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An ELEGIACK VERSE, On the Death Of the Pious and Profound GRAMMARIAN and RHETORICIAN, Mr. ELIJAH CORLET, SCHOOL-MASTER of CAMBRIDGE, Who Deceased Anno Aetatis 77. Feb. 24. 1687.
ON
Roman Feet my stumbling
Muse declines
To walk unto his Grave, lest by her Fall
She trespass, in accosting of his Head
With undeserved breach. In jingling
Rythme
She thinks it not convenient to Dance
Upon his Sacred Herse; but
mournful Steps
If Metrically order'd, she computes
The most becoming of this Tragick Scene.
Could Heav'ns
ignific Ball (whose boundless Womb
Millions of flaming
Aetna's does ingulf)
From Candle's dull and oleaginous
Transfused Beams, a glowing
Atom draw,
Which might a super-added Lustre give
Unto its conick Rayes; then might our Verse
Swell with impregnant
hopes o
[...] bringing
[...]
Some rich Display of
Corlet's Vertues rare.
But this
Herculean Labour forc'd we deem
Not second to
Impossibilities.
This presses hard our tim'rous heart whence flows
A Torrent of amazing Fears, whose
Waves
Bode Universal
Deluge to that Verse
That dares pretend to equalize his
Fame.
Creep then, poor
Rythmes, and like a
timid Hare
Encircle his rich Vault, then gently
squatt
Upon his Grave the Center there proclaim
Tho' he
subside, yet his abounding Worth
Does infinitely
supersede thy
Layes.
Tell to the World what Dowries Nature showr'd
Into his large capacious Soul; almost
Profuse in large Donations; yet kind Art
Still adds unto the store, striving to reach
Perfection's Top, during a
mortal state.
Sagacious Nature, provident that nought
Of her dispensed bounty frustrate prove,
Boyls up this
Font of
Learning to an head,
Which over-topping of its Banks she glides
Through Nature's
Conduit-pipes into the Soil
Of tender
Youth, which gaping sucks it in,
Like thirsty
Stars Bright
Phebus's liquid
light.
A
Master of his Trade, whose Art could
square
Pillars of rooted
strength whose shoulders might
A Common-Wealth uphold.
Aholiab-like
Divinely qualifi'd with curious Skill
To carve out
Temple work, and cloath the
Priest
With sacred Robes, adapted for the Use
Of Functions so divine.—
Rivers of
Eloquence like
Nectar flow'd
From his Vast Ocean, where a
Tully might
Surfeit with draughts of
Roman Eloquence.
Immortal
Oakes (whose
golden mouth ne're blew
A blast defil'd with indisposed Speech)
Suspecting his own parts, rarely pronounc'd
His
Ciceronean lines, until they touch'd
This
Lydius Lapis CORLET: then approv'd
They're
Eloquence-proof esteem'd, and challeng'd
The
Roman Tribe of Orators to spend
Their subtilty, and pierce their
E
[...]le's Eyes
Into their very bottom.—
Had
Grecian Dialect and
Roman Tongue
Surviv'd this Age within their native Soyl,
Endless had been their Feud;
Athens and
Rome
Had set their
Tully's and
Demosthenes to fight
With Swords brandish'd with shining
Eloquence
For to decide the Controverse, and prove
To whom by right Great CORLET did pertain.
This proving unsuccessful, nought can quench
Their flaming zeal, save by (
Colossos like)
Erecting his large Statue, whose proud feet
Might fix their Station on the Pinacles
Of each of these
Metropolies of Art.
Nor were his Parts exclusive of his
Zeal
In serving his rich Donor. No Serpent
Bearing a fulgent Jewel in his Crest,
While cursed Poison steeps his venom'd heart.
But
Grace the Crown of all shone like a Sun
Fix't in the Center of that
Microcosm.
Blown to the full, perfum'd with sacred smell,
This flower
Heaven pluckt. When
Natures
Too feeble grown to bear such ponderous fruit
Elijah's Chariot born on
Seraph's wings,
Mounts with this Treasure to the port of
Bliss.
Sic moestus cecinit
NEHEMIAH WALTER.