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O Queen of Albion, queen of isles! Since all thy tears were chang'd to smiles, The eyes, that never saw thee, shine With joy not unallied to thine, Transports not chargeable with art Illume the land's remotest part, And strangers to the air of courts, Both in their toils and at their sports, The happiness of answer'd pray'rs, That gilds thy features, show in theirs.

If they, who on thy state attend, Awe-struck, before thy presence bend, 'Tis but the natural effect,

Of grandeur that ensures respect;
But she is something more than Queen,
Who is belov'd where never seen.

VOL. XXXVII.

HYMN,

FOR THE USE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AT OLNEY.

HEAR, Lord, the song of praise and pray'r,
In Heav'n, thy dwelling place,
From infants made the public care,
And taught to seek thy face.

Thanks for thy word, and for thy day,

And grant us, we implore, Never to waste in sinful play Thy holy sabbaths more.

Thanks that we hear,-but O impart
To each desires sincere,

That we may listen with our heart,
And learn as well as hear.

For if vain thoughts the minds engage
Of older far than we,

What hope, that, at our heedless age,
Our minds should e'er be free?

Much hope, if thou our spirits take
Under thy gracious sway,
Who canst the wisest wiser make,
And babes as wise as they.

Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows,

A sun that ne'er declines,

And be thy mercies show'r'd on those Who plac'd us where it shines

STANZAS

Subjoined to the Yearly Bill of Mortality of the
Parish of All-Saints, Northampton,*
Anno Domini 1787.

Pallida Mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

Regumque turres.

HORACE.

Pale Death with equal foot strikes wide the door
Of royal halls, and hovels of the poor.

WHILE thirteen moons saw smoothly run
The Nen's barge-laden wave,

All these, life's rambling journey done,
Have found their home, the grave.

Was man (frail always) made more frail
Than in foregoing years?

Did famine or did plague prevail,
That so much death appears?

No;

these were vig'rous as their sires,
Nor plague nor famine came;

This annual tribute Death requires,
And never waves his claim.

Like crowded forest-trees we stand,
And some are mark'd to fall;

The axe will smite at God's command,

And soon shall smite us all.

Composed for John Cox, parish clerk of Northampton.

Green as the bay-tree, ever green,
With its new foliage on,

The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen,
I pass'd-and they were gone.

Read, ye that run, the awful truth,
With which I charge my page ;
A worm is in the bud of youth,
And at the root of age.

No present health can health insure
For yet an hour to come;

No medicine, though it oft can cure,

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And O! that humble as my lot,

And scorn'd as is my strain,

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!

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