 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery
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PROVIDENCE.
Frail king of dust, Man loves to look around,
And think,—“for me the elements abound
With life and motion; shade and sunshine wait
In mixt attendance on my human state;
Light, sea, and air, their glorious spell maintain
That I alone, as Lord of Earth, may reign!”
And yet, what art thou?—but a fleeting breath,
A pulse of life which throbs away in death!
Myriads of creatures round thee move and die,
Minute beyond the ken of mortal eye;
Perfect as thine, their bright existence teems
With beauty, in a paradise of beams;
Or in some crystal-world of water play
A floating populace of insects gay;
And He who bade exalted Man to be
An Image of His own eternity,
Alike to them a form and feature gives,
And not a mote but in His mem'ry lives!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery
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