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Poems by the Late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock

Together with an Essay on the Education of the Blind. To Which is Prefixed A New Account of the Life and Writings of the Author

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From Dr. DOWNMAN to Dr. BLACKLOCK.


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From Dr. DOWNMAN to Dr. BLACKLOCK.

Edina's walls can Fancy see,
And not, my Blacklock, think on thee?
'Ere I that gentle name forget,
This flesh must pay great nature's debt.
Hail! worthiest of the sons of men,
Not that the Muses held thy pen,
And plac'd before thy mental sight
Each hue of intellectual light:
But that a gen'rous soul is thine,
Richer by far than Plutus' mine;
With utmost niceness fram'd to feel
Another's woe, another's weal;
Where friendship heap'd up all her store,
That glorious treasure of the poor,
To grovelling vanity unknown,
Not to be purchas'd by a throne;
Where Patience, Resignation's child,
Misfortune of her power beguil'd;
Where Love her purple cestus bound
Where a retirement Virtue found,
Contentment a perpetual treat,
And Honour a delightful seat;
Religion could with Pleasure feast,
And met no Bigot, tho' a Priest.