VERSES SENT BY LORD MELCOMBE

TO DOCTOR YOUNG,

NOT LONG BEFORE HIS LORDSHIP'S DEATH *.

K

IND companion of my youth,

Lov'd for genius, worth, and truth!

Take what friendship can impart,

Tribute of a feeling heart;

Take the Mufe's latest spark,
Ere we drop into the dark.
He, who parts and virtue gave,
Bad Thee look beyond the grave:
Genius foars, and Virtue guides;
Above, the love of God prefides.
There's a gulph 'twixt us and God;
Let the gloomy path be trod :
Why stand shivering on the fhore ?
Why not boldly venture o'er ?
Where unerring Virtue guides,
Let us have the winds and tides:

Safe, through feas of doubts and fears,
Rides the bark which Virtue fteers.

*"A Poetical Epiftle from the late Lord Mel"combe to the Earl of Bute, with corrections by the "Author of the Night Thoughts," was published in 4to. 1776.

SEA

ul.

SE A-PIECE:

CONTAINING

I. THE BRITISH SAILOR'S EXULTATION.

II. HIS PRAYER BEFORE ENGAGEMENT.

THE DEDICATION.

то

M R.

VOLTAIRE.

I.

MY Mufe, a bird of paffage, flies
en climes to milder skies;

From chilling blasts the feeks thy chearing beam,
A beam of favour, here deny'd;
Conscious of faults, her blufhing pride
·Hopes an asylum in so great a name.

II.

*To dive full deep in antient days,
The warrior's ardent deeds to raife,
And monarchs aggrandize ;-the glory, Thine;
Thine is the drama, how renown'd!
Thine, Epic's loftier trump to found ;-

But let Arion's fea-ftrung harp be Mine :

III.

But where 's his dolphin? Know'ft thou, where?---
May that be found in Thee, Voltaire!

Save thou from harm my plunge into the wave:
How will thy name illustrious raise
My finking fong! Mere mortal lays,

So patroniz'd, are refcued from the grave.

L

IV. "Tell

Annals of the Emperor Charles XII. Lewis XIV.