On The Promotion Of Edward Thurlow, Esq. To The Lord High Chancellorship Of England.

A poem by William Cowper

Round Thurlow’s head in early youth,
And in his sportive days,
Fair Science pour’d the light of truth,
And Genius shed his rays.


See! with united wonder cried
The experienced and the sage,
Ambition in a boy supplied
With all the skill of age!


Discernment, eloquence, and grace,
Proclaim him born to sway
The balance in the highest place,
And bear the palm away.


The praise bestow’d was just and wise;
He sprang impetuous forth,
Secure of conquest, where the prize
Attends superior worth.


So the best courser on the plain
Ere yet he starts is known,
And does but at the goal obtain
What all had deem’d his own.