Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/273

 rO THE SHADE OF SAMUEL ADAMS 263

��TO THE SHADE OF SAMUEL ADAMS.^

Patriot and sage ! Forgive ungrateful time,

Whose wing so darkly o'er thy memory broods ; Nor be thy ghost disturbed because this rhyme

Upon thy sacred privacy intrudes, From mists of years thus dragging forth the name Of one who from the insulting breath of Fame Had shrunk, as if good deeds, when trumpeted, were shame.

Yet would I men might more revere that band. Whose heroes, self forgetting, seek for good

But in great principles, since Nature's hand Forms such so sparingly, least understood.

Rarest of all her works that earth adorn.

How few are in whole generations born

Who can like heroes live, while yet the name they scorn !

Which one of all thine acts shall I first mention,

Which of thy sayings first, since to relate Great things of thee doth not demand invention ?

Self didst thou sacrifice to save the state ; Yet this men know, and now I would recall Forgotten things, if so it may befall, By lesser stars eclipsed, thou shalt not perish all.

But scarcely for thy sake, since thou wert last 'Mongst men to wish in mouths of men to be.

Yet would I that the virtue of the past Live to inspire a late posterity,

Till, grown in love with justice, men may deem

Still best to be whate'er 'tis best to seem.

Lest truth be deemed a name, and virtue but a dream.

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