And hearts obdurate feel her soft'ning shower;
Her seed celestial, then, glad wisdom sows;

Her golden harvest triumphs in the soil.

-Welcome my relapse;

I'll raise a tax on my calamity,

And reap rich compensation from my pain. p. 111.

Prosperity puts out unnumber'd thoughts
Of import high, and light divine, to man.

shows the real estimate of things;

Which no man, unafflicted, ever saw;

think nought

p. 112.

To man so foreign, as the joys possest ;
Nought so much his, as those beyond the grave.

p. 113. The good man's days to Sibyl's books compare, (In ancient story read, thou knowest the tale) In price still rising, as in number less, Inestimable quite his final Hour.

Behold the inexorable hour at hand!

Behold th' inexorable hour forgot!

And to forget it, the chief aim of life,

Tho' well to ponder it, is life's chief end. p. 114.

What the cause,

The wond'rous cause, of this mysterious ill?

*

*

To-day is so like yesterday, it cheats;
We take the lying sister for the same.

p. 115.

'Tis equally man's duty, glory, gain, At once to shun, and meditate his end.

p. 118.

Some weep in perfect justice to the dead,
As conscious all their love is in arrear.

p. 120.

A soul without reflection, like a pile

Without inhabitant, to ruin runs.

p. 121.

Time on this head has snow'd; yet still 'tis borne Aloft; nor thinks but on another's grave,

As if, like objects pressing on the sight,
Death had advanc'd too near us to be seen:

We see time's furrows on another's brow. p. 122.

Tho' grey our heads, our thoughts and aims are green; Like damag'd clocks, whose hand and bell dissent; Folly sings six, while nature points at twelve.

Contract the taste immortal; learn e'en now
To relish what alone subsists hereafter.

p. 123.

Peace and esteem is all that age can hope.
Nothing but wisdom gives the first; the last,
Nothing, but the repute of being wise.

Folly bars both; our age is twice undone.

What folly can be ranker? Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen, as our sun declines..

Our hearts should leave the world, before the knell
Calls for our carcases to mend the soil.
Enough to live in tempest, die in port;
Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat
Defects of judgment, and the will subdue;
Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore
Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon;

And put good works on board; and wait the wind
That shortly blows us into worlds unknown. p. 124.

While man is growing, life is in decrease;
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
And birth is nothing but our death begun ;
As tapers waste, that instant they take fire.

Sinking in virtue as you rise in fame

Your learning, like the lunar beam, affords
Light, but not heat; it leaves you undevout,
Frozen at heart, while speculation shines. p. 126.

Awake, ye curious indagators! fond

Of knowing all, but what avails you, known`;

The feeble wrapt th' athletic in his shroud;
And weeping fathers build their children's tomb ;

Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures,
That life is long which answers life's great end.
The time that bears no fruit, deserves no name;
The man of wisdom is the man of years.

p. 127.

One eye on death and one full fix'd on heav'n
Becomes a mortal, and immortal Man.

P. 129.

Is death uncertain? Therefore thou be fixt;
Fixt as a centinel, all eye, all ear,

All expectation of the coming foe.

Rouse, stand in arms, nor lean against thy spear;
Lest slumber steal one moment o'er thy soul,
And fate surprise thee nodding. Watch, be strong;

O how portentous is prosperity!

p. 131.

How, comet-like, it threatens, while it shines! p. 132.

Yet peace begins just where ambition ends.

*

Gold glitters most, where virtue shines no more;
As stars from absent suns have leave to shine. p. 133.

To some gold sticks so close, that, when torn off,
Torn is the man, and mortal is the wound.

From some by sudden blasts 'tis whirl'd away
And lodg'd in bosoms that ne'er dream'd of gain;
Some, o'er-enamour'd of their bags, run mad,

Groan under gold, yet weep for want of bread. p. 134.

All read their riches backward into loss,

And mourn in just proportion to their store.

*

Was warn'd of danger, but too gay to fear.

p. 135.

Our best deeds,
Our highest joys,

How short our correspondence with the sun!
And while it lasts. inglorious!
How wanting in their weight!
Small cordials to support us in our pain,
And give us strength to suffer.

His nature no man can o'errate; and none

Can underrate his merit. Take good heed,

p. 144.

Nor there be modest, where thou should'st be proud; That almost universal error shun.

p.. 145.

What wretched repetition cloys us here!
What periodic potions for the sick!
Distemper'd bodies! and distemper'd minds!

Heart-merit wanting, mount we ne'er so high,
Our height is but the gibbet of our name.

*

Means have no merit, if our end amiss.

If wrong our hearts, our heads are right in vain;
What is a Pelham's head, to Pelham's heart?
Hearts are proprietors of all applause.

Right ends, and means, make wisdom: worldly wise
Is but half-witted, at its highest praise.