By being scandalously bold,
Attain'd the mark of thy defire.
And for traducing Virgil's name Shalt share his merited reward; A perpetuity of fame,
That rots, and stinks, and is abhorr'd.
On the late indecent Liberties taken with the Remains
E too, perchance, in future days, The sculptured stone shall show, With Paphian myrtle or with bays Parnaffian on my brow.
"But I, or ere that season come,
Escaped from every care,
Shall reach my refuge in the tomb, And fleep fecurely there."+
*The bones of Milton, who lies buried in Cripplegate church, were difinterred; a pamphlet by Le Neve was published at the time, giving an account of what appeared on opening his coffin. + Forfitan et noftros ducat de marmore vultus
Nectens aut Paphia myrti aut Pernafide lauri Fronde comas-At ego fecura pace quiefcam.
So fang, in Roman tone and style, The youthful bard, ere long Ordain'd to grace his native ifle With her fublimeft fong.
Who then but muft conceive difdain, Hearing the deed unblest
Of wretches who have dared profane His dread fepulchral rest?
Ill fare the hands that heaved the ftones* Where Milton's afhes lay,
That trembled not to grafp his bones And steal his dust away!
O ill requited bard! neglect Thy living worth repaid, And blind idolatrous refpect As much affronts thee dead.
* Cowper, no doubt, had in his memory the lines faid to have been written by Shakespeare on his tomb:
"Good friend, for Jefus' fake forbear To dig the duft inclofed here.
Bleft be the man that fpares these stones, And curft be he that moves my bones."
TO THE REV. WILLIAM BULL.
F reading verse be your delight,
"Tis mine as much, or more, to write; But what we would, fo weak is man,
Lies oft remote from what we can. For instance, at this very time
I feel a wifh by cheerful rhyme
To foothe my friend, and, had I power, To cheat him of an anxious hour; Not meaning (for I must confess, It were but folly to fupprefs) His pleasure, or his good alone, But fquinting partly at my own. But though the fun is flaming high In the centre of yon arch, the sky, And he had once (and who but he ?) The name for setting genius free, Yet whether poets of past days Yielded him undeserved praise, And he by no uncommon lot Was famed for virtues he had not; Or whether, which is like enough, His Highness may have taken huff, So feldom fought with invocation, Since it has been the reigning fashion
To difregard his infpiration,
I feem no brighter in my wits, For all the radiance he emits, Than if I faw, through midnight vapour, The glimmering of a farthing taper. Oh for a fuccedaneum, then, To accelerate a creeping pen! Oh for a ready fuccedaneum, Quod caput, cerebrum, et cranium Pondere liberet exofo,
Et morbo jam caliginofo!
'Tis here; this oval box well fill'd With best tobacco, finely mill'd, Beats all Anticyra's pretences
To difengage the encumber'd senses. Oh Nymph of transatlantic fame, Where'er thine haunt, whate'er thy name, Whether repofing on the fide
Of Oroonoquo's fpacious tide,
Or listening with delight not small To Niagara's distant fall,
'Tis thine to cherish and to feed The pungent nose-refreshing weed, Which, whether pulverized it gain A fpeedy paffage to the brain, Or whether, touch'd with fire, it rise In circling eddies to the fkies,
Does thought more quicken and refine Than all the breath of all the Nine- Forgive the bard, if bard he be, Who once too wantonly made free, To touch with a fatiric wipe
That symbol of thy power, the pipe ; So may no blight infeft thy plains, And no unfeasonable rains;
And fo may smiling peace once more Vifit America's fad fhore;
And thou, fecure from all alarms
Of thundering drums and glittering arms, Rove unconfined beneath the shade Thy wide-expanded leaves have made; So may thy votaries increase, And fumigation never cease. May Newton with renew'd delights Perform thine odoriferous rites, While clouds of incense half divine Involve thy disappearing fhrine; And fo may smoke-inhaling Bull Be always filling, never full.
MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION TO
IC fepultus eft
Inter fuorum lacrymas
GULIELMUS NORTHCOT,
GULIELMI et MARIA filius
Unicus, unicè dilectus,
Qui floris ritu fuccifus eft femihiantis,
Aprilis die feptimo,
1780, Æt. 10.
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