 | The complete works, poetry and prose, of the Rev. Edward Young prefixed, a life of the author, by John Doran ... With eight illustrations on steel, and a portrait. In two volumes |  |
O my coëvals! remnants of yourselves!
Poor human ruins, tottering o'er the grave!
Shall we, shall aged men, like aged trees,
Strike deeper their vile root, and closer cling,
Still more enamour'd of this wretched soil?
Shall our pale, wither'd hands be still stretch'd out,
Trembling at once with eagerness and age,
With avarice and convulsions grasping hard?
Grasping at air! for what has earth beside?
Man wants but little; nor that little long:
How soon must he resign his very dust,
Which frugal Nature lent him for an hour!
Years unexperienced rush on numerous ills;
And soon as man, expert from time, has found
The key of Life, it opes the gates of Death.
Poor human ruins, tottering o'er the grave!
Shall we, shall aged men, like aged trees,
Strike deeper their vile root, and closer cling,
Still more enamour'd of this wretched soil?
Shall our pale, wither'd hands be still stretch'd out,
Trembling at once with eagerness and age,
With avarice and convulsions grasping hard?
Grasping at air! for what has earth beside?
Man wants but little; nor that little long:
How soon must he resign his very dust,
Which frugal Nature lent him for an hour!
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And soon as man, expert from time, has found
The key of Life, it opes the gates of Death.
| The complete works, poetry and prose, of the Rev. Edward Young prefixed, a life of the author, by John Doran ... With eight illustrations on steel, and a portrait. In two volumes | |