ON THE PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER, WRITTEN BY MRS. WHARTON. SILENCE, You Winds! liften, ethereal Lights! Taught by our Lord and theirs, with us they may 10 16 SOME REFLECTIONS OF HIS upon the feveral PETITIONS IN THE SAME PRAYER. 1. His facred name with reverence profound Should mention'd be, and trembling at the found! It was Jehovah; 't is our Father now; So low to us does Heav'n vouchsafe to bow *! II. His kingdom come. For this we pray in vain, Referring all to his paternal care, To whom more dear than to ourselves we are. * Pfalm xviii. 9. 10 15 20 Like new-born babes depending on the breast, V. That he fhould all our trespasses forgive, VI. Guard us from all temptations of the foes Farete linguis !---- 25 30 35 40 46 Bor. ON THE FOREGOING DIVINE POEMS. WHEN We for age could neither read nor write, The feas are quiet when the winds give o'er : The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light thro' chinks that time has made: Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, As they draw near to their eternal home. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, Miratur limen Olympi. 10 18 Virg. One of our most celebrated writers, both for learning and language, has defined satire and invective to be the cafieft kind of wit, because almost any degree of it will serve to abuse and find fault: "for wit (fays he) is a keen instrument, and every one can ❝ cut and gash with it; but to carve a beautiful image, **and polish it, requires great art and dexterity. To "praise any thing well is an argument of much more ** wit than to abuse. A little wit, and a great deal of "illnature, will furnish a man for fatire; but the "greatest inftance of wit is to commend well. And, "perhaps, the best things are the hardest to be duly ** commended; for though there be a great deal of "matter to work upon, yet there is great judgment "required to make choice; and where the subject is "great and excellent, it is hard not to fink below the dignity of it." Whether or not Dr. Tillotson had Mr. Waller in his thoughts when he was giving this description of wit, it is evident that he has, in the liveliest colours, delineated the character of his genius and writings. And fince it was his principal intention to recommend, with all the ornaments of poetry, the brightest examples of his own age to the imitation of all that should fucceed, and even desired that every verfe might be expunged which did not Excerpted from Mr. Fenton's Quarto edition of 1729. |