For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e’er resign’d, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing ling’ring look behind? On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires; Ev’n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, Ev’n in our Ashes live their wonted Fires. For thee, who mindful of th’ unhonor’d Dead Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; If chance, by lonely contemplation led, Some kindred Spirit shall inquire thy fate, Haply some hoary-headed Swain may say, ‘Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn ‘Brushing with hasty steps the dews away ‘To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. ‘There at the foot of yonder nodding beech ‘That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, ‘His listless length at noontide would he stretch, ‘And pore upon the brook that babbles by. ‘Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, ‘Mutt’ring his wayward fancies he would rove, ‘Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, ‘Or craz’d with care, or cross’d in hopeless love. ‘One morn I miss’d him on the custom’d hill, ‘Along the heath and near his fav’rite tree; ‘Another came; nor yet beside the rill, ‘Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he; ‘The next with dirges due in sad array ‘Slow thro’ the church-way path we saw him borne. ‘Approach and read (for thou can’st read) the lay, ‘Grav’d on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.’ _THE EPITAPH._ _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._ _Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,_ _Heav’n did a recompense as largely send:_ _He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear,_ _He gain’d from Heav’n (t’was all he wish’d) a friend._ _No farther 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._ BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST. BELSHAZZAR the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his princes and his wives might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem; and the king, his princes and his wives, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.