ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!-Vma. THANKLESS for favours from on high, But he, not wise enough to scan 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, 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 woe? The cause is Conscience-Conscience oft 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; ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1793. De sacris autem hæc sit una sententia, ut conserventur. CIC. DE LEG. But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate. He lives who lives to God alone, And all are dead beside; To live to God is to requite But life, within a narrow ring Can life in them deserve the name, Who only live to prove For what poor toys they can disclaim Who much diseased, yet nothing feel; Who deem his house a useless place; Who trample order; and the day, If scorn of God's commands, impress'd Such want it; and that want uncured Of everlasting death. Sad period to a pleasant course! Yet so will God repay Sabbaths profaned without remorse, And mercy cast away. INSCRIPTION FOR A STONE ERECTED AT The Sowing of a Grove of Oaks at Chillington, THE SEAT OF T. GIFFARD, ESQ. 1790. OTHER stones the era tell, Which shall longest brave the sky, I must moulder and decay; But the years that crumble me Cherish honour, virtue, truth, Stone at heart, and cannot grow. |