17.12.2012, 16:43
Oh for the statesman high whose piercing view
Surmounts the partisan's weak bounds, with glance
Whose comprehensive pow'r does truly show
Causes which lead his spirit in advance,
Adapting his thoughts, void of fickle change
To what the time requires, nor bringeth old
Obsolete opinions t' alloy the gold
Of wise progression, with a mixture strange.
Unmeaning adulation perhaps oft
Has qualities ascribed when ne'er possess'd ;
Yet greatness, a far-seeing, brilliant guest
Was as Burke's rich genius soar'd aloft ;
This day the noble principle contest,
But death approach'd it, not with foot fall soft.
Surmounts the partisan's weak bounds, with glance
Whose comprehensive pow'r does truly show
Causes which lead his spirit in advance,
Adapting his thoughts, void of fickle change
To what the time requires, nor bringeth old
Obsolete opinions t' alloy the gold
Of wise progression, with a mixture strange.
Unmeaning adulation perhaps oft
Has qualities ascribed when ne'er possess'd ;
Yet greatness, a far-seeing, brilliant guest
Was as Burke's rich genius soar'd aloft ;
This day the noble principle contest,
But death approach'd it, not with foot fall soft.