O Queen of Albion, queen of Isles! Since all thy tears were chang'd to smiles, Illume the land's remotest part, And strangers to the air of courts, Of grandeur that ensures respect; But she is something more than Queen, Who is belov'd where never seen. 60 71 HYMN FOR THE USE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AT OLNEY. HEAR, Lord, the song of praise and pray'r In Heav'n, thy dwelling place, From infants made the public care, And taught to seek thy face. Thanks for thy word, and for thy day, Never to waste in sinful play Thanks that we hear!-But O impart To each desires sincere, That we may listen with our heart, And learn as well as hear. 10 For if vain thoughts the minds engage Of older far than we, What hope, that at our heedless age, Much hope, if thou our spirits take Who canst the wisest wiser make, And babes as wise as they.. Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows, And be thy mercies show'rd on those, Who plac'd us where it shines. 20 STANZAS SUBJOINED TO THE YEARLY BILL OF MORTALITY OF THE PARISH OF ALL-SAINTS, NORTHAMPTON,* Anno Domini, 1787. Pallida Mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, Regumque turres, Pale Death with equal foot strikes wide the door HORACE. WHILE thirteen moons saw smoothly run The Nen's barge-laden wave, All these, life's rambling journey done, Was man (frail always) made more frail Than in foregoing years? Did famine or did plague prevail, That so much death appears? * Composed for John Cox, parish clerk of Northampton. No; these were vig'rous as their sires, This annual tribute Death requires, And never waves his claim. Like crowded forest-trees we stand, And some are mark'd to fall; The axe will smite at God's command, And soon shall smite us all. 10 Green as the bay-tree, ever green, With it's new foliage on, The gay, the thoughtless, have I seen, I pass'd-and they were gone. Read, ye that run, the awful truth, With which I charge my page; A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age. 20 |