VI.

ON MRS. CORBET,

WHO DIED OF A CANCER IN HER BREAST.

HERE refts a Woman, good without pretence,

Bleft with plain Reason, and with sober Sense; No Conquest she, but o'er herself, desir'd, No Arts effay'd, but not to be admir'd. Paffion and Pride were to her foul unknown, Convinc'd that Virtue only is our own. So unaffected, fo compos'd a mind; So firm, yet foft; so strong, yet fo refin'd; Heav'n, as its pureft gold, by Tortures try'd! The Saint fuftain'd it, but the Woman dy'd.

NOTES.

VER. 10. The Woman dy'd.] A very pleafing picture of filent domeftic virtue !

VII.

On the Monument of the Honourable ROBERT DIGBY, and of his Sifter MARY, erected by their Father the Lord DIGBY, in the Church of Sherborne in DorfetShire, 1727.

o! fair example of untainted youth,

Go!

Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:

Compos'd in fuff'rings, and in joy fedate,
Good without noife, without pretenfion great.
Juft of thy word, in ev'ry thought fincere,
Who knew no Wish but what the world might hear:
Of foftest manners, unaffected mind,

Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:
Go live! for Heav'n's Eternal year is thine,
Go, and exalt thy Moral to Divine.

And thou, bleft Maid! attendant on his doom,
Penfive haft follow'd to the filent tomb,
Steer'd the fame course to the fame quiet fhore,
Not parted long, and now to part no more!
Go then, where only blifs fincere is known!
Go, where to love and to enjoy are one!

Yet take thefe Tears, Mortality's relief,
And till we share your joys, forgive our grief:
These little rites, a Stone, a Verse receive;
'Tis all a Father, all a Friend can give!

MY father, who was an intimate friend and contemporary at Magdalen College, Oxford, with Mr. Robert Digby, was always faying that this excellent character was not over-drawn, and had every virtue in it here enumerated; and that Mr. Digby had more of the mitis fapientiæ, as Horace finely expreffes it, than any man he had ever known. The fame faid the amiable Mr. Holdsworth, author of Mufcipula. They were all three pupils of Dr. Sacheverell, who at that time was the friend of Addison, and was in great vogue as an able tutor, before he entered fo violently into thofe abfurd politics that fo much difgraced him.

VIII.

ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER,

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1723.

NELLER, by Heav'n and not a Master taught,
Whofe Art was Nature, and whofe Pictures

Thought;

Now for two Ages having fnatch'd from fate
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,
Lies crown'd with Princes honours, Poets lays,
Due to his Merit, and brave Thirst of praise.

Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and, dying, fears herself may die.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 7. Imitated from the famous Epitaph on Raphael.

"Raphael, timuit, quo fofpite, vinci

Rerum magna parens, et moriente, mori."

NOTES.

P.

5

VER Living, great Nature] Much better tranflated by Mr. Hanlon, of New College, a favourite of Swift, communicated mey Dr. Lowth:

Here Raphael lies, by whofe untimely end
Nature both loft a rival and a friend."

Notwithanding the partiality of Pope, this artift little deferved to be confulted by our poet, as he was, concerning the arrangements of the fubjects represented on the shield of Achilles. These required genius of a higher order. Mr. Flaxman, lately arrived from Italy,

diligent ftudy of the antique, and the force of his genius, has en defigns from Homer far beyond any that have yet appeared.

1

IX.

ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS.

HE

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1729.

ERE, WITHERS, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind
Thy Country's friend, but more of human kind.
Oh born to Arms! O Worth in Youth approv'd!
O foft Humanity, in Age belov'd!

For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear,

And the gay Courtier feels the figh fincere.

WITHERS, adieu! yet not with thee remove
Thy Martial fpirit! or thy focial love!
Amidft Corruption, Luxury, and Rage,
Still leave fome ancient Virtues to our age:
Nor let us fay (thofe English glories gone)
The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.