Her sovereign's tutelary care,

One breath of Heaven, that cried-"Restore!" 40
Chased, never to assemble more:

And far the richest crown on earth,
If valued by its wearer's worth,
The symbol of a righteous reign,
Sat fast on George's brows again.

Then peace and joy again possessed
Our Queen's long-agitated breast;
Such joy and peace as can be known
By sufferers like herself alone,
Who losing, or supposing lost,

The good on earth they valued most,
For that dear sorrow's sake forego
All+ hope of happiness below,
Then suddenly regain the prize,
And flash thanksgivings to the skies!

O Queen of Albion, queen of isles!
Since all thy tears were changed to smiles,
The eyes, that never saw thee, shine
With joy not unallied to thine,
Transports not chargeable with art
Illume the land's remotest part,
And strangers to the air of courts,
Both in their toils and at their sports,
The happiness of answered prayers,
That gilds thy features, show in theirs.
If they who on thy state attend,
Awe-struck, before thy presence bend,

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59

50

55

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60

65

* "For;" Eds. 1808, 1810, 1812, 1817, Grimshawe, Dale, Bell. "Far;" Eds. 1821, 1825, Southey.

+"Ill;" Ed. 1808, corrected in 1810 and subsequent editions.

"Tis but the natural effect

Of grandeur that ensures respect;

But she is something more than Queen,
Who is beloved where never seen.

70

HYMN,

FOR THE USE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AT OLNEY.*

EAR, Lord, the song of praise and prayer

In Heaven thy dwelling place,
From infants made the public care,
And taught to seek thy face.

Thanks for thy Word, and for thy Day,
And grant us, we implore,
Never to waste in sinful play

Thy holy Sabbaths more.

5

* On the 12th of August, 1789, Cowper wrote to his friend Hill, "My friend, the vicar of the next parish [Mr. Bean], engaged me the day before yesterday to furnish him by next Sunday with a hymn to be sung on the occasion of his preaching to the children of the Sunday School." The hymn thus called forth was printed in Poems, Ed. 1808, vol. ii., p. 294 and again in vol. iii. (1815), p. 98. In the edition of 1817 the same repetition occurs in vol. ii., p. 339, and vol. iii., p 111. Grimshawe printed half the little poem "for the benefit of his younger readers," in vol. iv., p. 122, and the same half again in vol. viii., p. 40, and the whole Hymn in vol. vii., p. 270. Dr. J. Johnson added a note to his copy in Ed. 1815, 8vo., p. 138, in which he assigned a little different date to that given in Cowper's letter quoted above, but of course Cowper himself was right.

Thanks that we hear,-but oh! impart

To each desires sincere,

That we may listen with our heart,
And learn as well as hear.

For if vain thoughts the minds engage
Of older far than we,

What hope, that, at our heedless age,
Our minds should e'er be free?

Much hope, if thou our spirits take,
Under thy gracious sway,
Who canst the wisest wiser make,
And babes as wise as they.

Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows,

A sun that ne'er declines,

And be thy mercies showered on those
Who placed us where it shines.

15

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. HORACE [Ode iv., Lib. 1.]
Pale Death with equal foot strikes wide the door
Of royal halls and hovels of the poor.

HILE thirteen moons saw smoothly run
The Nen's barge-laden wave,

W

All these, life's rambling journey done,
Have found their home, the grave.

Was man (frail always) made more frail
Than in foregoing years?

Did Famine or did Plague prevail,
That so much death appears?

No; these were vigorous as their sires,
Nor Plague nor Famine came;
This annual tribute Death requires,

And never waves his claim.

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10

* Composed for John Cox, a parish clerk of Northampton, under circumstances which Cowper stated in a letter to Lady Hesketh of the 27th of November, 1787. Mr. Bull printed the lines at the end of his little volume of poems translated from Madame Guion by Cowper, published at Newport Pagnel, in 1801. They will be found included in the edition of Cowper's Poems, 1803, vol. ii., p. 335, and in all subsequent editions.

Like crowded forest-trees we stand,
And some are marked to fall;
The axe will smite at God's command,
And soon shall smite us all.

Green as the bay tree, ever green,
With its new foliage on,

The gay, the thoughtless, have I* seen,
I passed-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.

No present health can health insure

For yet an hour to come;

No medicine, though it oft can† cure,

Can always balk the tomb.

And oh that humble as my lot,

And scorned as is my strain,

These truths, though known, too much forgot,

I may not teach in vain.

So prays your Clerk with all his heart,

And, ere he quits the pen,

Begs you for once to take his part,

And answer all-" Amen!"

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35

* "I have," Eds. 1801, 1806(2); "have I," Ed. 1808 and subsequent editions.

"Often," the like; "oft can," in Ed. 1808.