Page:The Battle of the Books, and Other Short Pieces.djvu/132

 Look back with joy where she has gone, And therefore goes with courage on. She at your sickly couch will wait, And guide you to a better state. O then, whatever heav'n intends, Take pity on your pitying friends; Nor let your ills affect your mind, To fancy they can be unkind; Me, surely me, you ought to spare, Who gladly would your sufferings share; Or give my scrap of life to you, And think it far beneath your due; You to whose care so oft I owe That I'm alive to tell you so.

TO STELLA

Visiting me in my sickness, October, 1727

, observing Stella's wit Was more than for her sex was fit; And that her beauty, soon or late, Might breed confusion in the state; In high concern for human kind, Fixed honour in her infant mind.