KIND 1 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, | 5 |
| 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. | 10 |
| 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 | 15 |
| 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, | 20 |
| ’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 | 25 |
| 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. | 30 |
| 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 | 35 |
| 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, | 40 |
| Short the account ’twixt God and thee, | |
| Hope shall meet thee on the way. | |
