As I can number in my punctual page, And item down the victims of the past; How each would trembling wait the mournful sheet, On which the press might stamp him next to die; And, reading here his sentence, how replete With anxious meaning, heavenward turn his eye! Time then would seem more precious than the joys In which he sports away the treasure now; And prayer more seasonable than the noise Of drunkards, or the music-drawing bow. Then doubtless many a trifler, on the brink Of this world's hazardous and headlong shore, Ah self-deceived! Could I prophetic say Observe the dappled foresters, how light They bound and airy o'er the sunny glade; Had we their wisdom, should we, often warn'd, A thousand awful admonitions scorn'd, Die self-accused of life run all to waste? Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones! Learn then, ye living! by the mouths be taught That, soon or late, death also is your lot, And the next opening grave may yawn for you. Ꮓ ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1789. -"Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit." VIRG. There calm at length he breathed his soul away. "O MOST delightful hour by man "Worlds should not bribe me back to tread Again life's dreary waste, To see again my day o'erspread With all the gloomy past. 'My home henceforth is in the skies, Earth, seas, and sun, adieu! All heaven unfolded to my eyes, I have no sight for you." So spake Aspasio, firm possess'd The bosom of his God. He was a man among the few And all his strength from Scripture drew, That rule he prized, by that he fear'd, Nor ever frown'd, or sad appear'd, But when his heart had roved. For he was frail as thou or I, But when he felt it, heaved a sigh, The gulf of death triumphant pass'd, His joys be mine, each reader cries, ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. "Ne commonentem recta sperne.' Despise not my good counsel. BUCHANAN. He who sits from day to day Hardly knows that he has sung. So your verse-man I, and Clerk, Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud, Soon the grave must be your home, And your only suit a shroud. But the monitory strain, Oft repeated in your ears, Seems to sound too much in vain, Can a truth, by all confess'd Of such magnitude and weight, Grow, by being oft impress'd, Trivial as a parrot's prate? Pleasure's call attention wins, Make us learn that we must die. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, THANKLESS for favours from on high, To ages, if he might; To ages in a world of pain, To ages, where he goes Gall'd by affliction's heavy chain, And hopeless of repose. Strange fondness of the human heart, Enamour'd of its harm! Strange world, that costs it so much smart, VIRG. Whence has the world her magic power? Recoil from weary life's best hour, The cause is Conscience :-Conscience oft Her voice is terrible though soft, Then anxious to be longer spared . 'Tis judgment shakes him; there's the fear And must despair to pay. Pay?-follow Christ, and all is paid; ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1793. "De sacris autem hæc sit una sententia, ut conserventur." CIC. DE LEG. But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate. He lives who lives to God alone, To live to God is to requite His love as best we may; To make his precepts our delight His promises our stay. |