George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe (1691–1762)

Not long before His Lordship’s Death

KIND companion of my youth,

Lov’d for genius, worth and truth!

Take what friendship can impart,

Tribute of a feeling heart;

Take the Muse’s latest spark,

Ere we drop into the dark.

He, who parts and virtue gave,

Bade thee look beyond the grave;

Genius soars, and virtue guides,

Where the love of God presides.

There’s a gulf ’twixt us and God;

Let the gloomy path be trod.

Why stand shivering on the shore?

Why not boldly venture o’er?

Where unerring virtue guides

Let us brave the winds and tides;

Safe, thro’ seas of doubts and fears,

Rides the bark which virtue steers.

Love thy country, wish it well,

Not with too intense a care,

’Tis enough that, when it fell,

Thou its ruin didst not share.

Envy’s censure, Flattery’s praise,

With unmov’d indifference view;

Learn to tread Life’s dangerous maze

With unerring Virtue’s clue.

Void of strong desire and fear,

Life’s wide ocean trust no more;

Strive thy little bark to steer

With the tide, but near the shore.

Thus prepared, thy shorten’d sail

Shall, whene’er the winds increase,

Seizing each propitious gale,

Waft thee to the Port of Peace.

Keep thy conscience from offence

And tempestuous passions free,

So, when thou art call’d from hence,

Easy shall thy passage be;

Easy shall thy passage be,

Cheerful thy allotted stay,

Short the account ’twixt God and thee,

Hope shall meet thee on the way.