Observations placeholder

GOOD AND ILL.

“LAMENT not, oh, lament not,
Ye who of ill complain!
For all your tears prevent not
The sure approach of pain!

“Go skim the troubled waters!
Flit o’er the earth's dark breast!
Where are her sons and daughters,
Who tell you they are blest?

“Or should some bright delusion
Just set their fears asleep,
They soon, to their confusion,
Find all are born to weep!

“Yet hope inflates our pillows,
And gambols in life's dream;
It gilds the rudest billows,
And prattles in the stream.

“It crests the savage mountain,
Its chorus rends the cloud;
Its sun plays o'er the fountain,
Or stoops beneath the shroud.

“It lends the gales their sweetness,
The groves their rich array;
Each coming joy its fleetness,
And bids each passing stay.

"It clothes the stars with power
To shed a purer light;
It sparkles in the shower,
And whispers in the night.

"Without its aid creation
The aching sight would tire;
The tidings of salvation
Awake no holy fire.

"Thus good and ill before ye
Your Maker deigns to bring;
He blends the shame with glory,
The winter with the spring.

"The ill to show your weakness,
The good to prove his care;
'T is that may teach you meekness,
And this to shun despair.

"Then praise to Thee, Most Holy,
Though good or ill betide!
Oh make thy people lowly,
And cast away our pride!"