Yes! I must leave thee, brother of my heart, The world demands us, and at length we part; Thou whom that heart, since first it felt, approved— I thought not why, nor question’d how I loved; In my first thoughts, first notions, and first cares, Associate; partner in my mind’s affairs, In my young dreams, my fancies ill-express’d But well conceived, and to the heart address’d— A fellow-reader in the books I read; A fellow-mourner in the tears I shed; 10 A friend, partaking every grief and joy; A lively, frank, engaging, generous boy. At school each other’s prompters, day by day Companions in the frolic or the fray; Prompt in disputes—we never sought the cause; The laws of friendship were our only laws: We ask’d not how or why the strife began, But David’s foe was foe to Jonathan. In after-years my Friend, the elder boy, Would speak of Love, its tumult and its joy; 20 A new and strong emotion, thus imprest, Prepared for pain to come the yielding breast; For, though no object then the fancy found, She dreamt of darts, and gloried at the wound; Smooth verse and tender tales the spirit moved, And ere the Chloes came the Strephons loved. This is the Friend I leave; for he remains Bound to his home by strong but viewless chains: Nor need I fear that his aspiring soul Will fail his adverse fortunes to controul, 30 Or lose the fame he merits; yet awhile The clouds may lour—but then his sun will smile. O Time, thou teller of men’s fortunes, lend Thy aid, and be propitious to my Friend! Let me behold him prosperous, and his name Enroll’d among the darling sons of Fame; In love befriend him, and be his the bride, Proud of her choice, and of her lord the pride! “So shall my little bark attendant sail”— (As Pope has sung)—and prosperous be the gale! 40 II.