And grateful adoration, for that light

So plenteous ray'd into thy mind below,

From Light himself; O, look with pity down
On human-kind, a frail erroneous race!
Exalt the spirit of a downward world!
O'er thy dejected country chief preside,
And be her genius call'd! her studies raise,
Correct her manners, and inspire her youth.
For, though deprav'd and sunk, she brought thee forth,
And glories in thy name; she points thee out
To all her sons, and bids them eye thy star:
While in expectance of the second life,
When time shall be no more, thy sacred dust
Sleeps with her kings, and dignifies the scene.

A POE M,

ΤΟ

THE MEMORY

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE LORD TALBOT,

Late Chancellor of Great-Britain.

ΤΟ

THE MEMORY

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE LORD TALBOT.

ADDRESSED TO HIS SON,

WHILE, with the public, you, my Lord, lament

A friend and father lost; permit the Muse,-
The Muse assign'd of old a double theme,-
To praise dead worth and humble living pride,
Whose generous task begins where interest ends:
Permit her on a TALBOT's tomb to lay
This cordial verse sincere, by truth inspir'd,
Which means not to bestow but borrow fame.
Yes, she may sing his matchless virtues now-
Unhappy that she may.-But where begin?
How from the diamond single out each ray,
Where all, though trembling with ten thousand hues,
Effuse one dazzling undivided light?

Let the low-minded of these narrow days

No more presume to deem the lofty tale
Of ancient times, in pity to their own,

Romance. In Talbot, we united saw

The piercing eye, the quick enlighten'd soul,
The graceful ease, the flowing tongue of Greece,
Join'd to the virtues and the force of Rome.