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Miscellanies in Prose and Verse

By Anna Williams
Williams, Anna (1706-1783)

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ESSAYS IN VERSE AND PROSE.
  
The ANT.
  
A SONNET. TO A LADY OF INDISCREET VIRTUE.
  
To CLARA.
  
THE ROSE.
  
THE VALLEY OF THE MOON.
  
To MISS ---
  
The CAUTION.
  
To MYRTILIS.
  
[HERE Pollio lies, whose contemplations fir'd]
  
The HAPPY LIFE.
  
On a YOUNG LADY Confined to her Chamber by Sickness.
  
AN EPITAPH ON CLAUDY PHILLIPS, A MUSICIAN.
  
The WISH.
  
TO CLEORA ON HER ABSENCE.
  
The TRUE HERO.
  
VERSES addressed to Mr. RICHARDSON, ON HIS HISTORY of Sir CHARLES GRANDISON.
  
To Miss S. GREY. ON HER SINGING.
  
EPITAPH ON MR. WORRAL OF WORCESTERSHIRE.
  
To MARCUS.
  
Occasioned by the Marriage of MISS --- and Mr. ---.
  
AN ITALIAN SONG, SUNG BY MRS. MINGOTTI, At the Beginning of the late War, TRANSLATED.
  
On the DEATH of STEPHEN GREY, F. R. S.
  
On the DEATH of Sir ERASMUS PHILIPPS,
  
The EXCURSION.
  
An ODE.
  
An ODE, ON THE DEATH of the Patriot MARCUS.
  
THE PETITION.
  
REFLECTIONS
  
The HAPPY SOLITUDE, OR THE WISHED RETIREMENT.
  
BOILEAU to his GARDENER.
  
An ODE ON FRIENDSHIP.
  
To LAURA:
  
A TRANSLATION OF THE LATIN EPITAPH On Sir THOMAS HANMER.
  
RASSELAS to IMLAC.
  
An ODE.
  
To Miss ***.
  
The NUNNERY.
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THE UNINHABITED ISLAND. FROM THE ITALIAN OF METASTASIO.
  
[argument]
 I. 
SCENE I.
 II. 
SCENE II.
 III. 
SCENE III.
 IV. 
SCENE IV.
 V. 
SCENE V.
 VI. 
SCENE VI.
 VII. 
SCENE VII.
 VIII. 
SCENE VIII.
 IX. 
SCENE IX.
 X. 
SCENE X.
 XI. 
SCENE XI.
 XII. 
SCENE XII.
 XIII. 
SCENE XIII.
  
SCENE THE LAST.

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42

On the DEATH of STEPHEN GREY, F. R. S.

The Author of The Present Doctrine of ELECTRICITY .

Long hast thou born the burthen of the day,
Thy task is ended, venerable Grey!
No more shall Art thy dext'rous hand require
To break the sleep of elemental fire;
To rouse the pow'rs that actuate Nature's frame,
The momentaneous shock, th'electrick flame,
The flame which first, weak pupil of thy lore,
I saw, condemn'd, alas! to see no more.
Now, hoary Sage, pursue thy happy flight,
With swifter motion haste to purer light,
43

Where Bacon waits with Newton and with Boyle
To hail thy genius, and applaud thy toil;
Where intuition breaks through time and space,
And mocks experiment's successive race;
Sees tardy Science toil at Nature's laws,
And wonders how th'effect obscures the cause.
Yet not to deep research or happy guess
Is ow'd the life of hope, the death of peace.
Unblest the man whom philosophick rage
Shall tempt to lose the Christian in the Sage;
Not Art but Goodness pour'd the sacred ray
That cheer'd the parting hour of humble Grey.
 

The Publisher of this Miscellany, as she was assisting Mr. Grey in his experiments, was the first that observed and notified the emission of the electrical spark from a human body.

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