Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed: Who does the best his circumstance allows Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more.
"I 've lost a day!"--the prince who nobly cried, Had been an emperor without his crown.[307-1]
Ah, how unjust to Nature and himself Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man!
Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites, Hell threatens.
Whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile.
'T is greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bore to heaven.
Thoughts shut up want air, And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun.
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.
Woes cluster. Rare are solitary woes; They love a train, they tread each other's heel.[308-1]
Beautiful as sweet, And young as beautiful, and soft as young, And gay as soft, and innocent as gay!
Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay; And if in death still lovely, lovelier there; Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love.[308-2]
Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself That hideous sight,--a naked human heart.
The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave, The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm.
Man makes a death which Nature never made.
And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.
Wishing, of all employments, is the worst.
Man wants but little, nor that little long.[308-3]
A Christian is the highest style of man.[308-4]
Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.
Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhal'd and went to heaven.[308-5]
We see time's furrows on another's brow, And death intrench'd, preparing his assault; How few themselves in that just mirror see!
Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.[309-1]
While man is growing, life is in decrease; And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb. Our birth is nothing but our death begun.[309-2]
That life is long which answers life's great end.
Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.[309-3]
Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.