Me thought and phrase
Severely sifting out the whole idea, grant.
TRANSPOSED.
Eternal Spirit! God of truth! to whom all things seem to be as they
really are, inspire thou my song; and unscale thou my eyes: teach thou
_to_ me the thing which is substance; and teach thou _to_ me the thing
which is shadow, while I sing of things which are to come, as one sings
of things which are past rehearsing. Grant thou _to_ me thought and
phraseology which shall severely sift out the whole idea.
THE VOYAGE OF LIFE.
How few, favored by ev'ry element,
With swelling sails make good the promised port,
With all their wishes freighted! Yet ev'n these,
Freighted with all their wishes, soon complain.
Free from misfortune, not from nature free,
They still are men; and when is man secure?
As fatal time, as storm. The rush of years
Beats down their strength; their numberless escapes
In ruin end: and, now, their proud success
But plants new terrors on the victor's brow.
What pain, to quit the world just made their own!
Their nests so deeply downed and built so high!--
Too low they build, who build beneath the stars.
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