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.