For he was frail, as thou or I, And evil felt within: But, when he felt it, heaved a sigh, Such lived Aspasio; and at last His joys be mine, each Reader cries, When my last hour arrives: They shall be yours, my Verse replies, Such only be your lives. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne. Despise not my good counsel. BUCHANAN. HE who sits from day to day, Hardly knows what he has sung. Where the watchman in his round So your verse-man I, and clerk, Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud Soon the grave must be your home, And your only suit, a shroud. But the monitory strain, Oft repeated in your ears, Can a truth, by all confess'd Of such magnitude and weight, Pleasure's call attention wins, Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell- O then, ere the turf or tomb Spirit of instruction come, Make us learn that we must die. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Happy the mortal, who has traced effects THANKLESS for favours from on high, But he, not wise enough to scan His bless'd concerns aright, Would gladly stretch life's little span To ages, if he might. To ages in a world of pain, To ages, where he goes Gall'd by affliction's heavy chain, And hopeless of repose. Strange fondness of the human heart, Enamour'd of its harm! Strange world, that costs it so much smart, Whence has the world her magic power? Why deem we death a foe? Recoil from weary life's best hour, And covet longer wo? The cause is Conscience-Conscience oft 'Her voice is terrible though soft, Then, anxious to be longer spared, 'Tis judgment shakes him; there's the fear, That prompts the wish to stay: He has incurr'd a long arrear, Pay!-follow Christ, and all is paid; |