To whom our thoughts, our spirits, open lie! Grant me thy strength, and in that needful hour, (Should it e'er come) when Law submits to Power, With firm resolve my steady bosom steel, Bravely to suffer, though I deeply feel. 380 Let me, as hitherto, still draw my breath, In love with life, but not in fear of death; And if Oppression brings me to the grave, And marks me dead, she ne'er shall mark a slave. Let no unworthy marks of grief be heard, No wild laments, not one unseemly word; Let sober triumphs wait upon my bier; I won't forgive that friend who drops one tear. Whether he's ravish'd in life's early morn, Or in old age drops like an ear of corn, 390 Full ripe he falls, on Nature's noblest plan, Who lives to Reason, and who dies a Man. * * * * * Footnotes: [182] 'The Conference:' this poem was published by our author in November 1763, soon after his elopement with Miss Carr. [183] 'Dares starve:' this will suggest Burns's noble line, 'We daur be poor, for a' that.' [184] 'Shore:' Churchill, sunk in deep debt, was delivered from the impending horrors of a jail, by Dr Peirson Lloyd, second master of Westminster school. [185] 'Ralph:' Mr James Ralph a hack author. See 'The Dunciad,' and Franklin's 'Autobiography.' He was hired by Pelham to abuse Sir R. Walpole, whom he had supported before. [186] 'Whitehead:' author of 'Manners, a Satire.' [187] 'Shelburne:' William Petty, Earl of Shelburne, afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne. [188] 'Calcraft:' John Calcraft, Esq., M.P., army agent and contractor. THE GHOST.[189] In Four Books. BOOK I.