On A Similar Occasion. For The Year 1789.
By William Cowper
- Placidque ibi demum morte quievit.Virg.
There calm at length he breathed his soul away.
O most delightful hour by man
Experienced here below,
The hour that terminates his span,
His folly and his woe!
Worlds should not bribe me back to tread
Again lifes dreary waste,
To see again my day oerspread
With all the gloomy past.
My home henceforth is in the skies,
Earth, seas, and sun, adieu!
All heaven unfolded to my eyes,
I have no sight for you.
So spake Aspasio, firm possessd
Of faiths supporting rod,
Then breathed his soul into its rest,
The bosom of his God.
He was a man among the few
Sincere on virtues side;
And all his strength from Scripture drew,
To hourly use applied.
That rule he prized, by that he feard,
He hated, hoped, and loved;
Nor ever frownd, or sad appeard,
But when his heart had roved.
For he was frail as thou or I,
And evil felt within;
But when he felt it, heaved a sigh,
And loathed the thought of sin.
Such lived Aspasio; and at last
Calld up from earth to heaven,
The gulf of death triumphant passd,
By gales of blessing driven.
His joys be mine, each reader cries,
When my last hour arrives:
They shall be yours, my verse replies,
Such only be your lives.