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XX

On Mr. ELIJAH FENTON.

At Easthamstead in Berks, 1730.

THI

HIS modeft Stone, what few vain Marbles can,

May truly fay, Here lies an honeft Man:

A Poet, bleft beyond the Poet's fatė,

Whom Heav'n kept facred from the Proud and
Great:

Foe to loud Praife, and Friend to learned Ease,
Content with Science in the Vale of Peace.
Calmly he look'd on either Life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;
From Nature's temp'rate feaft rofe fatisfy'd,
Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd.

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XI.

On Mr.
Mr. GA Y..

In Westminster-Abbey, 1732.

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F Manners gentle, of Affections mild;

In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child : With native Humour tempʼring virtuous Rage, Form'd to delight at once and lafh the age:" Above Temptation in a low Eftate, And uncorrupted, ev'n among the Great: A fafe Companion, and an eafy Friend, Unblam'd thro' Life, lamented in thy End. These are Thy Honours! not that here thy Buft Is mix'd with Heroes, or with Kings thy duft; 10 But that the Worthy and the Good fhall fay, Striking their penfive bofoms-Here lies GAY:

NOTES.

VER. 12. Here lies Gay.] i. e. in the hearts of the good and worthy.-Mr. Pope told me his conceit in this line was not generally understood. For, by peculiar ill luck, the formulary expreffion, which makes the beauty, misleads the reader into a fense which takes it quite away.

XIL

Intended for Sir ISAAC NEWTON,

In Westminster-Abbey.

ISAACUS NEWTONUS:

Quem Immortalem

Teftantur Tempus, Natura, Colum

Mortalem

Hoc marmor fatetur.

Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night: GOD faid, Let Newton be! and all was Light.

NOTES

and all was Light.] It had been better-and there was Light,- -as more conformable to the reality of the fall, and to the allafion whereby it is 'celebrated.

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XIII.

On Dr. FRANCIS ATTERBURY,

Bishop of Rochester.

Who died in Exile at Paris, 1732. [

[His only Daughter having expired in his arms, immediately after the arrived in France to fee him.]

DIALOGUE.

SHE.

YES, we have liv'd-one pang, and then we

part!

May Heav'n, dear Father! now have all thy Heart. Yet ah! how once we lov'd, remember still,

Till

you are duft like me.

HE.

Dear Shade! I will:

Then mix this duft with thine-O fpotlefs Ghost! O more than Fortune, Friends, or Country loft!

Is there on Earth one care, one wish befide?
Yes-SAVE MY COUNTRY, HEAV'N,

NOTES.

—He faid, and dy'd.

Save my Country, Heav'n] Alluding to the Bishop's frequent ufe and application of the expiring words of the famous Father PAUL, in his prayer for the ftate, ESTO PERPETUA. With how good a grace the Bishop ap. plied it at his trial, and is here made to refer to it in his laft moments, they will understand who know what conformity there was in the lives of the Prelate and the Monk. The character of our countryman is well known. And that of the Father may be told in very few words. He was profoundly skilled in all divine and human learning: He employed his whole life in the fervice of the State, against the unjuft incroachments of the Church. He was modeft, humble, and forgiving, candid, patient, and juft; free from all prejudices of party, and all the projects of ambition; in a word, the happiest compound of Science, Wisdom, and Virtue.

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