谨以此纪念已故的阿宾顿伯爵夫人。就像某个伟大而仁慈的君主去世时，先是轻声细语，悲伤的陪伴者中升起;然后声音很快聚集起来，传播消息，穿过城镇和乡村，直到可怕的爆炸最后被吹到遥远的殖民地;他们也许是在徒劳地为他的长寿和幸福的统治献上誓言:那么缓慢地，渐渐地，不情愿的名声将无与伦比的埃莉奥诺拉的命运宣告出来，直到死讯公布于世。全国人民在最极端的地方感受到了它，他们热泪盈眶，心如刀切;但大多数她每天供给的穷人，直到她死后才开始如此。因为在她活着的时候，他们晚上睡得很安稳，有面包吃，就像有光明回来一样，他们对白天的依赖是如此坚定，以至于需要变得娇惯，忘记了祈祷:救济金是如此可靠，他们是如此随时准备着，他们站在那里，准备着看吗哪掉下来。她喂养、穿衣、护理了这么多的人，以至于她自己会首先担心自己的匮乏。她造了五镑别的五镑;上天给予了很多，也付出了很多; And in few lives, in wondrous few, we find A fortune better fitted to the mind. Nor did her alms from ostentation fall, Or proud desire of praise; the soul gave all: Unbribed it gave; or, if a bribe appear, No less than Heaven, to heap huge treasures there. Want passed for merit at her open door: Heaven saw her safely might increase his poor, And trust their sustenance with her so well As not to be at charge of miracle. None could be needy whom she saw or knew; All in the compass of her sphere she drew: He who could touch her garment was as sure, As the first Christians of the Apostles' cure. The distant heard by fame her pious deeds, And laid her up for their extremest needs, A future cordial for a fainting mind; For what was ne'er refused all hoped to find, Each in his turn: the rich might freely come, As to a friend; but to the poor 'twas a home. As to some holy house the afflicted came, The hunger-starved, the naked, and the lame; Want and diseases fled before her name. For zeal like hers her servants were too slow; She was the first, where need required, to go, Her self the foundress, and attendant too. Sure she had guests sometimes to entertain, Guests in disguise, of her great Master's train: Her Lord him self might come, for aught we know, Since in a servant's form he lived below; Beneath her roof he might be pleased to stay: Or some benighted angel in his way Might ease his wings, and seeing Heaven appear In its best work of mercy, think it there, Where all the deeds of charity and love Were in as constant method as above, All carried on; all of a piece with theirs; As free her alms, as diligent her cares; As loud her praises, and as warm her prayers. Yet was she not profuse; but feared to waste, And wisely managed, that the stock might last; That all might be supplied, and she not grieve, When crowds appeared, she had not to relieve: Which to prevent, she still increased her store; Laid up, and spared, that she might give the more. So Pharaoh, or some greater king than he, Provided for the seventh necessity; Taught from above his magazines to frame, That famine was prevented ere it came. Thus Heaven, though all-sufficient, shows a thrift In his economy, and bounds his gift; Creating for our day one single light; And his reflection too supplies the night. Perhaps a thousand other words, that lie Remote from us and latent in the sky, Are lightened by his beams, and kindly nurst; Of which our earthly dunghill is the worst. Now, as all virtues keep the middle line, Yet somewhat more to one extreme incline, Such was her soul, abhorring avarice, Bounteous, but almost bounteous to a vice: Had she given more, it had profusion been, And turned the excess of goodness into sin. These virtues raised her fabric to the sky; For that which is next Heaven is charity. But as high turrets for their airy steep Require foundations in proportion deep, And lofty cedars as far upward shoot As to the nether heavens they drive the root, So low did her secure foundation lie; She was not humble, but humility. Scarcely she knew that she was great or fair Or wise beyond what other women are, Or, which is better, knew, but never durst compare. For to be conscious of what all admire, And not be vain, advances virtue higher. But still she found, or rather thought she found, Her own worth wanting, others' to abound; Ascribed above their due to every one, Unjust and scanty to her self alone. Such her devotion was as might give rules Of speculation to disputing schools,