Charity, decent, modeft, eafy, kind,

Softens the high, and rears the abject mind;
Knows with juft reins, and gentle hand to guide,
Betwixt vile fhame, and arbitrary pride,
Not foon provok'd, fhe eafily forgives;
And much she fuffers, as fhe much believes.
Soft
peace fhe brings, where-ever fhe arrives:
She builds our quiet, as fhe forms our lives;
Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even ;
And opens in each heart a little Heaven.

Each other gift, which God on man bestows,
It's proper bound, and due reftriction knows;
To one fixt purpose dedicates it's power;
And, finishing it's act, exists no more.
Thus, in obedience to what Heaven decrees,

Knowledge shall fail, and Prophecy fhall ceafe ;
But lafting Charity's more ample fway,
Nor bound by time, nor fubject to decay,

In happy triumph fhall for ever live,

And endless good diffufe, and endless praife receive. As through the artist's intervening glass,

Our eye obferves the diftant planets pafs;

A little we difcover; but allow,

That more remains unfeen, than art can fhow: So whilst our mind its knowledge would improve (Its feeble eye intent on things above)

High as we may, we lift our reason up,

By Faith directed, and confirm'd by Hope:

VOL. I.

A a

Yet

Yet are we able only to furvey

Dawnings of beams, and promises of day.
Heaven's fuller effluence mocks our dazl'd fight;
Too great its swiftnefs, and too ftrong its light.
But foon the mediate clouds fhall be dispell'd:
The fun fhall foon be face to face beheld,
In all his robes with all his glory on,
Seated fublime on his meridian throne.

Then conftant Faith, and holy Hope fhall die,
One loft in certainty, and one in joy:
Whilft thou, more happy power, fair Charity,
Triumphant fifter, greatest of the three,
Thy office, and thy nature still the fame,
Lafting thy lamp, and unconfum'd thy flame,
Shalt ftill furvive-

Shalt ftand before the hoft of Heaven confeft,
For ever bleffing, and for ever blest.

EN

ENGRAVEN ON A COLUMN

IN THE

CHURCH OF HALSTEAD IN ESSEX.

THE

SPIRE OF WHICH, BURNT DOWN BY LIGHTNING, WAS REBUILT AT THE EXPENCE OF

M R.

SAMUEL

MDCCXVII.

*

FISKE,

VIEW not this fpire by measure given

To buildings rais'd by common hands: That fabric rifes high as Heaven,

Whofe BASIS on devotion ftands.

While yet we draw this vital breath,
We can our Faith and Hope declare:
But Charity beyond our death

Will ever in our works appear.

The fpire of this church was burnt by lightning in April 1701, when, to prevent the flames from spreading, the fupporters of the fteeple were fawn afunder, and the

whole

Beft be he call'd among good men,

Who to his God this column rais'd:
Though lightning ftrike the dome * again :
The man, who built it, shall be prais'd.

whole fell into the church-yard. To record the liberality of Mr. Fiske, the following infcription, probably written by Mr. Prior, is fixed on the south fide of the chancel, on a large fheet of copper framed with wood.

JOHN

MORLEY

To the memory of his
good friend and neighbour
dedicates this plate,

Obiit Apr. 21, 1718, æt. 64.
Samuel Fiske,

By defcent a gentleman,
By profeffion an apothecary.
In his practice

honeft, knowing, fuccessful.

In his life

pious, juft, and charitable.
The riches he acquired he used
as the means of doing good.

A friend to the public, a father to the poor,
A great benefactor to this town of Halstead,
More particularly

the fpire of this church, burnt down by
lightning, he rebuilt at his own expence.

Anno 1717.

*This hath fince actually happened. It hath a fecond time been destroyed by lightning, and rebuilt about 1765.

Yet

Yet fpires and towers in duft fhall lie,
The weak effort of human pains;

And Faith and Hope themselves fhall die;
While deathless charity remains.

WRITTEN IN

MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYS,

GIVE N то THE

DUKE OF SHREWSBURY IN FRANCE,

AFTER THE PEACE, MDCCXIII.

DICTATE, O mighty judge, what thou hast seen

Of cities, and of courts, of books, and men ;
And deign to let thy fervant hold the pen,

Through ages thus I may prefume to live;
And from the transcript of thy profe receive,
What my own fhort-lived verfe can never give.

Thus fhall fair Britain with a gracious fmile
Accept the work; and the instructed ifle,
For more than treaties made, shall bless my toil.