silver did this man possess that could supply him with money to do so much good, the answer is,

"Of debts, and taxes, wife and children clear, This man possest-five hundred pounds a year! Blush, grandeur, blush! proud courts, withdraw your blaze,

Ye little stars hide your diminish'd rays.”

The first two lines are not clear. as to their meaning. They may mean either that he had no wife nor any children, or that, he had over and above the expences necessary for the support of his wife and children, five hundred pounds a-year to dispose of in works of charity, or public advantage.

Blush, grandeur, blush! &c.-The poet says, that great men who possess grandeur, that is to say, riches and

titles, ought to blush when they reflect upon the foolish use which they sometimes make of their fortunes, compared with all the good which the Man of Ross did with only five hundred pounds a year.

Ye little stars hide your diminish'd rays.

He says, that they are like little stars whose rays are hid by the blaze of larger stars.

"And what? no monument, inscription, stone?
His race, his form, his name almost unknown?
Who builds a Church to God, and not to fame,
Will never mark the marble with his name:
Go, search it there, where to be born and die,
Of rich and poor, make all the history,
Enough that virtue fill'd the space between,
Prov'd, by the ends of being, to have been."

Go seek it there, where to be born and die,

Of rich and poor, make all the history.

That is to say, go and seek it in the parish registry. There is, or by law there ought to be kept in every parish, a book called the parish registry in which an account should be kept of every birth, christening, marriage, and death in the parish. This registry contains nothing more than a mere entry of the name of the person, stating the time of their birth, and of their death, &c. It is for so much equally the history of the rich and of the poor.

Enough that Virtue fills the

tween,

space be

Proved, by the ends of being, to have been.

It is enough the poet says to have a register merely of the birth and death of such persons as have proved

that they existed by having done permanent good during their lives to their fellow creatures, meaning, that the best and most permanent monument for such men is their own works.

On a monument for Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's church, which he had built, it was proposed to inscribe the Latin word Circumspice-look round.

In the former part of the lines that have been quoted above, the poet complains that there is no monument raised to this good Man of Ross, no picture, nor statue of any sort to describe his person, nor any account of his family, nay even that his name. is scarcely known. It is singular that for some time after his death very few people knew the name of this excellent person.

His name was Kyrle, as Doctor Johnson informs us. He allowed himself but fifty pounds a year to live upon, but it is said that he was assisted by the generosity of affluent persons, who were induced by his good character and good example, to contribute to the useful works in which he was engaged.

Dr. Johnson wisely remarks, that we are thus enabled to account for the expensive works he executed; we are the more inclined to imitate his example, because it is in some degree within our reach. For an account of Kyrle, see Butler's Arithmetic, Edition 4, p. 139.

Some years ago, the author in travelling through Ross went to an inn, where he could obtain but very little information with respect to the Man