“Tender softness! infant mild! Perfect, sweetest, loveliest child! Transient lustre! beauteous clay! Smiling wonder of a day! Ere the last convulsive start, Rend thy unresisting heart; Ere the long-enduring swoon Weigh thy precious eye-lids down; Ah, regard a mother’s moan; Anguish deeper than thy own! “Fairest eyes, whose dawning light, Late with rapture bless’d my sight; Ere your orbs extinguish’d be, Bend their trembling beams on me! Drooping sweetness! verdant flower! Blooming, with’ring in an hour! Ere thy gentle breast sustains Latest, fiercest, mortal pains, Hear a suppliant! let me be Partner in thy destiny! That whene’er the fatal cloud Must thy radiant temples shroud; When deadly damps (impending now) Shall hover round thy destined brow Diffusing may their influence be, And with the _blossom_ blast the _tree_!”[109] ----- Footnote 109: _Arminian Magazine_, 1778, p. 718. ----- These almost inimitable lines were sent to the Rev. John Wesley by Mehetabel’s wretched husband, and were accompanied by the following letter, which is given here, as a contrast to his wife’s poem, and to show how the two were utterly unsuited for each other:— “DEAR BRO,—This comes to Let you know that my wife is brought to bed and is in a hopefull way of Doing well but the Dear child Died—the Third day after it was born—which has been of great concerne to me and my wife She Joynes With me in Love to your Selfe and Bro. Charles “From your loveing Bro. to Comnd “WM. WRIGHT. “_P.S._—Ive sen you sum verses that my wife maid of Dear Lamb Let me hear from one or both of you as soon as you think Conveniant.” Dr Adam Clarke observes, that Wright’s letter is, like the ancient Hebrew, _without points_. We cannot resist the temptation to give another poetic extract, as illustrative of Mehetabel Wesley’s fine genius. It is selected from a poem, entitled, “A Farewell to the World,” and refers to past days of happiness spent in the company of her sister Mary. After speaking of their visits to the poor and sick, she writes:—