Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/338

 328 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

And, to reward him for the past, His peace shall perfect be at last.

��Like them that climb the mountain's height,

He from a safe but rocky steep Beholds far down delusion's light,

From error's clouds that 'neath him sweep, Darting through storms its vivid flash. Followed by passion's thunder-crash.

Yet, o'er the tempest raised secure. He, lordly throned in worlds serene,

Looks from a cloudless sky and pure Upon the wild, distracting scene,

As calmly as his eyes survey

The sunset of a summer's day.

��TO A LEARNED MAN DREADING THE APPROACH OF OLD AGE.

And dost thou grieve, because old age

Comes travelling on so fast, Because life's weary pilgrimage

Must wear thee out at last ? Do wrinkled brows and locks of gray

Thy troubled fancy fright 1 The sun hath beamed on all thy day —

Why dread the moon at night ?

No, let the bad, the vain, the weak,

The flight of time regret. In pleasure's ranks who vainly seek

Their errors to forget.

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