Improve the present hour, for all beside COULD I, from heaven inspired, as sure presage To whom the rising year shall prove his last, As I can number in my punctual page, And item down the victims of the past; How each would trembling wait the mournful sheet, Time then would seem more precious than the joys Then doubtless many a trifler, on the brink Ah self-deceived! Could I prophetic say The rest might then seem privileged to play; 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 for you. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1789. -Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit. VIRG. There calm at length he breathed his soul away. "O MOST delightful hour by man Experienced here below, The hour that terminates his span, His folly and his woe! "Worlds should not bribe me back to tread Again life's dreary waste, To see again my day o'erspread 66 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 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, But when his heart had roved. For he was frail as thou or I, But when he felt it, heaved a sigh, Such lived Aspasio; and at last His joys be mine, each reader cries, They shall be yours, my verse replies, ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne. BUCHANAN. Despise not my good counsel. He who sits from day to day Hardly knows that he has sung. Where the watchman in his round None, accustom'd to the sound, Wakes the sooner for his cry. So your verse-man I, and clerk, And the foe's unerring aim. Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud Soon the grave must be your home, And your only suit, a shroud. |