YCBA Collections Search

Lettered inside image: "25 | We thwart the DEITY; and 'tis decreed, | Who thwart his will shall contradict their own: | Hence our unnatural quarrel with ourselves; | Our thoughts at enmity; our bosom-broil: | We push time from us, and we wish him back; | Lavish of lustrums, and yet fond of life; | Life we think long, and short; death seek, and shun; | Body and soul, like peevish man and wife, | United jar, and yet are loth to part. | Oh the dark days of vanity! while here, | How tasteless! and how terrible when gone! | Gone! they ne'er go; when past, they haunt us still; | The spirit walks of every day deceased; | And smiles an angel, or a fury frowns: | Nor death, nor life delight us--if time past, | And time possess'd, both pain us, what can please? | That which the DEITY to please ordain'd-- | Time used: the man who consecrates his hours | By vigorous effort and an honest aim, At once he draws the sting of life and death; | He walks with nature--and her paths are peace. | Our error's cause and cure are seen: see next | Time's nature, origin, importance, speed; | And thy great gain from urging his career. | All-sensual man, because untouch'd, unseen, | He looks on time as nothing: nothing else | Is truly man's ; 'tis fortune's--Time's a God: | Hast thou ne'er heard of time's omnipotence? | For, or against, what wonders can he do-- | And will! to stand blank neuter he distains."; lower left: "inv & sc | WB"; lower left: "Pubd. June 27. 1796, by R. Edwards, No. 142 New Bond Street."