"Directress of the brave and just,

O guide us through life's darksome way!
And let the tortures of mistrust

On selfish bosoms only prey.

Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow,*
When souls to blissful climes remove:
What rais'd our virtue here below,

Shall aid our happiness above.

d This Stanza is omitted in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and instead of it we have the following, which may be suspected from internal evidence not to have been Johnson's:

When virtues, kindred virtues meet,
And sister-souls together join,
Thy pleasures permanent, as great,
Are all transporting-all divine.

O! shall thy flames then cease to glow.

ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE.

HAD this fair figure which this frame displays,
Adorn'd in Roman time the brightest days,
In every dome, in every sacred place,
Her statue would have breath'd an added grace,
And on its basis would have been enroll'd,

"This is Minerva, cast in virtue's mould."

IMPROVISO

ON À YOUNG HEIR'S COMING OF AGE.

LONG expected one-and-twenty,

Ling'ring year, at length is flown; Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty,

Great

are now your own.

Loosen'd from the minor's tether,

Free to mortgage or to sell; Wild as wind, and light as feather, Bid the sons of thrift farewell.

Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies,
All the names that banish care;
Lavish of your grandsire's guineas,
Shew the spirit of an heir.

All that prey on vice or folly
Joy to see their quarry fly:
There the gamester light and jolly,
There the lender grave and sly.

Wealth, my lad, was made to wander,
Let it wander as it will;

Call the jockey, call the pander,
Bid them come and take their fill.

When the bonny blade carouses,
Pockets full, and spirits high-
What are acres? what are houses?
Only dirt or wet or dry.

Should the guardian friend, or mother
Tell the woes of wilful waste;
Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother,
You can hang or drown at last.

EPITAPHS.

AT LITCHFIELD.

H. S. E.

MICHAEL JOHNSON.

Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiduciâ Christianâ fortis, fervidusque; Paterfamilias apprimè strenuus; Bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit: Lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias vel castas læsisset, aut dolor vel voluptas unquam expresserit. Natus Cubleiæ in agro Derbiensi, anno MDCLVI, obijt MDCCXXXI.

Apposita est SARA Conjux.

Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda: quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate præcellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: Eternitati semper attentam, omne fere Virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniæ Regis, in agro Varvicensi, anno MDCLXIX; obijt MDCCLIX.

Cum NATHANAELE illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit.

IN BROMLEY CHURCH.

Hic conduntur reliquiæ
ELIZABETHAE

Antiqua JARVISIORUM gente
Peatlinge, apud Leicestrenses, ortæ ;
Formosæ, cultæ, ingeniosæ, piæ;
Uxoris, primis nuptiis, HENRICI PORTER,
secundis, SAMUELIS JOHNSON,
Qui multum amatam, diuque defletam,
Hoc lapide contexit.
Obijt Londini, mense Mart.
A. D. MDCCLIII.

IN WATFORD CHURCH.

IN the vault below are deposited the remains of JANE BELL, wife of JOHN BELL, Esq. who in the fifty-third year of her age, surrounded with many worldly blessings, heard, with fortitude and composure truly great, the horrible malady, which had for some time begun to afflict her,

pronounced incurable;

and for more than three years,

endured with patience and concealed with decency, the daily tortures of gradual death;

continued to divide the hours not allotted to devotion, between the cares of her family, and the converse of her friends;

rewarded the attendance of duty,

and acknowledged the offices of affection;

and while she endeavoured to alleviate by chearfulness her husband's sufferings and sorrows, increased them by her gratitude for his care, and her solicitude for his quiet. To the testimony of these virtues, more highly honoured as more familiarly known, this monument is erected by JOHN BELL.*

IN STRETHAM CHURCH.

JUXTA sepulta est HESTERA MARIA Thomæ Cotton de Combermere baronetti Cestriensis

filia,

Johannis Salusbury armigeri Flintiensis uxor
Forma felix, felix ingenio;

Omnibus jucunda, suorum amantissima.
Linguis artibusque ita exculta

Ut loquenti nunquam deessent
Sermonis nitor, sententiarum flosculi,
Sapientiæ gravitas, leporum gratia :
Modum servandi adeo perita,

Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur. Literarum inter delicias, rem familiarem sedulo curaret, Multis illi multos annos precantibus

diri carcinomatis veneno contabuit,
nexibusque vitæ paulatim resolutis,
è terris, meliora sperans, emigravit.
Nata 1707. Nupta 1739. Obiit 1773.

* She died in October 1771.