Gazette Of The United States

COLLINS THE POET.
A monument of exquisite workmanship has been erected at Chichester, by public subscription, to the memory of this charming writer, who was a native of that city, and died in a house adjoining to the Cloisters. - He is represented as just recovering from a wild fit of the phrensy, to which he was unhappily subject, and in a calm and reclining posture seeking refuge from his misfortunes in the divine consolations of the Gospel, while his lyre, and one of the first of his poems, lie neglected on the ground. Above are two figures of Love and Pity entwined in each others arms.
The whole was executed by Flaxman. Under all is the following Epitaph by Mr. Hayley;
Ye who the merits of the dead revere,
Who hold misfortune sacred, genius dear,
Regard this tomb, where Collins' hapless name
Solicits kindness with a double claim.
Tho' nature gave him, and tho' science taught,
The fire of fancy, and the reach of thought.
Severely doom'd to penury's extreme,
He pass'd, in madd'ning pain, life's feverish dream;
While rays of genius only serv'd to shew
The thickning horror, and exalt his woe.
Ye walls that echo'd to his frantic moan,
Guard the due records of this grateful tone;
Strangers to him, enamour'd of his lays,
This fond memorial to his talents raise!
For this the ashes of a Bard require
Who touch'd the tenderest notes of pity's lyre;
Who join'd pure faith to strong poetic powers,
Who in reviving Reason's lucid hours
Sought in one book his troubled mind to rest.
And rightly deem'd the Book of God the best.
* Vide his Life, by Dr. Johnson.