O then, ere the turf or tomb

Cover us from every eye, Spirit of inftruction, come,

Make us learn that we must die.

ON A SIMILAR OCCASION,

For the Year 1792.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas,
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum

Subjecit pedibus, ftrepitumque Acherontis avari! Virg.

Happy the mortal who has traced effects
To their first cause, caft fear beneath his feet,
And Death and roaring Hell's voracious fires!

HANKLESS for favours from on high, Man thinks he fades too foon; Though 'tis his privilege to die, Would he improve the boon.

But he, not wife enough to fcan
His bleft concerns aright,
Would gladly stretch life's little span
Το ages, if he might.

To ages in a world of pain,

Το ages, where he goes

Gall'd by affliction's heavy chain,

And hopeless of repofe.

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?

Why deem we death a foe?

Recoil from weary life's best hour,
And covet longer woe?

The cause is Confcience :-Confcience oft

Her tale of guilt renews:
Her voice is terrible though soft,
And dread of death enfues.

Then anxious to be longer fpared
Man mourns his fleeting breath:
All evils then seem light compared
With the approach of Death.

'Tis judgement shakes him; there's the fear
That prompts the wish to stay :
He has incurr'd a long arrear,

And must despair to pay.

Pay!-follow Christ, and all is paid;
His death your peace enfures;
Think on the grave where he was laid,
And calm defcend to yours.

ON A SIMILAR OCCASION,

For the Year 1793.

De facris autem hæc fit una fententia, ut conferventur.

Cic. de Leg.

But let us all concur in this one fentiment, that things facred be inviolate.

E lives who lives to God alone,

And all are dead befide;

For other fource than God is none

Whence life can be supplied.

To live to God is to requite
His love as best we may :
To make his precepts our delight,
His promises our stay.

But life, within a narrow ring
Of giddy joys comprised,

Is falfely named, and no such thing,
But rather death disguised.

Can life in them deserve the name,

Who only live to prove

For what poor toys they can disclaim
An endless life above?

Who much diseased, yet nothing feel;
Much menaced, nothing dread;
Have wounds which only God can heal,
Yet never afk his aid?

Who deem his house a useless place,
Faith, want of common fenfe ;
And ardour in the Chriftian race,
A hypocrite's pretence?

Who trample order; and the day
Which God afferts his own
Dishonour with unhallow'd play,
And worship chance alone?

If fcorn of God's commands, impress'd
On word and deed, imply
The better part of man unblefs'd
With life that cannot die ;

Such want it, and that want, uncured
Till man refigns his breath,
Speaks him a criminal, assured
Of everlasting death.

Sad period to a pleasant course!

Yet fo will God repay

Sabbaths profaned without remorse,
And mercy caft away.

ON A GOLDFINCH, STARVED TO

DEATH IN HIS CAGE.

IME was when I was free as air,
The thistle's downy feed my fare,
My drink the morning dew;

I perch'd at will on every spray,
My form genteel, my plumage gay,
My strains for ever new.

But gaudy plumage, sprightly strain,
And form genteel were all in vain,
And of a tranfient date;

For, caught and caged, and ftarved to death,
In dying fighs my little breath

Soon pafs'd the wiry grate.

Thanks, gentle fwain, for all my woes,

And thanks for this effectual close

And cure of every ill!

More cruelty could none express;
And I, if you had shown me less,
Had been your prisoner still.

THE PINE APPLE AND THE BEE.

HE Pine Apples, in triple row,
Were basking hot, and all in blow;

A Bee of most difcerning tafte

Perceived the fragrance as he pafs'd,