O pity, great Father of light, then I cry'd, Thy creature who fain would not wander from thee! Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride; From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free. 6. "And darkness and doubt are now flying away; No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn : So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray, The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn. See truth, love and mercy, in triumph descending, And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom! On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb." SECTION II. THE BEGGAR'S PETITION. 1. PITY the sorrows of a poor old man, BEATTIE. Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door⚫ Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span; Oh! give relief, and heav'n will bless your store. 2. These tatter'd clothes my poverty bespeak, These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen'd years; And grandeur a magnificent abode. Here, as I crav'd a morsel of their bread, 6. Should I reveal the sources of my grief, If soft humanity e'er touch'd your breast, Your hands would not withhold the kind relief, And tears of pity would not be represt. 7. Heaven sends misfortunes; why should we repine? 'Tis Heaven has brought me to the state you see; And your condition may be soon like mine, The child of sorrow and of misery. 8. A little farm was my paternal lot ; K. Then, like the lark, I sprightly hail'd the morn : My cattle dy'd, and blighted was my corn. And left the world to wretchedness and me. 11. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ; Oh! give relief, and heaven will bless your store. UNHAPPY CLOSE OF LIFE. 1. How shocking must thy summons be, O death! O, might she stay to wash away her stains! BLAIR. SECTION IV. ELEGY TO PITY. 1. HAIL, lovely pow'r! whose bosom heaves the sigh, When fancy paints the scene of deep distress! Whose tears spontaneous crystalize the eye, When rigid fate denies the pow'r to bless. 2 Not all the sweets Arabia's gales convey From flow'ry meads, can with that sigh compare ;Not dew-drops glitt'ring in the morning ray, Seem near so beauteous as that falling tear. 3. Devoid of fear the fawns around thee play; ; Emblem of peace, the dove before thee flies No blood-stain'd traces mark thy blameless way; Beneath thy feet no hapless insect dies. 4. Come, lovely nymph, and range the mead with me, To spring the partridge from the guileful foe; From secret snares the struggling bird to free; And stop the hand upraised to give the blow. 5. And when the air with heat meridian glows, And nature droops beneath the conqu❜ring gleam, Let us, slow wand'ring where the current flows, Save sinking flies that float along the stream. 6. Or turn to nobler, greater tasks thy care, To me thy sympathetic gifts impart ; Teach me in friendship's griefs to bear a share, And justly boast the gen'rous feeling heart. 7. Teach me to soothe the helpless orphan's grief. With timely aid the widow's woes assuage; To mis'ry's moving cries to yield relief; And be the sure resource of drooping age. 8. So when the genial spring of life shall fade, And sinking nature own the dread decay, Some soul congenial then may lend its aid, And gild the close of life's eventful day SECTION V. Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk, during his solitary abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez. 1. I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute ; I am lord of the fowl and the brute. I must finish my journey alone; 3. Society, friendship, and love, Oh, had I the wings of a dove, In the ways of religion and truth; Resides in that heavenly word! Of a land I shall visit no more. Though a friend I am never to see. And the swift-winged arrows of light. Soon hurries me back to despair. And reconciles man to his lot. SECTION VI.-GKATITUde. 1. WHEN all thy mercies, O my God! Transported with the view, I'm lost 2. O how shall words with equal warmth, COWPER. That glows within my ravish'd heart! 3 Thy Providence my life sustain'd, 4. To all my weak complaints and cries, Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learn'd Thine arms unseen convey'd me safe, 7. Through hidden dangers, toils and deaths, It gently cleared my way; And through the pleasing snares of vice, 8. When worn with sickness, oft hast thou With health renew'd my face; And when in sins and sorrows sunk, 9. Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss, Has made my cup run o'er ; And, in a kind and faithful friend, 10. Ten thousand thousand precious gifts Nor is the least, a cheerful heart, And, after death, in distant worlds, 12. When nature fails, and day and night My ever-grateful heart, O Lord! 13. Through all eternity, to thee |