he gave the half-perifhed poft-boy; that Will Griffith and his friend have received your homage for their adventure at the gate of Davy's prifon; that even the blind old Lady has had your bleffing; and that the young people will be long remembered by your fympathizing heart. Adventures like thefe, my friend, are unimportant only to thofe magnificient triflers who think they are wife when they are only vain; and as much of human comfort proceeds from humble circumftances, we may justly conclude with the poet, in those enchanting lines I have so often read to you; and which are the more appreciated, inafmuch as I loved the author, heard them recited by his own lips a very few weeks before I loft him for ever, and know how truly he felt, what with fuch exquifite beauty for Goldfmith was one of the very few poets of nature who wrote only from his fenfations, and did not facrifice the plain honesty of genuine feelings to decorate his rhymes:

ཨི

he has defcribed

66

Yes, let the rich deride, the proud disdain,
"These simple bleffings of the lowly train,
"To us more dear, congenial to the heart,
"One native charm, than all the glofs of art;

66

Spontaneous joys, were nature has the play,

"The foul adopts, and owns their first-born sway;

Lightly they frolick o'er the vacant mind,

Unenvied, unmolefted, uncónfin'd."

With what energy and enthufiafin did the bard, though by no means a graceful reader, repeat the laft four verses: and on the evening I heard them, delivered, he threw down the manufcript on his writing table, in his abrupt way, faying, "in "troth, this is all as true as if it was in profe," and as I have faid before, and fhall continue to fay to the end of my life

"Thefe little things are great to little man !"

Are not you of his opinion,, my honoured correfpondent? I can aufwer for you in the fulleft affirmative. Long may you live to enjoy the joys of others! They are your own; for with you, felf-love and focial are indeed the fame.

LETTER IX..

TO THE SAME.

You infift upora copy of the lines, which where

annexed to the "TRIUMPH OF BENEVOLENCE," a triumph which, you jufily observe, Jonas Hanway ought to fhare with John Howard; and, indeed, it feems no lefs a point of inclination than of justice, to attempt preventing the fate which commonly attends fugitive poems when published

fingly,

fingly, for, like the fybyl's leaves, they are feattered about with the winds and tides of occurrence, and with no difparagement to my verses be it fpoke-fince it is the destiny of others, which the loftieft mufe might be proud to own, they are as frequently found at the bottom of a trunk as in a library; and often, what we in vain offer money for to the bookfeller, we get of the pastry-cook for nothing!

The little monumental tribute offered to Hanway,. indeed, might perhaps efcape this annihilation, by the care which love of the man may have taken of it in the private cabinets of friendship; and, I believe it is to be found in feveral of the periodical and other publick, collections of the year in which it appeared: but, I own, I feel a fentiment too tender for vanity, that it, like the poem it follows, fhould, ftand a chance to - "travel down the "ftream of time," in a correfpondence with my ⚫ friend.

STANZAS.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JONAS HANWAY, ESQ.

AND thou, bleft Hanway! long thy country's pray'r,
*Exulting now in, kindred worlds above;

Co-heir of Howard! deign the muse to hear,
Tho' angels greet thee with a brother's love.

So fays Lord Bolingbroke.

Far

Far tho' removed from this diminish'd earth,
A crown of glory beaming on thy brow;
The GOD who fix'd it there to note thy worth,
Bids the rapt lyre with all thy fpirit glow.

And ah! behold what grateful myriads come,
While tears of ecftacy and anguifh flow;
The blended incense pouring on thy tomb,
To mark an empire's joy, an empire's woe.

.

Clofe to thy Howard, O congenial shade!
On the pure column fhall thy buft be plac'd;
Though deep in ev'ry bofom is pourtray'd
Thofe holy records time fhall ne'er erase,

The generous plan that publick virtue draws,
The fair design that charity imparts,
The genius kindling in religion's cause,

Cherish their champion in our faithful hearts.

2

At HANWAY'S buft the Magdalen fhall kneel,
A chaften'd votary of compaffion's doom*:
With pious awe, the holieft ardours feel,

And bless the founder of her peaceful home.

And O Philanthropy! thy heaven-rais'd fame †
Shall oft avow the good man's zeal divine,
When bounty leads a poor and orphan train

To clafp their little arms around HANWAY's fhrine.

Tranfcendent energies of grace fublime,

Whofe magick goodnefs work'd with double pow'r; Cradled the outcaft babe, who knew not crime,

And bade the finner turn and blufh no more.

The Magdalen House.

f Foundling Hofpital.

Ah!

Ah! full of honours as of years, farewell!
Thus, o'er thy ashes, shall Britannia figh;
Each age, each fex, thy excellence fhall tell,
Which taught the young to live, the old to die.

LETTER XX.

TO THE SAME.

You thank me for my poetry, without being aware into what a ferape your acknowledgments have led you. The grant of one request paves the way for fresh application; I have a refiftlefs defire to fend you more effufions of the muse; and fo far from being of the general opinion, that a little of verfe fhould be relieved by a great deal of profe, I think the mind is never fo well difpofed to receive poétick impreffion, or rather to feel impreffion continued, as when it has been touched and warmed' already by fubjects worthy of the lyre: or, if the emotion already excited fhould be found too folemn, the gayer mufe may be permitted to step in and foften, but not deftroy, the pathos. For these reasons I have chofen this letter for the infertion of fome fpontaneous lines which have not yet met your eyes, or those of ⚫ the publick. You have long fince, I trust, agreed T

VOL. I.

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