For he was frail as thou or I, And evil felt within; And, when he felt it, heaved a sigh, Such lived Aspasio; and at last His joys be mine, each reader cries, ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne. BUCHANAN. He who sits from day to day Heedless of his loudest lay, Hardly knows that he has sung, Where the watchman in his round So your verse-man I and clerk, Duly at my time I come, But the monitory strain, home, Oft repeated in your ears, Can a truth, by all confess'd Pleasure's call attention wins, Death and judgment, heaven and hell- O, then, ere the turf or tomb Spirit of instruction, come, Make us learn that we must die. ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Happy the mortal, who has traced effects VIRG. THANKLESS for favours from on high, But he, not wise enough to scan 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, And still has power to charm. Whence has the world her magic power? The cause is Conscience-Conscience oft Her tale of guilt renews: Then anxious to be longer spared, "Tis judgment shakes him; there's the fear 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, And all are dead beside; For other source than God is none To live to God is to requite But life, within a narrow ring Can life in them deserve the name, Who only live to prove For what poor toys they can disclaim Who much diseased, yet nothing feel; |