Where-e'er we search the vast instructive page
Of Fact, or Fiction, we in every age
See Saints impal'd and tortur'd at the stake
Thro' fervent zeal, and for Religion's sake;
Murders and sorceries, and Men, whose heart
Ne'er prompted one humane, one generous part,
While some vain Mortal, arbiter os ill,
Govern'd the rest; at whose imperious will
Millions of slaughter'd Heroes bit the dust
To soothe a Tyrant's pride, a Strumpet's lust;
Till loathing both the present, and the past,
We learn this melancholy truth at last;
"On Life's rough sea by stormy passions tost,
" Freedom and Virtue were together lost. "