Page:The Emigrants.pdf/28



And that high consciousness of noble blood, Which he has learn'd from infancy to think Exalts him o'er the race of common men: Nurs'd in the velvet lap of luxury, And fed by adulation­—could he learn, That worth alone is true Nobility? And that the peasant who, "amid5 the sons "Of Reason, Valour, Liberty, and Virtue, "Displays distinguish'd merit, is a Noble "Of Nature's own creation!"—­If even here, If in this land of highly vaunted Freedom, Even Britons controvert the unwelcome truth, Can it be relish'd by the sons of France? Men, who derive their boasted ancestry From the fierce leaders of religious wars, The first in Chivalry's emblazon'd page;