Epitaph on a Gnat, found crushed on the leaf of a Lady's Album, and written (with a different reading in the last line) in
lead pencil beneath it
James Montgomery
| Lie there, embalm'd from age to age! |
| This is the album's noblest page, |
| Though every glowing leaf be fraught |
| With painting, poesy, and thought; |
| Where tracks of mortal hands are seen, 5 |
| A hand invisible hath been, |
| And left this autograph behind, |
| This image from th' eternal mind; |
| A work of skill surpassing sense, |
| A labour of Omnipotence! 10 |
| Though frail as dust it meet the eye, |
| He form'd this gnat who built the sky; |
| Stop -- lest it vanish at they breath -- |
| This speck had life, and suffer'd death. |
Sheffield, July 18, 1827.
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