Learning and sense refined shall here
Britannia's loss deplore;

Humour's gay self shall drop a tear,
And vice shall crouch no more.

Now may she rear her shameless head,
And throw her lures abroad;
From earth her constant foe is fled,

To virtue and to God.

ON INFANTS.

I.

JUST to her lips the cup of life she press'd,
Found the taste bitter, and refused the rest;
She felt averse to life's returning day,
And softly sigh'd her little soul away.

56 Fielding, great grandson of the third earl of Denbigh, was bred at Eton and Leyden, and wrote first for the stage. In 1742 he brought out his "Joseph Andrews," a novel full of humour and admirable delineations of human nature. In 1749 came out his principal work, the novel of "Tom Jones," which exhibits a great knowledge of life, and is equally rich in comic delineation and pathetic expression. For his "Amelia," published in 1751, he received 1000l. As a Middlesex Justice, he gained considerable reputation by his "Inquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robberies," and his "Proposal for the Maintenance of the Poor." Taking Fielding "for all in all," we believe it is the general opinion that he is what Lord Byron calls him, "The prose Homer of human nature."

2.

FOR thee, sweet babe, shall tears of sorrow flow?
Shall we lament thy earthly flight from woe?
Shall we on life's tempestuous sea deplore

That thou so soon hast gain'd a peaceful shore?
Oh! did we think what numerous ills are here,
Or could we see thee in thy glorious sphere,
Then should we calmly bow to God's decree,
And only strive, through Christ, to dwell with thee.

3.

ERE sin could blight, or sorrow fade,

Death came with timely care,

The op'ning bud to heaven convey'd,
And bade it blossom there.

Lowth.

IN BURY ST. EDMUND'S CHURCHYARD.

FOND youth, beware betimes, death skulks behind thee : Remember, as death leaves, the judgment finds thee.

IN BATH CATHEDRAL.

THESE walls adorned with monumental bust,
Show how Bath waters serve to lay the dust.

ON ONE WHO DIED WHILE HIS PHYSICIAN WAS WRITING A PRESCRIPTION FOR HIM.

How couldst thou thus so hasty be, O Death?

And why be so precipitate with me?

Why not some moments longer spare my breath,
And let thy friend, the doctor, get his fee?

I

ON JOHN PENNY.

Reader! of Cash, if thou'rt in want of any,

Dig four feet deep, and thou shalt find a Penny.

ON A SMUGGLER.

HERE I lies,

Killed by the XIS.

ON ONE WHO DIED YOUNG.

BENEATH this hallow'd place is laid
In Death's embrace, a spotless maid:
To this vain world she bad adieu,
Before the ways of sin she knew.
Her parents may their offspring mourn,
And vainly wish for her return ;
But humbly let them kiss the rod,
And yield her to her parent-God.

ON A MAN HANGED.

I, JOE POPE,

Lived without hope,

And died by a rope.

ON THE DEATH OF FREDERIC, ELDEST SON OF

GEORGE II.

HERE lies Fred.,

Who was alive and is dead:

Had it been his father,

I had much rather.

Had it been his brother,

Still better than another:

Had it been his sister,

No one would have miss'd her;
Had it been the whole generation,
Still better for the nation :
But since 'tis only Fred.,

Who was alive and is dead,

There's no more to be said.57

ON THE FOUR GEORGES, KINGS OF ENGLAND.

GEORGE the First was always reckon'd
Vile—but viler George the Second;

And what mortal ever heard

Any good of George the Third?

When from earth the Fourth descended,
God be praised, the Georges ended.

W. S. Landor.

ON THEODORE, FIRST AND ONLY KING OF

CORSICA.58

THE grave, great teacher! to a level brings
Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings.
But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead;

57 "George IV., whom George III. hated with more than a stepmother's hate, with a hate exceeding that of the Electress Sophia for George I.-that of George I. for George II., and even that of George II. for Frederic, Prince of Wales, the born enemy of his father, a being thoroughly worthless." He

Fate pour'd its lesson on his living head,
Bestow'd a kingdom and denied him bread.
Earl of Oxford.

ON R. BUTTON, IN A CHURCHYARD NEAR
SALISBURY.

OH! sun, moon, stars, and ye celestial poles !
Are graves then dwindled into Button-holes?

ON ARCHBISHOP POTTER, OB. 1747.59

ALACK, and well-a-day,

Potter himself is turn'd to clay!

died in 1751. See Phillimore's "Reign of George III." vol. i. p. 272.

58 Corsica was erected into a kingdom in 1736, when Stephen Theodore, baron de Neuhoff, was proclaimed king of Corsica and Capraia. His sovereignty was of short duration, for the Genoese, who previously held the island, were, with the assistance of the French, enabled to drive him from it. He then took refuge in England, and died in London, in 1755, in great indigence.

66

59 The prelate, besides some theological works, wrote 'Antiquities of Greece," "Discourse on Church Government," and was the editor of Lycophron's poem of "Cassandra," and of "Clemens Alexandrinus." He was of haughty demeanour, proud as Bishop Warburton, of whom Churchill

wrote:

He is so proud, that should he meet
The twelve apostles in the street,
He'd turn his nose up at them all,

And shove his Saviour from the wall.