Thus nature gives us let it check our pride

The virtue nearest to our vice allied

See the sole bliss Heavn 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 blest 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 evry 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 I am wrong Oh 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

Benevolence.

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 evry creature in of ev ry kind

Earth smiles around with boundless bounty blest
And Heav n beholds its image in his breast

Happiness.

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 blest

And but more relish d as the more distress d

The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears

Less pleasing far than virtues very tears

Good from each object from each place acquir d

For ever exercis d yet never tir d

Never elated while one man s oppress d

Never dejected while another s blest

And where no wants no wishes can remain

Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.

Gratitude.

When all thy mercies O my God

My rising soul surveys

Transported with the view Im 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

Thy providence my life sustain d
And all my wants redress d
When in the silent womb I lay
And hung upon the breast

To all my weak complaints and cries

Thy mercy lent an ear

Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learnt
To form themselves in pray r

Unnumber d comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestow d
Before my infant heart conceiv d

From whom those comforts flow d

When in the slipp ry paths of youth

With heedless steps I ran

Thine arm unseen convey d me safe

And led me up to man

Through hidden dangers toils and death

It gently cleard my way

And through the pleasing snares of vice

More to be fear d than they

When worn with sickness oft hast thou

With health renew d my face

And when in sin and sorrow sunk

Reviv d my soul with grace

Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss
Has made my cup run o er

And in a kind and faithful friend
Has doubled all my store

Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ

Nor is the least a cheerful heart

That tastes those gifts with joy

Through ev ry period of my life
Thy goodness Ill pursue

And after death in distant worlds

The glorious theme renew

When nature fails and day and night

Divide thy works no more

My ever grateful heart O Lord

Thy mercy shall adore

Through all eternity to thee

A joyful song Ill 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

All in some darling enterprise embark d

But where is he can fathom its event

Amid a multitude of artless hands

Ruins 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 beneath auspicious planets born
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 escapes

In ruin end and now their proud success

But plants new terrors on the victor s brow

What pain to quit the world just made their own
Their nests so deeply down d and built so high
Too law they build who build beneath the stars