EPITAPH: BEING PART OF AN INSCRIPTION FOR A MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED BY A GENTLEMA...

By James Beattie

Farewell, my best beloved! whose heavenly mind

Genius with virtue, strength with softness, joined;

Devotion, undebased by pride or art,

With meek simplicity, and joy of heart;

Though sprightly, gentle; though polite, sincere;

And only of thyself a judge severe;

Unblamed, unequalled, in each sphere of life,

The tenderest Daughter, Sister, Parent, Wife.

In thee their patroness the afflicted lost;

Thy friends, their pattern, ornament, and boast;

And I —— but, ah! can words my loss declare,

Or paint the extremes of transport and despair?

O Thou, beyond what verse or speech can tell,

My guide, my friend, my best-beloved, farewell!