To cultivate in ev'ry noble mind <br />Habitual grace, and sentiments refin'd, <br />Thus while you strive to mend the human heart, <br />Thus while the heav'nly precepts you impart, <br />O may each bosom catch the sacred fire, <br />And youthful minds to Virtue's throne aspire! <br /> When God's eternal ways you set in sight, <br />And Virtue shines in all her native light, <br />In vain would Vice her works in night conceal, <br />For Wisdom's eye pervades the sable veil. <br /> <br /> Artists may paint the sun's effulgent rays, <br />But Amory's pen the brighter God displays: <br />While his great works in Amory's pages shine, <br />And while he proves his essence all divine, <br />The Atheist sure no more can boast aloud <br />Of chance, or nature, and exclude the God; <br />As if the clay without the potter's aid <br />Should rise in various forms, and shapes self-made, <br />Or worlds above with orb o'er orb profound <br />Self-mov'd could run the everlasting round. <br />It cannot be--unerring Wisdom guides <br />With eye propitious, and o'er all presides. <br /> Still prosper, Amory! still may'st thou receive <br /> <br />The warmest blessings which a muse can give, <br />And when this transitory state is o'er, <br />When kingdoms fall, and fleeting Fame's no more, <br />May Amory triumph in immortal fame, <br />A nobler title, and superior name!<br /><br />Phillis Wheatley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-rev-dr-thomas-amory/
