When I observ'd the bold oppressions done,
In presence of the all-surveying sun;
Beheld the tears that fell from sorrow's eyes,
No comforter t'assuage her miseries;
With all th' oppressor's pow'rful violence;
While weak integrity found no defence.
For this, before the living I preferr'd
Those whom the quiet caves of death interr'd:
Before them both, such as have yet not been,
Nor these diversities of evil seen.
Again observ'd, how our best actions bred
Ignoble envy, by our virtue fed;
Nor friendship could so great a vice control.
This was a vanity and grief of soul.
The fool sits with his arms across; his hours
In sloth consumes, and his own flesh devours.
Better, saith he, a handful is obtain'd
With happy ease, than two by trouble gain'd.
While I this chase of vanity pursue,
A worse presents her folly to my view:
Lo, one who hath no second, child, or heir,
Wears out his life in restless toil and care,
To gather riches; nor can satisfy,
With all his store, the avarice of his eye;
Nor thinks, for whom do I my soul deceive,
And injur'd nature of her dues bereave?
This is a sore disease, if truly known,
And such a vanity as yields to none.
Two better are than one; of more regard;
Their labour less, and greater their reward.
If either fall, one will the other raise;
When he who walks alone, his life betrays.
If two together lie, both warmth beget;
But he who lies alone receives no heat.
If one prevails, two may that one resist.
Cords hardly break which of three lines consist.
More real worth a poor wise child adorns,
Than an old foolish king who counsel scorns.
He from a prison to a throne ascends:
This, born a prince, his life obscurely ends.
His subjects after his successor run,
As from the setting to the rising sun.
The vulgar are inconstant in their choice,
Nor in the present government rejoice;
The following, as the first, to change inclin'd.
This is a vanity and grief of mind.