With shaven crown in a sequester'd cell Gnashing his teeth in mood of furious ire Fierce Persecution sat, and with strong breath A gradual light diffusing o'er the gloom, Her hand a clear reflecting mirror shows, To see the horrid sorceries practised there; She snatch'd the volume from the tyrant's rage, Unlock'd its iron clasps,and ope'd the heavenly page. "My name is Truth, and you, each holy seer, "Tho' blatant Obloquy with leperous mouth "Yet in revolving years some generous youth "Shall crown your virtuous act with glory's meed. "Your names adorn'd in *Gilpin's polish'd page, With each historick grace, shall shine thro' every age. "With furious hate the fierce relentless power "Exert of torment all her horrid skill; "Tho' your lives meet too soon the fatal hour Scorching in flames, or writhing on the wheel; *The Rev. Mr. William Gilpin, author of the lives of Bernard Gilpin, Bishop Latimer, Wickliff, and the principal of his followers. "Yet when the Dragon in the deep abyss "Shall lie, fast bound in adamantine chain, "Ye with the Lamb shall rise to ceaseless bliss, "First-fruits of death, and partners of his reign; "Then shall repay the momentary tear "The great sabbatick rest, the millenary year: WILLIAM DODD. 1729-1777. Dodd's was a life of thoughtlessness and extravagance, and he paid dearly for all his faults in the conclusion of it. Courage at an earlier period, to have met the evils he brought upon himself, might have saved him from the last and most terrible one. Had he lived an economist he might have died honourably. Yet, let him have his due; and his claim is not sinall-Many were reclaimed from vice and many relieved from wretchedness by his labours. Who derived advantage from his death? When one reads his pathetick appeals for mercy, at his trial, and in the Prison-thoughts, one is tempted to ask if the hearts to which they were made were human, or ever knew what it was to err? But it was an appeal to Avarice under the name of Justice: and at a tribunal, where property is of more value than the life of man, such an appeal is not likely to he heard. The advertisement prefixed to the MS. of the Prison-thoughts, concludes with a remarkable break, more impressive than the most finished rhetorick. "The thinking will easily pardon all inaccuracies, as I am neither able nor willing to read over these melancholy lines with a curious and critical eye. They are imperfect, but the language of the heart; and had I time and inclination, might and should be improved. But YET, oh Thoughts in Prison. ye sons of Justice!. ―ere we quit This awful court, expostulation's voice One moment hear impartial. Give a while Your honest hearts to nature's touches true, |