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Original poems on several subjects

In two volumes. By William Stevenson

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283

XII. Epitaph on Sir ---

Calm sleeps the mortal part below
Of one who never had a foe;
A Christian form'd on Reason's plan,
A modest saint, an honest man.
Whose hands a sceptre might have sway'd,
Had Charity not been their trade;
Whom robes imperial might have grac'd,
Had Folly thought them not well plac'd;
His brow with gems had been adorn'd,
But Virtue still the baubles scorn'd.
To Heav'n be songs of praise begun,
For what it gracious has not done.
He dy'd, O reader, so may you,
For he had nothing else to do.