Why go a begging to contingencies,
Not gain'd with ease, nor safely lov'd, if gain'd?
There is a time, when toil must be preferr'd,
Or joy, by mistim'd fondness, is undone.
A man of pleasure is a man of pains.
Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride)
The virtue nearest to our vice allied.
See the sole bliss Heav'n could on all bestow!
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must miss; the good untaught will find.
Whatever is, is right.-This world, 'tis true,
Was made for Cæsar,-but for Titus too.
And which more bless'd? who chain'd his country, say,
Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day?
The first sure symptom of a mind in health,
Is rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home.
True happiness resides in things unseen.
No smiles of fortune ever bless the bad;
Nor can her frowns rob innocence of joy.
Oh the dark days of vanity! while here,
How tasteless! and how terrible, when gone!
Gone? they ne'er go: when past, they haunt us still.
Father of light and life! Thou good supreme!
O teach me what is good! Teach me thyself!
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From ev'ry low pursuit; and feed my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure,
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!
If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay:
If am wrong, O teach my heart
To find that better way.
Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent,
At aught thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught thy goodness lent.
O lost to virtue, lost to manly thought,
Lost to the noble sallies of the soul,
Who think it solitude to be alone!
Communion sweet, communion large and high,
Our reason, guardian angel, and our God
Then nearest these, when others most remote:
And all, ere long, shall be remote, but these.
God loves from whole to parts; but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake:
The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds;
Another still, and still another spreads.
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace,
His country next; and next, all human race
Wide, and more wide th' o'erflowings of the mind,
Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind.
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty bless'd;
And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast.
Know then this truth, (enough for man to know,
"Virtue alone is happiness below :"
The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill⚫
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives,
The joy unequall'd, if its end it gain;
And if it lose, attended with no pain:
Without satiety, tho' e'er so bless'd;
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd⚫
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears.
Good, from each object, from each place acquired.
For ever exercis'd, yet, never tir'd;
Never elated while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's bless'd;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain ;
Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain.
When all thy mercies, O my God
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise.
O how shall words, with equal warmth,
The gratitude declare,
That glows within my ravish'd heart'
But thou canst read it there.
Through all eternity, to thee
A joyful song I'll raise;
For O! eternity's too short
To utter all thy praise.
The Voyage of Life.
Self-flatter'd, unexperienc'd, high in hope,
When young, with sanguine cheer, and streamers gay, We cut our cable, launch into the world,
And fondly dream each wind and star our friend,
Fall in some darling enterprize embark'd.
But where is he can fathom its event?
Amid a multitude of artless hands,
(Ruin's sure perquisite, her lawful prize,)
Some steer aright: but the black blast blows hard,
And puffs them wide of hope. With hearts of proof,
Full against wind and tide, some win their way;
And when strong effort has deserv'd the port,
And tugg'd it into view, 'tis won! 'tis lost!
Though strong their oar, still stronger is their fate:
They strike; and, while they triumph, they expire.
In stress of weather, most, some sink outright.
O'er them, and o'er their names, the billows close
To-morrow knows not they were ever born.
Others, a short memorial leave behind,
Like a flag floating, when the bark's ingulf'd;
It floats a moment, and is seen no more:
One Cæsar lives; a thousand are forgot.
How few, favour'd by ev'ry element,
With swelling sails make good the promis'd port,
With all their wishes freighted! Yet ev'n these,
Freighted with all their wishes, soon complain.
Free from misfortune, not from nature free,
They still are men, and when is man secure?
As fatal time as storm. The rush of years
Beats down their strength; their numberless escaper
In ruin end: and, now, their proud success
But plants new terrors on the victor's brow.
What pain, to quit the world just inade their own!
Their nests so deeply down'd, and built so high!-
Too low they build, who build beneath the stars.
PERSPICUITY AND ACCURACY.
First, with respect to single words and phrases
Corrections of the errors that relate to Purity.
Grammar, p. 250. Exercises, p. 139.
WE should be daily employed in doing good.
I am wearied with seeing so perverse a disposi
I know not who has done this thing.
He is in no wise thy inferior; and, in this instance, is not at all to blame.
The assistance was welcome, and seasonably atforded.
For want of employment, he wandered idly about the fields.
We ought to live soberly, righteously, and piously in the world.
He was long indisposed, and at length died of melancholy.
That word follows the general rule, and takes the penultimate accent.
He was an extraordinary genius, and attracted much attention.
|