Green as the bay tree, ever green, The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen, Read, ye that run, the awful truth, No present health can health ensure No medicine, though it oft can cure, And O! that humble as my lot, These truths, though known, too much forgot, I may not teach in vain. So prays your clerk with all his heart, And, ere he quits the pen, Begs you for once to take his part, And answer all-Amen! ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1788. HOR. Quod adest, memento Componere æquus. Cætera fluminis Improve the present hour, for all beside COULD I, from Heaven inspired, as sure presage How each would trembling wait the mournful sheet, Observe the dappled foresters, how light Had we their wisdom, should we, often warn'd, Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones. Learn then, ye living! by the mouths be taught ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1789. -Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit. VIRG. O MOST delightful hour by man Experienced here below, The hour that terminates his span, 'His folly, and his wo! 'Worlds should not bribe me back to tread Again life's dreary waste, To see again my day o'erspread With all the gloomy past. My home henceforth is in the skies, Earth, seas, and sun adieu! All Heaven unfolded to my eyes, 'I have no sight for you.' So spake Aspasio, firm possess'd Of faith's supporting rod, Then breathed his soul into its rest, The bosom of his God. He was a man among the few Sincere on virtue's side; And all his strength from Scripture drew To hourly use applied. That rule he prized, by that he fear'd, He hated, hoped, and loved; Nor ever frown'd, or sad appear'd, But when his heart had roved. 1 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. |