Cherish honour, virtue, truth, So shalt thou prolong thy youth. Wanting these, however fast Man be fixt, and form'd to last, He is lifeless even now, Stone at heart, and cannot grow. ANOTHER, For a Stone erected on a similar occasion at the same place in the following year. [JUNE 1790.] READER! Behold a monument That asks no sigh or tear, Though it perpetuate the event Of a great burial here. Anno 1791. HYMN FOR THE USE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AT OLNEY. [JULY 1790.] HEAR, Lord, the song of praise and pray'r, In heaven thy dwelling-place, From infants made the public care, And taught to seek thy face! Thanks for thy Word and for thy Day; Never to waste in sinful play Thanks that we hear-but oh! impart To each desires sincere, That we may listen with our heart, And learn as well as hear. For if vain thoughts the minds engage Of elder far than we, What hope that at our heedless age Our minds should e'er be free? Much hope, if thou our spirits take Who canst the wisest wiser make, Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows, A sun that ne'er declines And be thy mercies show'r'd on those *Note by the Editor.-This Hymn was written at the request of the Rev. James Bean, then Vicar of Olney, to be sung by the children of the Sunday Schools of that town, after a Charity Sermon, preached at the parish church for their benefit, on Sunday, July 31, 1790. STANZAS On the late indecent Liberties taken with the Remains of the great Milton,—Anno 1790. [AUGUST 1790.] "ME too, perchance, in future days, "But I, or ere that season come, "Shall reach my refuge in the tomb, * Forsitan et nostros ducat de marmore vultus MILTON IN MANSO. So sang, in Roman tone and style, The youthful bard, ere long Ordain'd to grace his native isle Who then but must conceive disdain, Hearing the deed unblest Of wretches who have dar'd prophane His dread sepulchral rest? Ill fare the hands that heav'd the stones Where Milton's ashes lay, That trembled not to grasp his bones And steal his dust away! O ill-requited bard! neglect And blind idolatrous respect As much affronts thee dead. |