Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

appear to lay any thing to the charge of my ever dear and honoured father; if I were unnaturally disposed to find a fault in his proceeding upon this occasion, I must search for it amongst his virtues; he was open, warm and unsuspecting; apt to credit others for what was natural to himself, ever inclined to look only on the best side of men and things, and certainly not one of the children of this world. If I have cause to regret this departure from the line, in which by education I had been trained, I am the author of my own misfortune; I was perfectly a free agent, and have nobody but myself to accuse. My youth however, and the still unsettled state of my health spared me for a time, and my father proposed an excur sion to the city of York for the double purpose of my relaxation and my sisters" accom→ plishments in music and dancing, We had a near relation living there, a widow lady, niece to Doctor Bentley, who accommodated us with her house, and we passed half a year in the society and amusements of the place. This lady, Forster by name, and first cousin to my mother, was a woman of superior understanding; her opinions were pronounced authorita

tively and without respect of person; they were considered in York as little less than oracular. The style of living in this place was so new to me and out of character, when contrasted by the habits of study and retirement, which I had been accustomed to, that it seemed to enfeeble and depress that portion of genius, which nature had endowed me with; I hunted in the mornings, danced in the evenings, and devoted but a small portion of my time to any thing that deseryed the name of study. I had no books of my own, and unfortunately got engaged with Spenser's Fairy Queen, in imitation of which I began to string nonsensical stanzas to the same rhyming kind of measure. Though I trust I should not have surrendered myself for any length of time to this jingling strain of obsolete versification, yet I am indebted to my mother for the seasonable contempt she threw upon my imitations, felt the force of her reproof, and laid the Fairy Queen upon its shelf.

The Earl of Galloway, father of the present Lord, was then residing at York with his family; a beautiful copy of elegiac verses, the composition of his daughter Lady Susan, was

communicated to me, of which the hint seemed to be taken from Hamlet's meditations on the skull of Yorick. I do not feel myself at liberty to publish the elegant poem of that lady, who lived to grace the high station which by her birth, virtues, and endowments she was entitled to, and when I now venture to insert my own, I am fully conscious how ill it would endure a comparison with that, which gave occasion to it

"True! We must all be chang'd by death,
"Such is the form the dead must wear,

"And so, when Beauty yields its breath,
"So shall the fairest face appear.

"But let thy soul survey the grace,

"That yet adorns its frail abode,

"And through the wond'rous fabric trace
"The hand of an unerring God.

"Why does the blood in stated round
"Its vital warmth throughout dispense?
"Who tun'd the ear to every sound,
"And lent the hand its ready sense?

"Whence had the eyes that subtle force,
"That languor, they by turns display?
"Who hung the lips with prompt discourse,
"And tun'd the soft melodious lay?

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

.01% MEMOIRS OFAHDIM

What but thy Maker's image there coimeIO)
In each external part is seen?

But 'tis thy better part to wear

His image pictur'd best within.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Else what avail'd the raptur'd strain, Colw Did not the mind her aid impart,d god The melting eye would speak in vain,; im "Flow'd not its language from the heart. binow full 7TOR EL

*909 The bloo

blood with stated pace had crept "Along the dull and sluggish veins, i

"The car insensibly had slept,

[ocr errors]

Though angels sung in choicest strains.
um boob sub n. zob oil.

"It is that spark of quick'ning fire,
"To every child of nature giv'n,
"That either kindles wild desire,
"Or lights us on the road to heav'n

"That spark, if Virtue keeps it bright,

"And Genius fans it into flame,
"Aspiring mounts, 'and in its flight,

"Soars far above this earthly frame.

[merged small][ocr errors]

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]

"Such Newton was, diffusing far o

"His radiant beams; such Cotes had been, "This a bright comet ; that a star,

[ocr errors]

"Which glitter'd, and no more was seen.

[ocr errors]

"Blush then, if thou hast sense of shame, ›› "Inglorious, ign'rant, impious slave!! "Who think'st this heav'n-created frame "Shall basely perish in the grave. W→→

"False as thou art, dar'st thou suggest "That thy Creator is unjust? 5th 2017 "Wilt thou the truth with Him contest, →→ "Whose wisdom form'd thee of the dust ?

66

Say, doatard, hath He idly wrought, "Or are his works to be believ'd? "Speak, is the whole creation hought? "Mortal, is God or thou deceiv'd?)

"Thy harden'd spirit, convict at last,
"Its damning error shall perceive,
"Speechless shall hear its sentence past,
"Condemn'd to tremble and believe.

"But thou in reason's sober light
"Death clad with terror can'st survey,
And from the foul and ghastly-sight
"Derive the pure and moral lay.

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »