boasts a generous race,
Could rear a being of a soul so base,
May public vengeance all his guilt proclaim,
And injur'd honour execrate his name!
While in full day his deepest crimes are seen,
Give him to feel, how wide the space between
The self-perplexing wiles of courtly art,
And the clear conduct of a Keppel's heart:
That generous heart, with public virtue fraught,
Of private vengeance will despise the thought:
For thy Accuser, Keppel! still retain
Silent abhorrence, and a brave disdain!
Whate'er his motives, if of envy born,
(Disease of little minds!) they merit scorn:
If sprung from public zeal, with passion blind,
They claim the pity of thy nobler mind;
Thy mind! which scorn'd to play the accuser's part,
Or doubt the courage of an English heart,
E'en in those galling hours, when rear'd in vain
Thy warlike signal call'd a tardy train;
And disobedience join'd with envious night
To rob thy valour of the promis'd fight.--
Full oft have Chiefs, disgusted with command,
Abjur'd the service of a thankless land;
Untaught "to bear the wrongs of base mankind,
The last, and hardest conquest of the mind!"