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AN EPITAPH ON THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE.
  
  
  
  
  
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383

AN EPITAPH ON THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE.

HERE lies of Burke the cold, inactive clay;
His soul exulting in perpetual day:
With universal genius born to shine;
All themes, at once to strengthen, and refine;
Science, in aid of fancy, to engage;
And pour it, softened, on his ardent page.
Survey the beauties of his classick mind;
The critick leaves Longinus far behind.
Hear the great legislator plead the cause
Of instituted; of eternal laws;
Oppression, and rapacity submit
To matchless reason; eloquence, and wit.
See, while his thunders iron hearts assail,
The tyrants of each hemisphere turn pale!
Of private virtue by the warmth, and light;
This luminary, more serenely bright,
Beamed with descending, yet effulgent ray;
And varied thus, and beautified his day.

384

Hail! shade beatified! thou friend of man!
Friend of God's mortal, and immortal plan!
Thy moral fame, too strong to be withstood,
Must make our youth ambitious to be good;
Thy noble works which guard us while we live,
Of heavenly bliss a demonstration give;
For surely minds like thine can never die;
They mount, by nature, and assert the sky;
Their glory fires us to our latest breath;
Protects, through life; and animates, in death!
Durham, July 14th, 1797.