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I.
Alas! that most our wishes swell
For what is least attainable!
That what we can and what we should
Is so removed from what we would !
Alas! need is we pare and press
The mind to meet its earthly dress,
And mould it to a statue which
May suit its narrow worldly niche!
For what is least attainable!
That what we can and what we should
Is so removed from what we would !
Alas! need is we pare and press
The mind to meet its earthly dress,
And mould it to a statue which
May suit its narrow worldly niche!
For Circumstance is a cruel thing,
Remorseless all, and uncomplying—
And aye bemocketh tears and sighing;—
And Fancy's is too wild a wing,—
And what to sanguine Youth appears
The bud of Smiles, may bloom in Tears!
Remorseless all, and uncomplying—
And aye bemocketh tears and sighing;—
And Fancy's is too wild a wing,—
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The bud of Smiles, may bloom in Tears!
The author has unconciously adopted these lines from Cowper—who has,
“But what we would-so weak is man—Lies oft remote from what we can.”
Sheridan says of plagiarisms, “Faded ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams; and the imagination in its fullest enjoyments becomes suspicious of its offspring, and doubts whether it has created or adopted.” May we not affirm the same in the less lofty case of phrases and turns of expression floating in the memory?
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