Much hope, if thou our spirits take

Under thy gracious sway,

Who canst the wisest wiser make,
And babes as wise as they.

Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows,
A sun that ne'er declines,

And be thy mercies shower'd on those,
Who plac'd us where it shines.

STANZAS

Subjoined to the Yearly Bill of Mortality of the Parish of All-Saints, Northampton,* Anno Domini 1787.

Pallida Mors, aquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres.

Horace.

Pale Death with equal foot strikes wide the door
Of royal halls, and hovels of the poor.

WHILE thirteen moons saw smoothly run

The Nen's barge-laden wave,

All these, life's rambling journey done,
Have found their home, the grave.

Was man, (frail always) made more frail
Than in foregoing years?

Did famine or did plague prevail,

That so much death appears?

* Composed for John Cox, parish clerk of Northampton.

No; these were vig'rous as their sires,
Nor plague nor famine came;
This anual tribute Death requires,
And never waves his claim.

Like crowded forest-trees we stand,
And some are mark'd to fall;
The axe will smite at God's command,
And soon shall smite us all.

Green as the bay-tree, ever green,
With its new foliage on,

The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen,
I pass'd-and they were gone.

Read, ye that run, the awful truth,
With which I charge my page;
A worm is in the bud of youth,
And at the root of age.

No present health can health ensure
For yet an hour to come;

No med'cine, though it oft can cure,
Can always balk the tomb.

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!

Improve the present hour, for all beside
Is a mere feather on a torrent's tide.

COULD I, from Heav'n inspir'd, 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 shect On which the press might stamp him next to die, And reading here his sentence, how replete

With anxious meaning, heav'nward turn his eye!

Time then would seem more precious than the joys
In which he sports away the treasure now;
And pray'r more seasonable than the noise
Of drunkards, or the musick-drawing bow.

Then doubtless many a trifler, on the brink

Of this world's hazardous and headlong shore, Forc'd to a pause, would feel it good to think,

Told that his setting sun must rise no more.

Ah self-deceiv'd! Could I prophetick say

Who next is fated, and who next to fall, The rest might then seem privileg'd to play ;

But naming none, the voice now speaks to ALL.

Observe the dappled foresters, how light

They bound and airy o'er the sunny glade— One falls the rest, wide scatter'd with affright, Vanish at once into the darkest shade.

Had we their wisdom, should we, often warn'd,
Still need repeated warnings, and at last,

A thousand awful admonitions scorn'd,

Die self-accus'd of life run all to waste?

Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones,
The grave admits no cure for guilt or sin;
Dew-drops may deck the turf that hides the bones,
But tears of godly grief ne'er flow within.

Learn then ye living! by the mouths be taught
Of all these sepulchres, instructers true,
That, soon or late, death also is your lot,

And the next op'ning grave may yawn for you

ON A SIMILAR OCCASION,

FOR THE YEAR 1789.

.....Placidaque ibi demum morte quievit.

VIRG.

There calm at length he breath'd his soul away.

"O MOST delightful hour by man

Experienc'd here below,

The hour that terminates his span,

His folly, and his wo!

Worlds should not bribe me back to tread

Again life's dreary waste,

To see again my day o'erspread

With all the gloomy past.

My home henceforth is in the skies,
Earth, seas, and sun, adieu!

All Heav'n unfolded to my eyes,
I have no sight for you."

So spake Aspasio, firm possess'd

Of faith's supporting rod,

Then breath'd 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.