ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne. BUCHANANA Despise not my good counsel. HE who sits from day to day, Hardly knows what he has sung. So your verse-man I, and clerk, Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud Soon the grave must be your home, But the monitory strain, Oft repeated in your ears, Can a truth, by all confess'd Of such magnitude and weight, Pleasure's call attention wins, Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell- O then, ere the turf or tomb Make us learn, that we must die. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, VIRG. Happy the mortal, who has traced effects 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, Enamour'd of its harm! 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 wo? The cause is Conscience-Conscience oft Her voice is terrible though soft, Then, anxious to be longer spared, 'Tis judgment shakes him; there's the fear, 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, To live to God is to requite But life, within a narrow ring Can life in them deserve the name, For what poor toys they can disclaim Who, much diseased, yet nothing feel; |