Poems and essays ... The twelfth edition. Published for the benefit of the General Hospital at Bath

Preface

vi Introduction --------- viii POEMS. Ode to Hope _ - - - i Elegy on the Death of Mr. Garrick ----- 7 A Ballad - - 10 Subject Love, sor the Vase at Batheaston Villa - - - 15 To Miss , then two Years old - - - - - 18 Louisa ; a Tale -------- ai Envy ; a Fragment --------33 On the New Year 39 ESSAYS. On Sensibility ---51 On the Character of Lætitia 76 On Politeness ---------. 93 On the Character of Curio - - - - - -118 On Fortitude I23 On Candour I37 On the Advantages of Affliction - - - • - 161 On the Pleasures of Religion - - - - - -168 On Gratitude --------- 184 On Happiness --------- *-°i On Christian Perfection 218 On Resignation -------- 238 On the Duties and Advantages of Sickness - - -

PREFACE.

. T I ifIE following Poems and Essays were written to relieve the tedious hours of pain and sickness. The reader who seeks for amusement only, may possibly receive no gratification from the perusal of them; but for such readers they are not intended. To the humble and pious Christian, who feels the pressure of distress, and seeks in religion for that support and consolation which nothing else can bestow; to him is presented an example of patience and resignation which no sufferings could conquer. He will not find in the following pages the pride of stoicism, or the cold precepts of unfeel- B [ vi ] ing prosperity. The Author of these Essays felt, with the keenest sensibility, the uncom mon misfortune which condemned her for ten years, in the prime of life, to constantly increasing sufferings ; but she found, in the principles which are here laid down, such motives of consolation as rendered her superior to all the sorrows of life, and to the lingering tortures of a most painful death.

They who were present at that awful scene, can need no other evidence in support of a truth which the reader will find often repeated in these Essays, viz. that " though religion " cannot prevent losses and disappointments, " pains and sorrows ; yet in the midst of them " all, and when every earthly pleasure fails, it "commands, it instructs, it enables us to be "happy."