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Cave
by
He liv’d a patriarch in his numerous race,
And show’d in charity a Christian’s grace:
Whate’er a friend or parent feels, he knew;
His hand was open, and his heart was true;
In what he gain’d and gave, he taught mankind,
A grateful always is a generous mind.
Here rest his clay! his soul must ever rest;
Who bless’d when living, dying must be blest.
whom he disgusted by seeming inattention; and his visitant was surprised when he came a second time, by preparations to execute the scheme which he supposed never to have been heard.
He was, consistently with this general tranquillity of mind, a tenacious maintainer, though not a clamorous demander, of his right. In his youth, having summoned his fellow-journeymen to concert measures against the oppression of their masters, he mounted a kind of rostrum, and harangued them so efficaciously, that they determined to resist all future invasions; and when the stamp-offices demanded to stamp the last half-sheet of the magazines, Mr. Cave alone defeated their claim, to which the proprietors of the rival magazines would meanly have submitted.
He was a friend rather easy and constant, than zealous an’d active; yet many instances might be given, where both his money and his diligence were employed liberally for others. His enmity was, in like manner, cool and deliberate; but though cool, it was not insidious, and though deliberate, not pertinacious.
His mental faculties were slow. He saw little at a time, but that little he saw with great exactness. He was long in finding the right, but seldom failed to find it at last. His affections were not easily gained, and his opinions not quickly discovered. His reserve, as it might hide his faults, concealed his virtues; but such he was, as they who best knew him have most lamented.
FOOTNOTES:
[59] This life first appeared in the Gentleman’s magazine for 1754, and is now printed from a copy revised by the author, at my request, in 1781. N.–It was, in the magazine, introduced by a general remark, which we have again prefixed.
[60] This was said in the beginning of the year 1781; and may with truth be now repeated. N.
[61] The London Magazine ceased to exist in 1785. N.
[62] Mr. Cave was buried in the church of St. James, Clerkenwell, without an epitaph; but the following inscription at Rugby, from the pen of Dr. Hawkesworth, is here transcribed from the Anecdotes of Mr. Bowyer, p. 88.
Near this place lies
The body of
JOSEPH CAVE,
Late of this parish:
Who departed this Life, Nov. 18, 1747,
Aged 79 years.
Me was placed by Providence in a humble station;
But
Industry abundantly supplied the wants of Nature,
And
Temperance blest him with
Content and Wealth.
As he was an affectionate Father,
He was made happy in the decline of life
By the deserved eminence of his eldest Son,
EDWARD CAVE,
Who, without interest, fortune, or connexion,
By the native force of his own genius,