Sonnet IV (Written in the Highlands of Scotland, 1767)

Now is the feudal vassalage destroy'd,
By which the haughty Thane his subject train
Held at his will, and arbitrary sway'd,
The crouching throng from fear, his lordly reign,
Or with hereditary love, obey'd.
No resolutions of their own enjoy'd,
They bent implicitly to his controul.
Now by degrees they find that Liberty
Opens the narrow foldings of the soul,
Erect they stand, and boast that they are free.
No more with rapine they the fields infest,
Or seek out Slaughter in her secret den;
But by the laws of equal Justice blest,
Humanely think, and feel that they are men.