How sweet to perish in the cause
Of country, liberty, and laws!
Since (fix'd it is) one common grave
Receives the coward and the brave;
Better in honour's field to die,
Than fall inglorious as we fly.
Virtue no mean denial knows,
But with unsullied brightness glows;
Blest in herself, nor praise, nor hate,
Affect her fix'd unalter'd state;
She courts no smile, she fears no frown,
Nor takes nor lays her honours down.
She opes the mansions of the skies,
And grants to worth the glorious prize;
And, though from death she cannot save,
Yet bids it live beyond the grave:
On soaring wings she takes her way
To the bright realms of endless day,
And still by paths unbeaten tries
To more exalted heights to rise,
And thence with scorn and pity views
The vulgar joys the croud pursues.