University of Virginia Library

DEAR GIFTS.

Life's best gifts are bought dearly. Wealth is won
By years of toil, and often comes too late:
With pleasure comes satiety; and pomp
Is compassed round with vexing vanities:
And genius, earth's most glorious gift, that lasts
When all beside is perished in the dust—
How bitter is the suffering it endures!
How dark the penalty that it exacts!