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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:—
Yet are they not in seeming folly wise. 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.

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