Memoirs of John R. Young

"Words are the soul's ambassadors who go
Abroad, upon her errands to and fro,
They are the chief expounders of the mind,
And correspondence kept 'twixt all mankind."

They place in memory's clasp, truths we have read,
Beautiful words, of both living and dead.
Helping us cherish, and nurse as they grow,
Elysian plants, from thoughts that we sow.
Bringing to memory, and waking to life
The form, and face of a child, or wife,
The choicest treasures to mortals given,
The golden thread that leads to heaven.

O, may the thoughts in this book penned,
Prove sweet, and pure, to kindred and friend,
To a child, or grandchild, as the case may be.
Loyal scions, from the ancestral tree;
Whose pulse will quicken, and brain will throb,
As they view the path the grandsire trod."