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DESIRE AND POSSESSION
What strange necessity compels mankind
To yearn for objects not to be attained?
To all their benefits and blessings blind
Nothing will please bat what can ne'er be gained,
Or which when gained will give but little pleasure,
Like a child's toy, the plaything of an hour,
Then cast aside, no longer thought a treasure—
Reach them or reach them not, the grapes are sour:
This all men prove, and yet by proof untaught.
For ever chase new objects of desire,
Whose unsubstantial value's but in thought,
And whose huge cost beggars the foolish buyer:—
To yearn for objects not to be attained?
To all their benefits and blessings blind
Nothing will please bat what can ne'er be gained,
Or which when gained will give but little pleasure,
Like a child's toy, the plaything of an hour,
Then cast aside, no longer thought a treasure—
Reach them or reach them not, the grapes are sour:
This all men prove, and yet by proof untaught.
For ever chase new objects of desire,
Whose unsubstantial value's but in thought,
And whose huge cost beggars the foolish buyer:—
Yet are they not in seeming folly wise.
Since in the chase at least some pleasure lies?
Since in the chase at least some pleasure lies?
MAN AND NATURE
Here is the source of man's unhappiness:—
That he regards himself as nature's crown,
To pleasure whom Fate should relax its stress,
And humbly to his needs or whims bow down.
How small his part upon the Eternal Stage,
What petty passions rage within his breast,
His microscopic vision cannot gauge,
But magnifies his actions worst and best
To huge proportions. Will he learn at last
He's but a bubble on the ocean wave,
A grain of sand upon the seashore vast?
Learn this, all's learned; for then he will not crave
What cannot be awarded; but will bend
His reason to achieve its proper end.
That he regards himself as nature's crown,
To pleasure whom Fate should relax its stress,
And humbly to his needs or whims bow down.
How small his part upon the Eternal Stage,
What petty passions rage within his breast,
His microscopic vision cannot gauge,
But magnifies his actions worst and best
To huge proportions. Will he learn at last
He's but a bubble on the ocean wave,
A grain of sand upon the seashore vast?
Learn this, all's learned; for then he will not crave
What cannot be awarded; but will bend
His reason to achieve its proper end.
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