Ye dearest objects of my earliest care,

Themes of my eager hope, my ardent pray’r;

To you, affection dedicates this page,

Of you alone, solicits patronage.

O, might some thought, however ill express’d,

One error chase, one passion lull to rest;

Raise one bright spark of virtue’s sacred fire,

One pure design, one holy aim inspire;

Or wake at once the grand resolve, to brave

All that opposes bliss beyond the grave:

Though on this form the humble sod be laid,

For you the last tear pour’d, the last pray’r made;

The good pursu’d is gain’d, the meed is given;

O may we share the blest result in—heaven.

Text:. Advertisement to Coltman’s Familiar Letters Addressed to Children and Young Persons of the Middle Ranks (London: Darton and Harvey, 1811), p. v.; see also Timothy Whelan, Other British Voices: Women, Poetry, and Religion, 1766-1840 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), p. 232.