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Poems on several subjects

Nicol, Alexander

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[section]
  
TO THE HONOURABLE JAMES HALYBURTON of Pitcur, Esq; Member of Parliament of Orkney and Shetland, and Colonel of the Third Regiment of Foot-Guards, &c.
  
PREFACE.
  
To the Author, on his Collection of Miscellany Poems.
expand sectionI. 
NATURE without ART.
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NATURE without ART.
  
An Invocation to the heavenly Muse.
  
Forty five Wonders; or, an Imitation of a Pamphlet of moral sayings, called, A Book of Fives, or five and forty Wonders.
  
Alphabetical Verses on the Life of MAN, being eight Verses annexed to each Letter.
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The four Seasons of the Year compared to the four Ages of Man's Life, viz. Infancy, Childhood or Youth, Manhood, and old Age.
  
A Meditation at the Communion-table.
  
On the Fall of Man.
  
To the holy Trinity, on the Redemption of Man.
  
A Meditation for a Traveller.
  
Upon the WORLD.
  
A Meditation for a Fast-day before the Communion.
  
A Lamentation, &c.
  
The contented Christian, or the Christian's Content.
  
A Soliloquy for an unregenerate Sinner.
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A BUNDLE OF FLOWERS FOR CHILDREN:
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THE CHILD's COMPANION; IN A NATURAL DIALOGUE BETWIXT A Child and One of riper Years: Useful for Young Ones.
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KING SOLOMON's BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES, IN METRE.
  
On the BOOK.
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King Solomon's Book of Ecclesiastes, in Verse.
 I. 
CHAP. I.
 II. 
CHAP. II.
 III. 
CHAP. III.
 IV. 
CHAP. IV.
 V. 
CHAP. V.
 VI. 
CHAP. VI.
 VII. 
CHAP. VII.
 VIII. 
CHAP. VIII.
 IX. 
CHAP. IX.
 X. 
CHAP. X.
 XI. 
CHAP. XI.
 XII. 
CHAP. XII.

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CHAP. I.

[1]

These words the preacher, David's son and heir,
When king in Salem, wisely did declare.

2

Vanity of vanities, said he,
Behold all is nought else but vanity.

3

What profit can a man propose to have
Of all his labour on this side the grave?

4

One generation passeth hence away,
Another comes; but still the earth doth stay.

5

The sun ariseth, also downward goes,
And hastes to where he at the first arose.

6

The wind it goes toward the South, and then
It turns about unto the North again:
Continually it whirls in circuits round,
And knows no limits, nor restraint of bound.

7

All rivers run into the sea, yet we
No fuller can perceive the same to be:
From whence the rivers at the first do flow,
Thither again they nat'rally do go.
316

8

All things we see are full of labour; so
Man cannot utter, or their labour know:
The eye is not with seeing satisfied,
Nor yet the ear with hearing ever tir'd.

9

The thing that's been, is that which yet shall be;
And what is done, we done again may see:
And there is nothing any man can shew,
Below the sun that can be called New.

10

Is there a thing whereof it may be said,
See this is new, and never being had?
Yea, it hath been long time before us sure,
When our hid substance lay in earth obscure.

11

There's no remembrance of what's past and gone,
Nor after-ages mind what we have done.

12

Now I the preacher was in Salem king,
And over Israel with power did reign.

13

I gave myself by wisdom to search out
All things done under heaven round about:
This travel sore God gives the sons of men,
Therewith to exercise themselves in pain.

14

Yea I have seen all works below the sun;
And lo, they all are vanity when done.

15

That which is crooked straight we cannot see,
And what is wanting cannot numb'red be.

16

With mine own heart I commun'd as I sate:
Lo, now, thought I, I'm come to great estate:
I've got more wisdom, sure, than all of them
That were before me in Jerusalem:
Of wisdom I had great experience,
And I for knowledge us'd great diligence.

17

Wisdom to know I gave myself once wholly:
Also to know what madness was and folly:
And I perceiv'd nothing but grief of spirit
A man by these can any ways inherit:

18

For in much wisdom is much grief; and he
That gets much knowledge, many sorrows see.
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