TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE COUNTESS OF ABINGDON. ARGUMENT. From the Marginal Notes of the First Edition. _The introduction. Of her charity. Of her prudent management. Of her humility. Of her piety. Of her various virtues. Of her conjugal virtues. Of her love to her children. Her care of their education. Of her friendship. Reflections on the shortness of her life. The manner of her death. Her preparedness to die. Apostrophe to her soul. Epiphonema, or close of the poem._ As when some great and gracious monarch dies, Soft whispers first, and mournful murmurs, rise Among the sad attendants; then the sound Soon gathers voice, and spreads the news around, Through town and country, till the dreadful blast Is blown to distant colonies at last, Who then, perhaps, were offering vows in vain, For his long life, and for his happy reign: So slowly, by degrees, unwilling fame } Did matchless Eleonora's fate proclaim, } Till public as the loss the news became. } The nation felt it in the extremest parts, With eyes o'erflowing, and with bleeding hearts; But most the poor, whom daily she supplied, Beginning to be such, but when she died. For, while she lived, they slept in peace by night, Secure of bread, as of returning light, And with such firm dependence on the day, That need grew pampered, and forgot to pray; So sure the dole, so ready at their call, They stood prepared to see the manna fall. Such multitudes she fed, she clothed, she nurst, That she herself might fear her wanting first. Of her five talents, other five she made; Heaven, that had largely given, was largely paid; And in few lives, in wonderous few, we find A fortune better fitted to the mind. Nor did her alms from ostentation fall, Or proud desire of praise--the soul gave all: Unbribed it gave; or, if a bribe appear, No less than heaven, to heap huge treasures there. Want passed for merit at her open door: Heaven saw, he safely might increase his poor, And trust their sustenance with her so well, As not to be at charge of miracle. None could be needy, whom she saw or knew; All in the compass of her sphere she drew: He, who could touch her garment, was as sure, As the first Christians of the apostles' cure. The distant heard, by fame, her pious deeds, And laid her up for their extremest needs; A future cordial for a fainting mind; For, what was ne'er refused, all hoped to find, Each in his turn: the rich might freely come, As to a friend; but to the poor, 'twas home. As to some holy house the afflicted came, } The hunger-starved, the naked, and the lame, } Want and diseases fled before her name. } For zeal like her's her servants were too slow; } She was the first, where need required, to go; } Herself the foundress and attendant too. } Sure she had guests sometimes to entertain,