Let nothing shame you so
As falsehood's guileful show;
Still in the right be strong:

Let honest German truth

Be planted in your youth,

With words of German tongue.

Use not your lips to prate

In amorous debate;

But still in language clear Your duteous thoughts express,

Your simple trustfulness

And earnest love sincere.

Lisp not in courtly phrase,
To soothe with empty praise

The proud, the vain man's ear;

But speak in lofty strain,

Like freemen who maintain

The rights they hold most dear.

And when our speech improved
And all its faults removed

Shall crown your great design,

Ye ne'er shall speak, but they
Who hear your words shall say,
Ye breathe a voice divine.

Virtute fretis sit pudori maximo

Struxisse mendacem dolum;

Et cum Britannis hæreat vocabulis

Britanna cordi veritas.

Ne garrientes cum puellarum choro
Inepta nugari juvet,

Sed fari honesto quæ quis animo sentiat
Simpliciter ac fideliter.

Ne vana balbutite quæ potentium

Subblandiantur auribus :

Clametis altâ voce digna liberis

Qui sancta jura vindicant.

Sic vestra linguam norma cum correxerit,

Mendis remotis omnibus,

Quisquis loquentes audiet fatebitur

Vos ore divino loqui.

TO CECILIA.

[The Lady to whom these lines are addressed is now living, together with her father, and deservedly held in high esteem by all her friends.]

To help the sightless Homer of our land,
A daughter's faithful service was at hand,
Recalling to his ear full many a page

Of ancient wisdom and a classic age;
Blest maiden, who could recompense the care
Of such a father, and his loss repair!

Nor less, Cecilia, do we view in thee

An image true of filial piety;

Whose parent through a dreary length of years
Afflicted sore a double burden bears.

An ear is his with cold obstruction bound,
Dead to the world of harmony and sound;
Eyes lustreless, that never greet the day
Or feel the bright effulgence of her ray :

AD CECILIAM.

Capto lumine maximo poetæ

Dulcem filia præstitit laborem,

Doctam cum senis admoneret aurem

Thesauris sapientiæ legendis.

Felix illa, ter ampliusque felix,

Pro multâ bonitate cui liceret

Tali reddere gratiam parenti.
Nec, Cecilia, tu minora patri
Præstas officia, O fidele nobis
Exemplar pietatis invidendæ.
Multos jam senior laborat annos
Ærumnâ duplici gravique damno :
Ejus nam neque dia lux ocello
Ostendit radium, neque ejus auri
Ullam reddit imaginem loquela :

But for a daughter's love, the same sad gloom
That wraps the senses would the mind entomb.
Thou, fond one, at his side art ever near,
His wants to aid, his solitude to cheer:
A skill is thine, a patience nought can tire,
By finger-speech to commune with thy sire;
By touches light and nimble to convey
Whatever pen could write or tongue could say.
From silent darkness thou hast set him free;
Thou mak'st the deaf to hear, the blind to see.
Thus, ere the Christian breathes his latest sigh,
An Angel to the lonely couch draws nigh,
There, whispering peace and comfort to the breast,
His trouble and his sorrow lulls to rest,
And, earthly mist dispelling from the sight,
The prospect opens of eternal light.