In truth I'm sad, although I seem to laugh, To think that John should need an epitaph. The greatest blows bring not the truest tear, These minor losses touch the heart more near; As fewer drops gush over from the eyes When heroes fall than when your valet dies; They, of another, an immortal race, Ne'er seemed on earth well suited with their place, And though they yield their transitory breath, We know their being but begins with death: So winter ushers in the new-born year, So the flowers perish ere the fruits appear. When common men, when men like MURRAY, thus Are snatched away, 't is taking one of us; And more in his we feel our own decay Than if a WELLINGTON were snatched away. 'T is not lost genius we lament the most, No; but the man, the old companion lost: Who'd not give more to bring back GILBERT GURNEY, Or SMITH or MATTHEWS from their nether journey, Than all your MILTONS or your BACONS dead, Or all the BONAPARTES that ever bled? So, were the blue rotundity of heaven By some muck-running, outlawed comet riven, Should any orb, say yonder blazing Mars, Be blotted from the muster-roll of stars, HERSCHEL might groan, or SOMERVILLE might sigh, But what would London care?--or you, or I? Far more we vulgar mortals might lament, Should some starved earthquake gulp a slice of Kent. Now let no pigmy poet, in his pride, The humble mem'ry of our friend deride: More than he dreams, his little species owe Those good allies, the Patrons of the Row: They, only they, of all the friends who praise, All who forgive, and all who love your lays, Of all that flatter, all that wish you well, Sincerely care to have your volume sell. How oft, when Quarterlies are most severe, And every critic aims a ready sneer, And young Ambition just begins to cool, And Genius half suspects himself a fool, The placid publisher, the more they rail, Forebodes the triumph of a speedy sale, And gently lays the soul sustaining balm Of twenty sovereigns in your trembling palm; While more than speech his manner seems to say, As bland he whispers, 'Dine with me to-day.'