UPON THE LATE GENERAL FAST

Reluctant call it was; the rite delayed;

And in the Senate some there were who doffed

The last of their humanity, and scoffed

At providential judgments,undismayed

By their own daring. But the People prayed

As with one voice; their flinty heart grew soft

With penitential sorrow, and aloft

Their spirit mounted, crying, “God us aid!”

Oh that with aspirations more intense,

Chastised by self-abasement more profound,

This People, onceso happy, so renowned

For liberty, would seek from God defence

Against far heavier ill, the pestilence

Of revolution, impiously unbound!