Let the proud peacock his gay feathers spready
And woo the female to his painted bed
Let winds and feas together rage and swell;
This Nature teaches, and becomes them well. "Pride was not made for men *:" a confcious fenfe
Of guilt, and folly, and their confequence,
Destroys the claim, and to beholders tells,
Here nothing but the fhape of Manhood dwells. 18
XIV. Epitaph on Sir George Speke.
UNDER this ftone lies virtue, youth,
Unblemish'd probity, and truth:
Juft unto all relations known,
A worthy patriot, pious fon;
Whom neighb'ring towns fo often fent,
To give their fense in parliament;
With lives and fortunes trufling one
Who fo difcreetly us'd his own.
Sober he was, wife, temperate,
Contented with an old eftate,
Which no foul av'rice did increase,
Nor wanton luxury make less.
While yet but young, his father dy'd,
And left him to an happy guide:
Not Lemuel's mother with more care
Did counfel or inftru&t her heir,
Eccluf. chap. x. ver. 18.
Or teach with more fuccefs her fon
The vices of the time to fhun.
An heiress the; while yet alive,
All that was her's to him did give;
And he just gratitude did show
To one that had oblig'd him fo:
Nothing too much for her he thought,
By whom he was fo bred and taught.
So (early made that path to tread,
Which did his youth to honour lead)
His fhort life did a pattern give
How neighbours, husbands, friends, fhould live.
The virtues of a private life
Exceed the glorious noife and ftrife
Of battles won in those we find
The folid int reft of mankind.
Approv'd by all, and lov'd fo well,
Tho' young, like fruit that's ripe he fell.
XV. Epitaph on Colonel Charles Cavendish.
HERE lies Charles Ca'ndifh : let the marble stone,
That hides his afhes, make his virtue known.
Beauty and valour did his short life grace,
The grief and glory of his noble race!
Early abroad he did the world furvey,
As if he knew he had not long to stay:
Saw what great Alexander in the East
And mighty Julius conquer'd in the Weft:
Then with a mind as great as theirs he came
To find at home occafion for his fame;
sd w.10
Where dark confufion did the nations hide,
And where the juster was the weaker side.
Two loyal brothers took their Sov'reign's parɛ,"i
Employ'd their wealth, their courage, and their art:
The elder did whole regiments afford;
The younger brought his conduct and his sword?
Born to command, a leader he begun,
And on the rebels lafting honour won.
The horfe inftructed by their gen'ral's worth,
Still made the King victorious in the North.
Where Ca'ndish fought the royalists prevail'd;
Neither his courage nor his judgment fail'd.
The current of his vict'ries found no ftop,
Till Cromwell came, his party's chiefeft prop.:
Equal fuccefs had fet these champions high,
And both refolv'd to conquer or to die.
Virtue with rage, fury with valour strove;
But that must fall which is decreed above!
Cromwell with odds of number and of Fate,
Remov'd this bulwark of the church and state;
Which the fad iffue of the war declar'd,
And made his task to ruin both lefs hard.
So when the bank, neglected, is o'erthrown,
The boundless torrent does the country drown.
*William Earl of Devonshire.
Thus fell the young, the lovely, and the brave; Strew bays and flowers on his honour'd grave! 36
XVI. Epitaph on the Lady Sedley.
HERB lies the learned Savil's heir,
So early wife, and lafting fair!
That none, except her years they told,
Thought her a child, or thought her old.
All that her father knew or got,
His art, his wealth, fell to her lot;
And the fo well improv'd that stock,
Both of his knowledge and his flock,
That Wit and Fortune reconcil'd
In her, upon each other fmil'd.
While the, to ev'ry well-taught mind,
Was fa propitiously inclin'd,
And gave fuch title to her store,
That none but th' ignorant were poor.
The Mufes daily found fupplies,
Both from her hands and from her eyes.
Her bounty did at once engage,
And matchlefs beauty warm their rage,
Such was this dame in calmer days,
Her nation's ornament and praife!
But when a ftorm disturb'd our rest,
The port and refuge of th' opprest.
This made her fortune understood,
And look'd on as fome publick good,
So that (her perfon and her state,
Exempted from the common fate)
In all our Civil fury she
Stood, like a facred temple, free.
May here her monument ftand fo,
To credit this rude age! and show
To future times, that even we
Some patterns did of virtue fee;
And one fublime example had
XVII. Epitaph to be written under the Latin infcription upon the tomb of the only fon of the Lord Andover. 'Tis fit the English reader fhould be told, In our own language, what this tomb does hold. 'Tis not a noble corpfe alone does lie
Under this ftone, but a whole family.
His parents' pious care, their name, their joy,
And all their hope, lies bury'd with this boy :
This lovely Youth! for whom we all made moan,
That knew his worth, as he had been our own.
Had there been space and years enough allow'd,
His courage, wit, and breeding, to have show'd, 10
We had not found, in all the num'rous roll
Of his fam'd ancestors, a greater foul:
His early virtues to that ancient stock
Gave as much honcur as from thence he took.
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