In hope a king doth go to war,
In hope a lover lives full long, In hope a merchant sails full far,
In hope just men do suffer wrong; In hope the ploughman sows his seed; Thus hope helps thousands at their need; Then faint not, heart, among the rest, Whatever chance, hope thou the best.
Richard Alison.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him, for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely. Bacon.
TO SENSIBILITY.
Celestial spring to nature's favourites given,
Fed by the dews which bathe the flowers of heaven,
From the pure chrystal of thy fountain flow,
The tears that trickle o'er another's woe,
The silent drop that calms our own distress
The gust of rapture at a friend's success.
Thine the soft show'rs down beauty's breast that steal
To soothe the heart-wounds they can never heal;
Thine too, the tears of extasy that roll,
When genius whispers to the list'ning soul:
And thine the hallow'd flood that drowns the eye,
When pure religion lifts the thoughts on high.
