While I see Divine Compassion
Beaming in His gracious eye.*
* “Floating in His languid eye” seems to have been the earlier version.
The influence of Sir Walter's family misfortune is evident also in the mood out of which breathed his other trustful lines—
Peace, troubled soul, whose plaintive moan
Hath taught these rocks the notes of woe,
(changed now to “hath taught these scenes” etc).
Sir Walter Shirley, cousin of the Countess of Huntingdon, was born 1725, and died in 1786. 161 / 129 Even in his last sickness he continued to preach to his people in his house, seated in his chair.
Rev. James Oswald Allen was born at Gayle, Yorkshire, Eng., June 24, 1743. He left the University of Cambridge after a year's study, and became an itinerant preacher, but seems to have been a man of unstable religious views. After roving from one Christian denomination to another several times, he built a Chapel, and for forty years ministered there to a small Independent congregation. He died in Gayle, Oct. 31, 1804.