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By the damp vault that weeps o'er royal bones;
And the pale lamp that shows the ghastly dead,
More ghastly, through the thick incumbent gloom!
By visits (if there are) from darker scenes,
The gliding spectre! and the groaning grave!
By groans, and graves, and miseries that groan
For the grave's shelter! By desponding men,
Senseless to pains of death, from pangs of guilt!
By guilt's last audit! By yon moon in blood,
The rocking firmament, the falling stars, 2140
And thunder's last discharge, great nature's knell!
By second chaos; and eternal night"--
Be wise--nor let Philander blame my charm;
But own not ill discharged my double debt,
Love to the living; duty to the dead.
For know I'm but executor; he left 2146
This moral legacy; I make it o'er
By his command; Philander hear in me;
And Heaven in both.--If deaf to these, oh! hear
Florello's tender voice; his weal depends
On thy resolve; it trembles at thy choice;
For his sake--love thyself. Example strikes
All human hearts; a bad example more; 2153
More still a father's; that ensures his ruin.
As parent of his being, would'st thou prove
Th' unnatural parent of his miseries,
And make him curse the being which thou gavest?
Is this the blessing of so fond a father?
If careless of Lorenzo! spare, oh! spare
Florello's father, and Philander's friend! 2160
Florello's father ruin'd, ruins him;
And from Philander's friend the world expects
A conduct, no dishonour to the dead.
Let passion do, what nobler motive should;
Let love, and emulation, rise in aid
To reason; and persuade thee to be--blest.
This seems not a request to be denied;
Yet (such th' infatuation of mankind!)
'Tis the most hopeless, man can make to man.
Shall I then rise, in argument, and warmth? 2170
And urge Philander's posthumous advice,
From topics yet unbroach'd?----
But, oh! I faint! my spirits fail!--Nor strange!
So long on wing, and in no middle clime!
To which my great Creator's glory call'd:
And calls--but, now, in vain. Sleep's dewy wand
Has stroked my drooping lips, and promises
My long arrear of rest; the downy god
(Wont to return with our returning peace)
Will pay, ere long, and bless me with repose. 2180
Haste, haste, sweet stranger! from