Note 15 — POEMS OF PHILIP FRENEAU
Reading edition
The earliest version, as it appeared in the Daily Advertiser, March 17, 1790, had the following in place of the last six lines:
"Thy followers, Fox, pacific in each aim, In this far climate still revere your name; To them long practice prudent foresight gave, Proof to the projects of the keenest knave. On things to come they fix an anxious eye Fond to be thought the favourites of the sky, Paths of their own they clear to future bliss, Praise other worlds but keep their hold on this. Nor mean I, hence, to censure or condemn, Perhaps 'twere best the world should think like them;— What tho' on visions they may place their trust, I hold their general principles are just, Good will to all, themselves their first great care, Precise in dealing, foes to blood and war; Let kings invade, or potentates assault, No aid they lend, for passive to a fault, They still are found, all complaisant to power To bow to ruffians in the trying hour."