XIV.

ON EDMUND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM,

WHO DIED IN THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 1735.

F modeft Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd,

IF

And ev'ry op'ning Virtue blooming round,
Could fave a Parent's justest Pride from fate,
Or add one Patriot to a sinking state;
This weeping marble had not ask'd thy Tear,
Or fadly told, how many Hopes lie here!
The living Virtue now had fhone approv'd,
The Senate heard him, and his Country lov'd.
Yet fofter Honours, and lefs noify Fame.
Attend the fhade of gentle BUCKINGHAM:
In whom a Race, for Courage fam'd and Art,
Ends in the milder Merit of the Heart ;
And Chiefs or Sages long to Britain giv'n,
Pays the last Tribute of a Saint to Heav'n.

"THIS epitaph," fays Johnson," is preferred by Dr. Warburton to the reft; but I know not for what reason. To crown with reflection, is furely a mode of fpeech approaching to nonfenfe. Opening virtues, blooming round, is fomething like tautology; the fix following lines are poor and profaic."

XV.

FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED

H

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY.

distance keep:

EROES and KINGS! your
In peace let one poor Poet fleep,
Who never flatter'd Folks like you :
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

ANOTHER, ON THE SAME.

NDER this Marble, or under this Sill,

UNDE

;

Or under this Turf, or e'en what they will Whatever an Heir, or a Friend in his ftead, Or any good creature fhall lay o'er my head, Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin What they said, or may fay, of the mortal within : But, who living and dying, ferene ftill and free, Trufts in GoD, that as well as he was, he fhall be.

NOTES.

VER. 4. Let Horace]

"Whose verse adorn'd a tyrant's crimes;

Who faw majestic Rome betray'd,

And lent th' imperial ruffian aid."

AKENSIDE'S Odes, p. 280. 4to,

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

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