Thus, like the bee, he suck'd from every flow'r,
And hour surpass'd the predecessor-hour.
Latimer's father* was his type of yore;
Little he had, but something, for the poor :
And oft on better days the board was spread
With wholesome meat and hospitable bread.
Poor in himself, men poorer he re
And gave the charities he had receiv’d.

The midnight lamp, in crystal case enclos’d,
Beams bright; nor is to winds nor rains expos'd ;
A watch-tower to the wanderers of mankind,
Forlorn, belated, and with passions blind;
Who tread the foolish round their fathers trod,
And, midst life's errors, hit on death's by-road.t
Midst racking painst his mind was calm and

ev’n; Patience and cheerfulness to him were giv'n ; Patience! the choicest gift on this side Heav'n! His strength of parts surviv'u the seventieth year, And then, like northern fruits, left off to bear;

*

That w

Licep In his These Rare

Toth

Nought but a vestal fire such heat contains ;
Age seldom boasts so prodigal remains.
Sume few beyond life's usual date are cast :
Prime clusters of the grape,* till winter last.
To these a sacred preference is giv'n :
Each shaft is polish'd, and the employer Heav'n.t

Jeffries (if that were possible) restrain'd
His fury, when you mournfully complain'd ;+
And Kirk's barbarians, hard as harden'd steel,
Forgot their Lybia, and vouchsaf'd to feel.
When crowns were doubtful, and when numbers

steer'd
As honour prompted, or self-interest veerd;
(Times! when the wisest of mankind might err,
And, lost in shadows, wrong or right, prefer ;)
The tempter, in a vapour's form, arose,
And o'er his eyes a dubious twilight throws,
To lead him, puzzling. o'er fallacious ground,
Suborn his passions, and his sense confound :
Pomp to foretaste, and mitres pre-descry ;
(For mists at once enlarge and multiply :)
Our hero paus’d—and, weighing either side,
Took poverty and conscience for his guide:

* 2 Esdras xii. 42.

+ Isaiah xlix. 2. # When Judge Jeffries came to Taunton assiz-s, in the year 1685, to execute his commission upon the unfortunate people concerned in Monmouth's rebellion, the person bere spoken of, being minister of St. Mary Magdalen's Church at Taunton, waited on him in private, and remonstrated much aga nst his severities. The judge listened to him calmly, and with some at. tention; and, though he had never seen him before, advan ced him in a few months to a prebendal stall in the Cathedral of Bristol.

See Sandy's Paraphrase on Job, where Satan arises in form of an exhalation.

For he, who thinks he suffers for his God,
Deserves a pardon, though he feels the rod.
Yet blam'd he none (himself in honour clear;)
That were a crime had cost his virtue dear!
Thus all he lov'd; and party he had none,
Except with charity, and Heaven alone.
In his own friends some frailties he allow'd;
These were too singular, and those too proud.
Rare spirit ! In the midst of party-flame,
To think well-meaning men are half the same !

B- sometimes would to thy cottage tend;
An artful enemy, but seeming friend :
Conscious of having plan’d thy worldly fate,
He could not love thee, and he durst not hate.
But then seraphic Ken was all thy own;
And he,* who long declin’d Ken's vacant throne,
Begging with earnest zeal to be denied ;-—
By worldlings laugh’d at, and by fools decried:
Dodwell was thine, the humble and resign'd;
Nelson, with Christian elegance of mind;
And heet whose tranquil mildness from afar
Spoke him a distant, but a brilliant star.
These all forsook their homes-nor sigh'd nor

wept;
Mammon they freely gave, but God they kept:
Ah, look on honours with Macarius' eyes;
Snares to the good, and dangers to the wise !

In silence for himself, for friends in tears,
fle wanderd o’er the desert forty+ years.

• Dr. George Hooper.
+ Mr. John Kettlewell, Vicar of Coleshill in Warwickshire.
Ste Exodus passim. Psalm xcv. 10. Hebrews ii. 17.
Vol. XXIX,

Kk

The cloud and pillar (or by night or day)
Reviv'd his heart, and ascertain’d the way.*
His sandals fail'd not; and his robes, untorn,
Escap'd the bramble and entangling thorn.f
Heaven purified for him the embitter'd well,
And manna from aerial regions fell.s
At length, near peaceful Pisgah|| he retir'd,
And found that rest his pilgrimage requir’d:
Where, as from toils he silently withdrew,
Half Palestinaq open'd on his view :
"Go, pious hermit;' groves and mountains cried;
‘Enter, thou faithful servant;' Heav'n replied.

Mild as a babe reclines himself to rest,
And smiling sleeps upon the mother's breast,
Tranquil, and with a patriarch's hopes, he gave
His soul to Heaven, his body to the grave;
And with such gentleness resign’d his breath,
That 'twas a soft extinction, and not death.
Happy! who thus, by unperceiv'd decay,
Absent themselves from life, and steal away.**

Accept this verse, to make thy memory live, Lamented shade!-'Tis all thy son can give.

Better to own the debt we cannot pay,
Than with false gold thy funeral rites defray.
Vainly my muse is anxious to procure
Gifts unavailing, empty sepulture; "
As vainly she expands her fluttering wings :
She is no swan, nor, as she dies, she sings.
He, that would brighten ancient diamonds, must
Clear and repolish them with diamond-dust;
That task is not for me : the Muses' lore
Is lost ;—for Pope and Dryden are no more!

O Pope! too great to copy, or to praise !
(Whom envy sinks not, nor encomiums raise ;)
Forgive this grateful tribute of my lays.
Milton alone could Eden lost regain ;
And only thou portray Messiah's reign.
O early lost! with every grace adorn'd!
By me (so Heaven ordains it) always mourn’d.
By thee the good Macarius was approvid:
Whom Fenton honour'd, and Philotheust lov’d.

My first, my latest bread, I owe to thee :
Thou and thy friends, preserv'd my muse and me.
By proxy, from a generous kindred spread,
Thy Craggs's bounty fell upon my head :
Thy Mordaunt'st kindness did my youth engage,
And thy own Chesterfield protects my age.
**Hunc saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani Munere.'

Virg + Philotheus, Bishop Ken. Charles Earl of Peterborough, &c.