And, pleas'd to be outdone, with joy will fee
Numberless virtues, endless charity :

But more will wonder at fo fhort an age,
To find a blank beyond the thirtieth page :
And with a pious fear begin to doubt
The piece imperfect, and the rest torn out.
But 'twas her Saviour's time; and, could there be
A copy near th' original, 'twas fhe.

As precious gums are not for lasting fire,
They but perfume the temple, and expire :
So was the foon exhal'd, and vanish'd hence;
A fhort fweet odor, of a vaft expence.

She vanish'd, we can fcarcely fay fhe dy'd;
For but a Now did heaven and earth divide:
She pass'd ferenely with a single breath,

This moment perfect health, the next was death :
One figh did her eternal blifs affure;

So little penance needs, when souls are almost pure.
As gentle dreams our waking thoughts pursue;
Or, one dream pass'd, we slide into a new ;
So close they follow, fuch wild order keep,
We think ourselves awake, and are asleep :
So foftly death fucceeded life in her :

She did but dream of heaven, and fhe was there.

No pains the suffer'd, nor expir'd with noise; Her foul was whisper'd out with God's ftill voice; As an old friend is beckon'd to a feast, And treated like a long-familiar guest. He took her as he found, but found her fo, As one in hourly readiness to go:

Ev'n on that day, in all her trim prepar'd;
As carly notice she from heaven had heard,
And fome descending courier from above
Had given her timely warning to remove ;
Or counsel'd her to drefs the nuptial room,
For on that night the bridegroom was to come.
He kept his hour, and found her where the lay
Cloath'd all in white, the livery of the day :
Scarce had the finn'd in thought, or word, or act;
Unless omiffions were to pass for fact:

That hardly death a confequence could draw,
To make her liable to nature's law.
And, that he dy'd, we only have to show
The mortal part of her she left below:
The reft, fo fmooth, fo fuddenly she went,
Look'd like translation through the firmament,
Or like the fiery car on the third errand sent.
O happy soul ! if thou canst view from high,
Where thou art all intelligence, all eye,
If, looking up to God, or down to us,
Thou find'st, that any way be pervious,
Survey the ruins of thy houfe, and fee
Thy widow'd and thy orphan family :
Look on thy tender pledges left behind;
And, if thou canst a vacant minute find
From heavenly joys, that interval afford
To thy fad children, and thy mourning lord.
See how they grieve, miftaking in their love,
And shed a beam of comfort from above;

}

Give

1

Give them, as much as mortal eyes can bear,
A tranfient view of thy full glories there;
That they with moderate forrow may sustain
And mollify their loffes in thy gain.

Or elfe divide the grief; for fuch thou wert,
That should not all relations bear a part,
It were enough to break a single heart.

Let this fuffice: nor thou, great faint, refuse
This humble tribute of no vulgar Muse:
Who, not by cares, or wants, or age depreft,
Stems a wild deluge with a dauntless breast ;
And dares to fing thy praifes in a clime
Where vice triumphs, and virtue is a crime;
Where ev'n to draw the picture of thy mind,
Is fatire on the most of human kind:
Take it, while yet 'tis praise; before my rage,
Unfafely juft, break loose on this bad age;
So bad, that thou thyself hadft no defence
From vice, but barely by departing hence.

Be what and where thou art: to wish thy place,
Were, in the beft, prefumption more than grace.
Thy relicks (fuch thy works of mercy are)
Have, in this poem, been my holy care.
As earth thy body keeps, thy foul the sky,
So fhall this verse preserve thy memory ;
For thou fhalt make it live, because it fings of thee.

}

On

V.

On the Death of AMYNTAS. A Paftoral Elegy. WAS on a joyless and a gloomy morn,

"T

Wet was the grafs, and hung with pearls the thorn ;

When Damon, who defign'd to pass the day

With hounds and horns, and chace the flying prey,
Rofe early from his bed; but foon he found
The welkin pitch'd with fullen clouds around,
An eaftern wind, and dew upon the ground.
Thus while he stood, and fighing did furvey
The fields, and curft th' ill omens of the day,
He faw Menalcas come with heavy pace;
Wet were his eyes, and chearlefs was his face :
He wrung his hands, distracted. with his care,
And fent his voice before him from afar.
Return, he cry'd, return, unhappy swain,
The fpungy clouds are fill'd with gathering rain:
The promise of the day not only cross'd,
But ev'n the fpring, the fpring itself, is loft.
Amyntas-oh!—he could not speak the rest,
Nor needed, for prefaging Damon guefs'd.
Equal with heaven young Damon lov'd the boy,
The boaft of nature, both his parents' joy.
His graceful form revolving in his mind ;
So great a genius, and a foul fo kind,
Gave fad affurance that his fears were true;
Too well the envy of the gods he knew:

}

For

For when their gifts too lavishly are plac'd,
Soon they repent, and will not make them laft.
For fure it was too bountiful a dole,

The mother's features, and the father's foul.
Then thus he cry'd: the morn bespoke the news:
The morning did her chearful light diffuse:
But fee how fuddenly she chang'd her face,

And brought on clouds and rain, the day's difgrace;
Juft fuch, Amyntas, was thy promis'd race.

}

What charms adorn'd thy youth, where nature finil'd, And more than man was given us in a child!

His infancy was ripe: a foul fublime

In

years fo tender that prevented time:

Heaven gave him all at once; then fnatch'd away,
Ere mortals all his beauties could furvey:

Juft like the flower that buds and withers in a day.
MENAL CAS.

The mother, lovely, though with grief oppreft,
Reclin'd his dying head upon her breast.
The mournful family ftood all around;

One groan was heard, one univerfal found:

All were in floods of tears and endless forrow drown'd. So dire a fadness fat on every look,

Ev'n death repented he had given the stroke.

He griev'd his fatal work had been ordain'd,

But promis'd length of life to those who yet remain'd.
The mother's and her eldest daughter's grace,

It seems, had brib'd him to prolong their space.
The father bore it with undaunted foul,

Like one who durft his destiny controul:

Yet