Thanks for thy word, and for thy day, Thanks that we hear,-but O impart To each desires sincere, That we may listen with our heart, For if vain thoughts the minds engage Of older far than we, What hope, that, at our heedless age, Our minds should e'er be free? Much hope, if thou our spirits take Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows, A sun that ne'er declines, And be thy mercies shower'd on those Who placed us where it shines. STANZAS SUBJOINED TO THE YEARLY BILL OF MORTALITY OF THE PARISH OF ALL-SAINTS, NORTHAMPTON,* ANNO DOMINI 1787. Pallida Mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, HORACE. Pale Death with equal foot strikes wide the door WE HILE thirteen moons saw smoothly run All these, life's rambling journey done, Was man (frail always) made more frail Did famine or did plague prevail, No; these were vigorous as their sires * Composed for John Cox, parish clerk of Northampton. Like crowded forest trees we stand, Green as the bay tree, ever green, The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen, Read, ye that run, the awful truth With which I charge my page; A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age. No present health can health insure No medicine, though it oft can cure, And O! that humble as my lot, These truths, though known, too much forgot, I may not teach in vain. So prays your clerk with all his heart, And, ere he quits his pen, Begs you for once to take his part, And answer all-Amen! Improve the present hour, for all beside OULD I, from Heaven inspired, as sure COULD presage To whom the rising year shall prove his last, As I can number in my punctual page, And item down the victims of the past; How each would trembling wait the mournful sheet Time then would seem more precious than the joys Then doubtless many a trifler, on the brink Ah self-deceived! Could I prophetic say Observe the dappled foresters, how light Had we their wisdom, should we, often warn'd, Sad waste! for which no after-thrift atones. Learn then, ye living! by the mouths be taught That, soon or late, death also is your lot, |