Green as the bay-tree, ever green, The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen, Read, ye that run, the awful truth No present health can health insure 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! COULD I, from Heaven inspired, as sure presage 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 Observe the dappled foresters, how light They bound, and airy, o'er the sunny glade- 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 And the next opening grave may yawn for you. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1789. Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit.” VIRGIL. There calm at length he breathed his soul away. "O MOST delightful hour by man 66 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 "With all the gloomy past. My home henceforth is in the skies, 66 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, 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, |