TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. ON HIS LATE RECOVERY FROM A DANGEROUS ILLNESS. Walter Harte Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T116245 1136 K093079.003 Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. III. [The second edition]. London printed for G. Pearch 1770 pp. 181-183. 4v. ; 8⁰.

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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD . ON HIS LATE RECOVERY FROM A DANGEROUS ILLNESS . BY THE REV. WALTER HARTE . Sed nihil dulcius est bene quam munita tenere , Edita doctrinâ sapientum templa serena , Despicere unde queas alios , possimque videre Errare atque viam palentes quaerere vita . LUCRET. l. ii . v. 6. AT length , in pity to a nation's prayer , Thou liv'st , O STANHOPE , Providence's care : " Life's sun , we read , when heaven a respite lends , " Ten degrees back against the shade descends See the story of Hezekiah , and the dial of Ahaz , Isaiah , ch. xxxviii ver. 8. . " By wisdom purify'd , by age inspir'd ; For twice nine years in Greenwich groves retir'd ; Rapt like Elijah in the aërial car , Thou wisely mark'st this busy world from far : Where Avarice and Ambition vainly run , This to undo , and that to be undone . — Considerate truths are now thy favourite themes ; Age may see visions , tho' our youth dream'd dreams : Hail truly wise , and good ! O happier thou Than if state diadems had grac'd thy brow ! Like sage AENEAS Virgil's Aeneid IV . , mantled in a cloud , Unseen you see the falshood of the crowd : Brother his brother cheats , and friend his friend : — Life's vain wise men prove blockheads in the end . — Thou seest , like ADAM Paradise Lost , l. xi . v. 270. by the archangel led , The many peopled earth beneath thee spread ; ( Thy eyes much purg'd with euphrasy and rue Ibid. p. 412. , For even a CHESTERFIELD has much to view ) Thou seest like him the plagues of human strife , The snares of greatness , emptiness of life , Abner's sincerity , and Joab's heart , Achitophel's deep schemes , and Zimrl's part ; Shimei's ill-nature , and ( to mark the times ) The flattery of Og's and Doeg's rhymes . O still contemplate , look thro' Reason's eye , — For hours are precious ages when we die ! Thus , even in Pagan times , the chosen few , Pomponius , Scipio , Atticus , withdrew : Thus Dioclesian , with true greatness fir'd , From lordly Rome to Spalatro retir'd ; Exchang'd the imperial fasces for a spade , And left court sunshine for the sylvan shade ; Lord of himself , monarch of fields and plains , By Nature call'd to rule , and crown'd by swains .