Thee, Thornton! worthy in fome page to shine,
As honeft and more eloquent than mine,

I mourn; or, fince thrice happy thou must be,
The world, no longer thy abode, not thee.
Thee to deplore were grief mispent indeed;
It were to weep that goodness has its meed,
That there is blifs prepared in yonder sky,
And glory for the virtuous when they die.
What pleasure can the miser's fondled hoard,
Or fpendthrift's prodigal excess afford,
Sweet as the privilege of healing woe

By virtue fuffer'd combating below?

That privilege was thine; Heaven gave thee means
To illumine with delight the faddeft scenes,
Till thy appearance chased the gloom, forlorn
As midnight, and despairing of a morn.
Thou hadst an industry in doing good,
Reftlefs as his who toils and fweats for food;
Avarice in thee was the defire of wealth
By ruft unperishable or by stealth;
And if the genuine worth of gold depend
On application to its nobleft end,

Thine had a value in the scales of Heaven
Surpaffing all that mine or mint had given.
And, though God made thee of a nature prone
To distribution boundless of thy own,

And still by motives of religious force
Impell'd thee more to that heroic course,
Yet was thy liberality discreet,

Nice in its choice, and of a temper'd heat;
And though in act unwearied, fecret still,
As in fome folitude the fummer rill

Refreshes, where it winds, the faded green,

And cheers the drooping flowers, unheard, unseen.
Such was thy charity; no fudden start,
After long fleep, of paffion in the heart,
But steadfast principle, and, in its kind,
Of close relation to the Eternal Mind,
Traced easily to its true fource above,

To Him whose works befpeak his nature, Love.
Thy bounties all were Chriftian, and I make
This record of thee for the Gofpel's fake;
That the incredulous themselves may fee
Its use and power exemplified in thee.

Nov. 1790.

THE FOUR AGES.

(A brief Fragment of an extensive projected Poem.)

COULD be well content, allow'd the

ufe

[glean'd

Of past experience, and the wisdom

From worn-out follies, now acknowledged fuch, To recommence life's trial, in the hope

Of fewer errors, on a second proof!

Thus, while gray evening lull'd the wind, and call'd

Fresh odours from the fhrubbery at my fide,
Taking my lonely winding walk, I mufed,
And held accuftom'd conference with my heart;

When from within it thus a voice replied:
"Couldst thou in truth? and art thou taught
at length

This wisdom, and but this, from all the past?
Is not the pardon of thy long arrear,

Time wafted, violated laws, abuse

Of talents, judgements, mercies, better far
Than opportunity vouchfafed to err
With less excufe, and haply worse effect?”
I heard, and acquiefced: then to and fro
Oft pacing, as the mariner his deck,
My gravelly bounds, from self to human kind
I paff'd, and next confider'd-what is man.
Knows he his origin? can he afcend
By reminiscence to his earliest date?
Slept he in Adam? And in those from him.
Through numerous generations, till he found
At length his destined moment to be born?
Or was he not, till fashion'd in the womb?
Deep mysteries both! which schoolmen must have

toil'd

To unriddle, and have left them mysteries still.
It is an evil incident to man,

And of the worst, that unexplored he leaves
Truths ufeful and attainable with ease,

To search forbidden deeps, where mystery lies
Not to be folved, and useless if it might.
Mysteries are food for angels; they digest
With eafe, and find them nutriment; but man,
While yet
he dwells below, muft ftoop to glean
His manna from the ground, or starve and die.

*

May, 1791.

THE RETIRED CAT.*

POET'S Cat, fedate and grave
As poet well could wish to have,
Was much addicted to inquire
For nooks to which the might retire,
And where, fecure as moufe in chink,
She might repofe, or fit and think.

I know not where she caught the trick-
Nature perhaps herself had cast her
In fuch a mould philofophique,

Or elfe fhe learn'd it of her master.
Sometimes afcending, debonnair,
An apple-tree, or lofty pear,

Lodged with convenience in the fork,
She watch'd the gardener at his work;

* Cowper's partiality to animals is well known. Lady Hefketh, in one of her letters, ftates, " that he had, at one time, five rabbits, three hares, two guineapigs, a magpie, a jay, and a starling; befides two goldfinches, two canary birds, and two dogs. It is amazing how the three hares can find room to gambol and frolic (as they certainly do) in his small parlour;" and adds, “I forgot to enumerate a squirrel, which he had at the fame time, and which used to play with one of the hares continually. One evening, the cat giving one of the hares a found box on the ear, the hare ran after her, and having caught her, punished her by drumming on her back with her two feet, as hard as drumsticks, till the creature would have actually been killed, had not Mrs. Unwin rescued her."

Sometimes her ease and folace fought
In an old empty watering-pot;
There, wanting nothing fave a fan,
To feem fome nymph in her fedan
Apparel'd in exactest fort,

And ready to be borne to court.

But love of change, it seems, has place Not only in our wiser race;

Cats alfo feel, as well as we,

That paffion's force, and fo did fhe.
Her climbing, fhe began to find,
Exposed her too much to the wind,
And the old utenfil of tin

Was cold and comfortless within:
She therefore wish'd instead of those
Some place of more ferene repose,
Where neither cold might come, nor air
Too rudely wanton with her hair,
And fought it in the likelieft mode
Within her mafter's fnug abode.

A drawer, it chanced, at bottom lined
With linen of the softest kind,
With fuch as merchants introduce
From India, for the ladies' use,
A drawer impending o'er the rest,
Half open in the topmost chest,
Of depth enough, and none to spare,
Invited her to flumber there;

Pufs with delight beyond expreffion Survey'd the scene, and took poffeffion. Recumbent at her eafe, ere long,

And lull'd by her own humdrum fong,