Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/377

COUNTESS or WINCHILSEA 239 �To rising Bubbles, on the Waters Face; �To fleeting Dreams, that will not stay, 10 �Nor in th' abused. Fancy dance, �When the returning Rays of Light, Resuming their alternate Right, �Break on th' ill-order' d Scene on the fantastick Trance: As weak is Man, whilst Tenant to the Earth ; As frail and as uncertain all his Ways, From the first moment of his weeping Birth, Down to the last and best of his few restless Days ; �When to the Land of Darkness he retires From disappointed Hopes, and frustrated Desires; 20 �Reaping no other Fruit of all his Pain Bestow' d whilst in the vale of Tears below, �But this unhappy Truth, at last to know, That Vanity's our Lot, and all Mankind is Vain. �II �If past the hazard of his tendrest Years, �Neither in thoughtless Sleep opprest, �Nor poison' d with a tainted Breast, Loos' d from the infant Bands and female Cares, �A studious Boy, advanc'd beyond his Age, Wastes the dim Lamp, and turns the restless Page; 30 �For some lov'd Book prevents the rising Day, �And on it, stoln aside, bestows the Hours of Play; Him the observing Master do's design For search of darkned Truths and Mysteries Divine ; �Bids him with unremitted Labour trace The Rise of Empires, and their various Fates, The several Tyrants o'er the several States, �To Babel's lofty Towers, and warlike Nimrod's Race ; Bids him in Paradice the Bank survey, �Where Man, new-moulded from the temper'd Clay, 40 ��� �