EPITAPH

ON A YOUNG LADY,

BY THE SAME.

CLOS'D are thofe eyes, that beam'd feraphic fire;
Cold is that breast, which gave the world defire
Mute is the voice where winning softness warm'd,
Where mufic melted, and where wisdom charm'd,
And lively wit, which decently confin'd,
No prude e'er thought impure, no friend unkind,
Çou'd modest knowledge, fair untrifling youth,
Perfuafive reafon and endearing truth,

Cou'd honour, fhewn in friendships moft refin'd,
And fenfe, that shields th' attempted virtuous mind
The focial temper never known to ftrife,
The height'ning graces that embellish life;
Could these have e'er the darts of death defied,
Never, ah! never had Melinda died;

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Nor can she die-ev'n now survives her name, 15 Immortaliz'd by friendship, love, and fame,

[UPON THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTERS BANISHMENT, IN 1723.]

BY PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON.*

I.

As o'er the fwelling ocean's tide

An exile TULLY rode,

The bulwark of the Roman state,
In act, in thought, a god,

The facred GENIUS of majeftick Rome 5
Defcends, and thus laments her patriot's doom.

II.

Farewel, renown'd in arts, farewel,

Thus conquer'd by thy foe,

Of honours and of friends depriv'd,

In exile must thou go:

Yet go content; thy look, thy will fedate,

Thy foul fuperior to the fhocks of fate.

III.

Thy wisdom was thy only guilt,

Thy virtue thy offence;

With godlike zeal thou didst espouse

Thy country's juft defence:

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No fordid hopes could charm thy fteady foul,

No fears, nor guilty numbers could controul.

IV.

What tho' the nobleft patriots flood

Firm to thy facred cause,

What tho' thou couldst display the force

Of rhet'rick and of laws,

No eloquence, no reasons could repel

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Th' united strength of CLODIUS, and of hell,

V.

Thy mighty ruin to effect

What plots have been devis'd!

What arts, what perjuries been us’d!

What laws and rites despis'd!

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How many fools and knaves by bribes allur'd, And witneffes by hopes and threats secur❜d!

VI.

And yet they act their dark deceit
Veil'd with a nice disguise,

And form a fpecious fhew of right

From treachery and lies;

With arbitrary pow'r the people awe,
And coin unjuft oppreffion into law.

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* .... CLODIUS, who procur'd the banishment of C1CERO, was a lewd Roman fenator, and made tribune of the people. That great orator was afterwards recall'd by POMPEY, and CLODIUS was killed by MILO, a perfon of confular dignity; which the genius of ROME, in the two laft ftanzas, is here made particularly to point at, as in a prophetick manner. The character is intended for fir Robert Walpole.

VII.

Let CLODIUS now in grandeur reign,

Let him exert his pow'r,

A fhort-liv'd monfter in the land,

The monarch of an hour ;

Let pageant fools adore their wooden god,

And act against their fenfes at his nod.

VIII.

Pierc'd by an untimely hand

To earth fhall He defcend,

Tho' now with gaudy honours cloath'd,
Inglorious in his end.

Bleft be the man who does his pow'r defy,

And dares or truly Speak, or bravely Die,

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ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN,

BY CHRISTOPHER PITT.

Wr

ITH joy, bleft youth, we faw thee reach thy goal;

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Fair was thy frame, and beautiful thy foul;
The Graces and the Mufes came combin'd,
These to adorn the body, thofe the mind;
'Twas there we faw the fofteft manners meet, 5
Truth, sweetness, judgment, innocence, and wit.
So form'd, he flew his race; 'twas quickly won;
'Twas but a step, and finish'd when begun.
Nature herself furpriz'd would add no more,
His life compleat in all its parts before;
But his few years with pleafing wonder told,
By virtues, not by days; and thought him old.
So far beyond his age those virtues ran,
That in a boy fhe found him more than man.
For years let wretches importune the skies,
Till, at the long expence of anguish wife,
They live to count their days by miseries.
Those win the prize, who soonest run the race,
And life burns brightest in the shortest space.

* Born 1699; dyed 1748.

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