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| TO cultivate in ev’ry noble mind | |
| Habitual grace, and sentiments refin’d, | |
| Thus while you strive to mend the human heart, | |
| Thus while the heav’nly precepts you impart, | |
| O may each bosom catch the sacred fire, | 5 |
| And youthful minds to Virtue’s throne aspire! | |
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| When God’s eternal ways you set in sight, | |
| And Virtue shines in all her native light, | |
| In vain would Vice her works in night conceal, | |
| For Wisdom’s eye pervades the sable veil. | 10 |
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| Artists may paint the sun’s effulgent rays, | |
| But Amory’s pen the brighter God displays: | |
| While his great works in Amory’s pages shine, | |
| And while he proves his essence all divine, | |
| The Atheist sure no more can boast aloud | 15 |
| Of chance, or nature, and exclude the God; | |
| As if the clay without the potter’s aid | |
| Should rise in various forms, and shapes self-made, | |
| Or worlds above with orb o’er orb profound | |
| Self-mov’d could run the everlasting round. | 20 |
| It cannot be—unerring Wisdom guides | |
| With eye propitious, and o’er all presides. | |
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| Still prosper, Amory! still may’st thou receive | |
| The warmest blessings which a muse can give, | |
| And when this transitory state is o’er, | 25 |
| When kingdoms fall, and fleeting Fame’s no more, | |
| May Amory triumph in immortal fame, | |
| A nobler title, and superior name! | |
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