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Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade,
Apt emblem of a virtuous maid'
Silent and chaste she steals along,
Far from the world's gay busy throng;
With gentle yet prevailing force,...

Reader! behold a monument
That asks no sigh or tear,
Though it perpetuate the event
Of a great burial here.
June 1790. Anno 1791.

Hence, my epistle--skim the Deep--fly o'er
Yon smooth expanse to the Teutonic shore!
Haste--lest a friend should grieve for thy delay--
And the Gods grant that nothing thwart thy way!...

Quod adest, memento
Componere 'quus. C'tera fluminis
Ritu feruntur.'Horace.


Improve the present hour, for all beside
Is a mere feather on a torrent's tide.

...

- Placid'que ibi demum morte quievit.'Virg.


There calm at length he breathed his soul away.


'O most delightful hour by man
Experienced here below,
The hour that terminates his span,...

Ne commonentem recta sperne.'Buchanan.


Despise not my good counsel.


He who sits from day to day
Where the prison'd lark is hung,
Heedless of his loudest lay,...

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!'Virg.


Happy the mortal who has traced effects...

De sacris autem h'c 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,...

A Spaniel, Beau, that fares like you,
Well fed, and at his ease,
Should wiser be than to pursue
Each trifle that he sees.


But you have kill'd a tiny bird,
Which flew not till to-day,...

O sovereign of an isle renown'd
For undisputed sway,
Wherever o'er yon gulf profound
Her navies wing their way,


With juster claims she builds at length
Her empire on the sea,...

Sin has undone our wretched race,
But Jesus has restored,
And brought the sinner face to face
With his forgiving Lord.


This we repeat, from year to year,
And press upon our youth;...

Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth
The gift of saving grace;
And let the seed of sacred truth
Fall in a fruitful place.


Grace is a plant, where'er it grows,
Of pure and heavenly root;...

Deem not, sweet rose, that bloom'st' midst many a thorn,
Thy friend, though to a cloister's shade consign'd,
Can e'er forget the charms he left behind,
Or pass unheeded this auspicious morn!...

Maria! I have every good
For thee wish'd many a time,
Both sad, and in a cheerful mood,
But never yet in rhyme.


To wish thee fairer is no need,
More prudent, or more sprightly,...

If Gideon's fleece, which drench'd with dew he found
While moisture none refresh'd the herbs around,
Might fitly represent the church, endow'd
With heavenly gifts to heathens not allow'd;...

Whence is it that, amazed, I hear
From yonder wither'd spray,
This foremost morn of all the year,
The melody of May?


And why, since thousands would be proud
Of such a favour shown,...

Survivor sole, and hardly such, of all
That once lived here, thy brethren, at my birth
(Since which I number threescore winters past),
A shatter'd veteran, hollow-trunk'd perhaps,...