How blest the righteous when he dies

How blest the righteous when he dies. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1742-1825).  According to JJ, p.1107, this was published in the Leisure Hour Improved (Ironbridge, 1809) with the first line as ‘Sweet is the scene when virtue dies’. It was then included in The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, with memoir by Lucy Aikin (1825), with the title ‘The Death of the Virtuous’. It had five stanzas:  Sweet is the scene when Virtue dies! -  When sinks a righteous soul to rest, How mildly beam the closing eyes,  How gently heaves the’ expiring breast!  So fades a summer cloud away;  So sinks the gale when storms are o’er; So gently shuts the eye of day;  So dies a wave along the shore.  Triumphant smiles...