"The son of Crabbe gives, in the biography of the poet, a brief scene in the last days of Wesley: ‘At Lowestoft, one evening, all adjourned to a Dissenting chapel to hear the venerable John Wesley on one of the last of his peregrinations. He was exceedingly old and infirm, and was attended, almost supported, in the pulpit by a young minister on each side. The chapel was crowded to suffocation. In the course of the sermon he repeated, though with an application of his own, the lines from "Anacreon:"—
Oft am I by woman told,
Poor Anacreon! Thou grow’st old:
See, thine hairs are falling all;
Poor Anacreon! How they fall!
Whether I grow old or no,
By these signs I do not know;
By this I need not to be told
‘Tis time TO LIVE, if I grow old!
"My father was much struck by his reverend appearance and cheerful air, and the beautiful cadence he gave to these lines; and, after the service, he was introduced to the patriarch, who received him with benevolent politeness."
