30 Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth,
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown:
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
31 Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to misery all he had--a tear;
He gain'd from Heaven--'twas all he wish'd--a friend.
32 No further seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
The bosom of his Father and his God.
[Footnote 1: This part of the elegy differs from the first copy. The
following stanza was excluded with the other alterations:--
Hark! how the sacred calm, that breathes around,
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease,
In still small accents whispering from the ground
A grateful earnest of eternal peace. ]
[Footnote 2: In early editions, the following stanza occurred:--
There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year,
By hands unseen, are showers of violets found;
The redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground. ]
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