THE VANITIES OF LIFE

What are life’s joys and gains,

  What pleasures crowd its ways,

That man should take such pains

  To seek them all his days?

Sift this untoward strife

  On which thy mind is bent--

See if this chaff of life

  Be worth the trouble spent.

Is pride thy heart’s desire?

  Is power thy climbing aim?

Is love thy folly’s fire?

  Is wealth thy restless game?--

Pride, power, love, wealth, and all,

  Time’s touchstone shall destroy;

And, like base coin, prove all

  Vain substitutes for joy.

Dost think thy pride exalts

  Thyself in others’ eyes,

And hides thy folly’s faults,

  Which reason will despise?

Dost strut, and turn, and stride,

  Like walking weathercocks?

The shadow, by thy side,

  Becomes thy ape, and mocks.

Dost think that power’s disguise

  Can make thee mighty seem?

It may in folly’s eyes,

  But not in worth’s esteem.

When all that thou canst ask,

  And all that she can give,

Is but a paltry mask,

  Which tyrants wear and live.

Go, let thy fancies range,

  And ramble where they may

View power in every change,

  And what is its display?--

The country magistrate,

  The lowest shade in power,

To rulers of the state?--

  The meteors of an hour.

View all, and mark the end

  Of every proud extreme,

Where flattery turns a friend,

  And counterfeits esteem;

Where worth is aped in show,

  That doth her name purloin--

As toys of golden glow,

  Are sold for copper coin.

Ambition’s haughty nod

  With fancies may deceive--

Nay, tell thee thou’rt a god;

  And wilt thou such believe?

Go, bid the seas be dry;

  Go, hold earth like a ball;

Or throw thy fancies by,

  For God can do it all.

Dost thou possess the dower

  Of laws, to spare or kill?

Call it not heavenly power,

  When but a tyrant’s will.

Know what a god will do,

  And know thyself a fool;

Nor tyrant-like pursue,

  Where he alone should rule.

O put away thy pride,

  Or be ashamed of power

That cannot turn aside

  The breeze that waves a flower;

Or bid the clouds be still--

  Though shadows, they can brave

Thy poor power-mocking will,

  Then make not man a slave.

Dost think, when wealth is won,

  Thy heart has its desire?

Hold ice up to the sun,

  And wax before the fire;

Nor triumph o’er the reign

  Which they so soon resign,

In this world’s ways they gain

  Insurance safe as thine.

Dost think life’s peace secure

  In houses and in land?

Go, read the fairy lure--

  To twist a cord of sand,

Lodge stones upon the sky,

  Hold water in a sieve;

Nor give such tales the lie,

  And still thine own believe.

Whoso with riches deals,

  And thinks peace bought and sold,

Will find them slippery eels,

  That slide the firmest hold;

Though sweet as sleep with health

  Thy lulling luck may be,

Pride may o’erstride thy wealth,

  And check prosperity.

Dost think that beauty’s power

  Life’s sweetest pleasure gives?

Go, pluck the summer flower,

  And see how long it lives:

Behold the rays glide on

  Along the summer plain,

’Ere thou canst say, “They’re gone!”

  And measure beauty’s reign.

Look on the brightest eye,

  Nor teach it to be proud,

But view the clearest sky,

  And thou shalt find a cloud;

Nor call each face you meet

  An angel’s, ’cause it’s fair,

But look beneath your feet,

  And think of what they are.

Who thinks that love doth live

  In beauty’s tempting show,

Shall find his hopes misgive,

  And melt in reason’s thaw;

Who thinks that pleasure lies

  In every fairy bower,

Shall oft, to his surprise,

  Find poison in the flower.

Dost lawless passions grasp?--

  Judge not thou deal’st in joy;

Its flowers but hide the asp,

  Thy revels to destroy.

Who trusts a harlot’s smile,

  And by her wiles is led,

Plays with a sword the while,

  Hung dropping o’er his head.

Dost doubt my warning song?--

  Then doubt the sun gives light;

Doubt truth to teach the wrong,

  And wrong alone as right;

And live as lives the knave,

  Intrigue’s deceiving guest;

Be tyrant or be slave,

  As suits thy ends the best.

Or pause amid thy toils

  For visions won and lost,

And count the fancied spoils,

  If ’ere they quit the cost;

And if they still possess,

  Thy mind as worthy things;

Plat straws with bedlam Bess,

  And call them diamond rings.

Thy folly’s past advice,

  Thy heart’s already won,

Thy fall’s above all price,

  So go and be undone:

For all who thus prefer

  The seeming great for small,

Shall make wine vinegar,

  And sweetest honey gall.

Would’st heed the truths I sing,

  To profit wherewithal?

Clip Folly’s wanton wing,

  And keep her within call.

I’ve little else to give,

  What thou canst easy try;

The lesson how to live,

  Is but to learn to die.