Note 693 — REIGN OF GEORGE II.: 1727–1748.
Reading edition
The remaining verses of the poem are thus given in the Scots Magazine for June 1773:
‘Ah! where is now th’ innumerous crowd,
That once with fond attention hung
On every truth divine that flowed,
Improved from thy persuasive tongue!
’Tis gone!—it seeks a different road;
Life’s social joys to thee are o’er;
Untrod the path to that abode
Where hapless Penury keeps the door.
Drummond! thine audience yet recall,
Recall the young, the gay, the vain;
And ere thy tottering fabric fall,
Sound forth the deeply moral strain.
For never, sure, could bard or sage,
Howe’er inspired, more clearly shew,
That all upon this transient stage
Is folly, vanity, or woe.
Bid them at once be warned and taught—
Ah, no!—suppress th’ ungrateful tale—
O’er every frailty, every fault,
Oblivion, draw thy friendly veil.
Tell rather what transcendent joy
Awaits them on th’ immortal shore,
If well they Summer’s strength employ,
And well distribute Autumn’s store.
Tell them, if Virtue crown their bloom,
Time shall the happy period bring,
When the dark Winter of the tomb
Shall yield to everlasting Spring.’