72 ELEGY 



Twas then that calumny, with poison'd breath, 



To malice lent her pestilential aid, 

 And falsely said that in his lingering death 

 That friendship, inhumanity betray'd. 



Ah ! who can feel his grievous loss more dear, 



Or at his melancholy fate repine ? 

 Friends of his youth might drop a genuine tear, 



But all their sorrows cannot equal mine. 



For may I not superior sorrow claim. 



Who knew his worth, and saw the pains he bore ? 



Parental woe might know a pang the same. 

 But e'en their misery cannot feel it more. 



Intrusive thought ! why wilt thou piercing steal 

 To paint the hapless day that snatch'd him hence ? 



Eeflections here a train of woes reveal, 

 And grief's increas'd by funeral eloquence. 



Not all the ills that sympathy had taught 



That solemn scene, when to the hallow'd shrine 



I follow'd him : not then such grief had brought 

 As that inflicted by the good Divine. 



Each village rustic felt its solemn force. 



For each had known the virtues of his mind ; 



Affliction's tear fell from its native source. 



And all the neighbouring train in sorrow join'd. 



Pensive where rest his ashes will I stray, 

 When evening spreads its melancholy gloom 



And through the village churchyard bend my way. 

 To heave the sigh of sorrow o'er his tomb. 



Not long after this visitation of Providence it was 

 thought necessary that I should follow some profession : 

 and my father, observing my studious disposition, articled 

 me to an attorney. The person selected for my governor, 

 or instructor, in this, what ought to be, honourable pro- 

 fession, was a plain, plodding country lawyer, of good 

 family and connections, in excellent repute as a con- 



