HUMAN LIFE°
Reading edition
HUMAN LIFE°
What mortal, when he saw, Life's voyage done, his heavenly Friend, Could ever yet dare tell him fearlessly: °4"I have kept uninfringed my nature's law°; °5The inly-written chart° thou gavest me, To guide me, I have steer'd by to the end"? Ah! let us make no claim, °8On life's incognisable° sea, To too exact a steering of our way; 10Let us not fret and fear to miss our aim, If some fair coast have lured us to make stay, Or some friend hail'd us to keep company. Ay! we would each fain drive At random, and not steer by rule. 15Weakness! and worse, weakness bestow'd in vain Winds from our side the unsuiting consort rive, We rush by coasts where we had lief remain; Man cannot, though he would, live chance's fool. [p.92] No! as the foaming swath 20Of torn-up water, on the main, Falls heavily away with long-drawn roar On either side the black deep-furrow'd path °23Cut by an onward-labouring vessel's prore,° And never touches the ship-side again; 25Even so we leave behind, As, charter'd by some unknown Powers °27We stem° across the sea of life by night, The joys which were not for our use design'd;— The friends to whom we had no natural right, 30The homes that were not destined to be ours.