Classic Poem

WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A FRIEND

FOR THE

ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASYIUM FOR FEMALE ORPHANS, MAY 20, 1799.

O F all the charities that grace this land,
Where mild benevolence, with outstretch'd hand,
Relieves the varied ills which man attend,
His guide in infancy, in age his friend!
This sure a just pre-eminence may gain
Which guards the female child from want and shame;
Supplies a father's place, a mother's care,
The orphan's bless'd asylum from despair!
Where friendless innocence may always meet,
From chilling poverty, a safe retreat.
Ah! helpless sex! too often doom'd to know
The flatt'ring friend is but an ambush'd foe!
How many from man's seeming bounty trace
The treach'rous wages of their own disgrace!
But in this mansion ere their cares begin
Virtue and industry protect from sin:
While the great moral lesson taught them here
Is to fear God, and know no other fear!
If Heav'n permits departed shades to know
What fate attends their offspring here below,
The hov'ring spirits of the just may view,
With pure delight, their children sav'd by you!
While, to the realms of bliss return'd again,
The tongues of angels laud the works of men,
And, grateful for the Almighty's mercies shewn,
Hymn, in seraphic strains, the Eternal Throne!