O thou! whom mutual forrow will incline

To mix thy fympathetic fighs with mine
Still be it ours to pay, with juft regret,

195

Át Friendship's facred shrine our common debt!
Tho' doom'd (fo Heaven ordains) to fee no more
The gentle Being, whom we both deplore;
Painting fhall ftill, sweet soothing art! supply
A form fo precious in Affection's eye.

200

Ah! little thought we, in that happier hour, When our gay Muse rehears'd the Pencil's power; To mourn that form in cold obstruction laid, 205 And fee him only by the pencil's aid!

Bleft be that pencil, every art be blest,

That stamps his image deeper on our breast!
Oft let us loiter on his favourite hill,

Whose shades the fadly-pleafing thought instil; 219
Recount his kindness, as we fondly rove,
And meet his fpirit in the lonely grove,

At evening's penfive hour, or opening day,
He
yet shall seem the partner of our way.
Bleft Spirit! ftill thro' Fancy's ear impart
The calm of virtue to the troubled heart!
Correct each fordid view, each vain defire,
And touch the mortal, with celeftial fire!

215

So

So may we ftill, in this dark scene of earth,

Hold sweet communion with thy living worth; 220

And, while our purer thoughts thy merit scan,
Revere the Angel, as we lov'd the Man.

1

O D

E,

INSCRIBED TO

JOHN HOWARD, Esq. F, R, S,

AUTHOR OF

"The State of English and Foreign Prisons."

Πολεσιν ευσεβης πονος.

EURIPIDES.