Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/To a Young Lady
TO A YOUNG LADY.
ON hearing her observe that "accomplishments or talents ought not to excite vanity, but to lead our hearts in gratitude to our Bountiful Creator."
SWEET is the blush of vernal rose,
And sweet the glance that beauty throws,
And fair the light whose varied ray,
Marks feeling's glow, and fancy's play;
But when in gentle accent flows,
The precept pure, that wisdom shows,
The mental eye with rapture fraught
Surveys the semblance of the thought,
And sweeter is the meed it pays,
Than that which wakes the flatterers gaze.
And, fair one, when the hues that paint
The youthful cheek, grow dim and faint,
And when the voice of softest tone,
Must falter in its final moan,
And nought remain of life or grace,
But what the eye in tears must trace,
The pious soul from error freed,
The thought that wak'd the virtuous deed,
Shall rise above the closing tomb,
Shall bloom where blight can never come.