How long will conquerors trample earth,
And Strength prevail o'er Right and Worth?
Gaze round the world—this truth confess,
The powerful still the weak oppress;
New empires spring o'er empires' graves,
Some must be free, and some be slaves;
Some spirits rise, some sink as deep,
And these must smile and those must weep:
Man, as he thinks and acts below,
An equal lot can never know.

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[H]aving entered the lists of Poetry, should I be foiled at the first onset, I may probably, like a true knight, who, as Cid Hamete's hero says, "though he be vanquished to-day, may conquer to-morrow," re-set my lance in rest, and venture another encounter.