Precept divine! to earth in mercy given,
O sacred rule of action, worthy heaven! 
Whose pitying love ordain’d the bless’d command
To bind our nature in a firmer band;
Enforce each human suff’rer’s strong appeal,
And teach the selfish breast what others feel;
Wert thou the guide of life, mankind might know
A soft exemption from the worst of woe;
No more the powerful would the weak oppress,
But tyrants learn the luxury to bless;
No more would slav’ry bind a hopeless train,
Of human victims, in her galling chain;
Mercy the hard, the cruel heart would move
To soften mis’ry by the deeds of Jove;
And av’rice from his hoarded treasures give
Unask’d, the liberal boon, that want might live! 
The impious tongue of falshood then would cease
To blast, with dark suggestions, virtue’s peace;
No more would spleen, or passion banish rest
And plant a pang in fond affection’s breast;
By one harsh word, one alter’d look, destroy
Her peace, and wither every op’ning joy;
Scarce can her tongue the captious wrong explain,
The slight offence which gives so deep a pain! 
Th’ affected ease that slights her starting tear,
The words whose coldness kills from lips so dear;
The hand she loves, alone can point the dart,
Whose hidden sting could wound no other heart—­
These, of all pains the sharpest we endure,
The breast which now inflicts, would spring to cure.—­
No more deserted genius then, would fly
To breathe in solitude his hopeless sigh;
No more would Fortune’s partial smile debase
The spirit, rich in intellectual grace;
Who views unmov’d from scenes where pleasures bloom,
The flame of genius sunk in mis’ry’s gloom;
The soul heav’n form’d to soar, by want deprest,
Nor heeds the wrongs that pierce a kindred breast.—­
Thou righteous Law! whose clear and useful light
Sheds on the mind a ray divinely bright;
Condensing in one rule whate’er the sage
Has proudly taught, in many a labour’d page;
Bid every heart thy hallow’d voice revere,
To justice sacred, and to nature dear!

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

POEMS,

BY

HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL.  II.

CONTENTS

OF THE

SECOND VOLUME.

An Epistle to Dr. Moore, Author of a View of Society and Manners in
France, Switzerland, and Germany.

Part of an irregular Fragment, found in a Dark Passage of the Tower.

Peru.

Sonnet to Mrs. Siddons.

Queen Mary’s Complaint.

Euphelia, an Elegy.

Sonnet to Expression.

AN
EPISTLE
TO
DR. MOORE.

  Whether dispensing hope, and ease
  To the pale victim of disease,
  Or in the social crowd you sit,
  And charm the group with sense and wit,
  Moore’s partial ear will not disdain
  Attention to my artless strain.