Fables for the Holy Alliance Author:Thomas Moore Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FABLE III. THE TOBCH OF LIBERTY. I Saw it all in Fancy's glass— Herself, the fair, the wild magician, That bid this splendid day-dream pass, And nani... more »'d each gliding apparition. 'Twas like a torch-race—such as they Of Greece perform'd, in ages gone, When the fleet youths, in long array, Pass'd the bright torch triumphant on. I saw th' expectant nations stand, To catch the coming flame in turn— I saw, from ready hand to hand, The clear, but struggling glory burn. And, oh, their joy, as it came near, 'Twas, in itself, a joy to see— While Fancy vvhisper'd in my ear, " That torch they pass is Liberty!" And, each, as she receiv'd the flame, Lighted her altar with its ray, Then, smiling, to the next who came, Speeded it on its sparkling way. From Albion first, whose antient shrine Was furnish'd with the fire already, Columbia caught the spark divine, And lit a flame, like Albion's, steady. The splendid gift then Gallia took, And, like a wild Bacchante, raising The brand aloft, its sparkles shook, As she would set the world a-blazing 1 And, when she fir'd her altar, high It flash'd into the redd'ning air So fierce, that Albion, who stood nigh, Shrunk, almost blinded by the glare! Next, Spain, so new was light to her, Leap'd at the torch—but, ere the spark She flung upon her shrine could stir, 'Twas quench'd—and all again was dark. Yet, no—not quench'd—a treasure, worth So much to mortals, rarely dies— Again her living light look'd forth, And shone, a beacon, in all eyes t Who next receiv'd the flame ? alas, Unworthy Naples—shame of shames, That ever through such hands should pass That brightest of all earthly flames! Scarce had her fingers touch'd the torch, When, frighted by the sparks it s...« less