Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

ON THE
ART OF PRINTING.

'Tis noble Art that man's sublimest thought,
Daring on eagle wing, e'er soar'd to reach!
Thy genial rays illume the darksome shades
That Sol's bright eye ne'er pierc'd; for thou,
And thy illustrious offspring love to find
Dark, dreary mansions; there to cheer the hearts
Of those whom heav'n denies the light of nature:
Them thou suppliest with a mental ray,
Welcome as Phœbus' beams, when high in glory,
Though ambient air the God exulting flings
His warmest radiance on a grateful world.
Hail PRINTING! friend of learning and of virtue!
On thee the genius of our freedom leans,
And owns he's all-dependent on thy glories;
For thou canst mark, and sound through all the land.
The strides Despotic sway dare make, to crush,
The freeborn goddess of these happy shores.
By thee bright virtue and her sons are crown'd
With fair-twin'd wreaths of never fading laurel;
And after-times, instructed by thy page
Shall view with pleasure ev'ry gen'rous deed
The sons of honor do: While black train'd tyrants,
Patrons of lust and cruelty, shall shrink,
And agonizing tremble at thy truths.
'Tis thine, blest ART, to train the infant soul
To ev'ry thing that's noble and refin'd;
To call a nation to assert its worth,
And lead to glory and to deathless fame;
To mark its morals with attentive eye.
And wax eternal with the slaves of sin.
Then let exulting nations chaunt the lay
To Him who first inspir'd the glorious thought,
And blest mankind with this ILLUSTRIOUS ART.