406 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. Or wipes the mortal dew from offmy face, Witness such triumphs in my soul ; and trace The dawn of glory in my dying mien, While on my lifeless lips such heav'nly smiles are seen ! September 29, 1720. .An Elegiac Ode on the death of Sir Thomas Abney, Knight and Alderman of London, February 6, 1721 -2, in the 83d year of his age. Affixed to some Memoirs of his life, and inscribed to the Lady Abney. MADAM, "YOUR grief is great and just. It is not in the power of verse to charm it: your comforts must arise from a diviner spring. My residence in your family hath made me a witness to the lustre of Sir Thomas Abney's character, and to the years of your felicity ; and I bear a sensible share in the sorrows that are shed on his tomb." " The nation mourns a good man lost from the midst of us, a public blessing vanished from the earth. The city mourns the loss of a most excellent magistrate, a sure friend to virtue, and a guardian to the public peace. The church of Christ mourns a beautiful pillar taken from the support and ornament of the tem- ple. All these are public sorrows ; but your loss, madam, carries a pain it) it, that must be unknown to all but such as knew the domestic virtues of the deceased." as Those who have the honour of your ladyship's acquaint- ance, can tell whence you derive your daily consolations; even from that world where your departed relative drinks them at the fountain -head. O may those streams descend in full mea- sure hourly, and refresh yourself and your mourning house !" " But if a verse cannot give comfort to the living, yet it may do honour to the dead : and it is for this reason that your ladyship desires a verse to attend these few memorials of Sir Thomas Abney's life. His modesty hath concealed a thousand things from the world which might have stood as witnesses of his piety and goodness, but he thought it sufficient that his record was on high: yet your unfeigned love follows him to the grave, and would do every thing that might adorn his name and me. mory. Since you have called me to this piece of service, the obligations that your ladyship bath laid upon me are strong enough to summon up my youthful powers and talents, even when I look upon them as buried and almost forgotten." Besides, madam, there are some occurrences that can of themselves rouse the muse from the deepest sleep. Poesy is not always under the command of the will. As there have been occasions heretofore when I have wished' to write, but the ima-
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