In the School of __________ is a tablet on which are inscribed, in gilt letters, the names of the several persons who have been Schoolmasters there since the foundation of the School, with the time at which they entered upon and quitted their office. Opposite one of those names the Author wront the following lines.
If Nature, for a favorite Child,
In thee hath temper'd so her clay,
That every hour thy heart runs wild
Yet never once doth go astray,
Read o'er these lines; and then review
This tablet, that thus humbly rears
In such diversity of hue
Its history of two hundred years.
--When through this little wreck of fame,
Cypher and syllable, thine eye
Has travell'd down to Mathew's name,
Pause with no common sympathy.
And if a sleeping tear should wake,
Then be it neither check'd nor stay'd:
For Mathew a request I make
Which for himself he had not made.
Poor Mathew, all his frolics o'er,
Is silent as a standing pool,
Far from the chimney's merry roar,
And murmur of the village school.
The sighs which Mathew heav'd were sighs
Of one tir'd out with fun and madness;
The tears which came to Mathew's eyes
Were tears of light, the oil of gladness.
Yet, sometimes, when the secret cup
Of still and serious thought went round
It seem'd as if he drank it up
He felt with spirit so profound.
--Thou soul of God's best earthly mould,
Thou happy soul, and can it be
That these two words of glittering gold
Are all that must remain of thee?
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