Classic Poem

Since in a private Life Men useless grow
Both to themselves, and to the Publick too;
In selfish Ease, e'en while we live, to die,
Were, in One Man, to All an Injury.
And since who live for Publick Use alone,
And vainly lose for others Ease their own,
Can scarce their long Eternal State attend,
Life's great Affair, and Prospect without End;
Nor so the fleeting present Time employ,
As the more lasting Future to enjoy;
'Tis then our Part a middle Course to steer,
To be hereafter blest, and happy here:
And least we by our God seem made in vain,
Thus do our Duty both to God , and Man.

The Body's constant Indolence we find
Becomes by Sloth the Weariness of Mind;
The Mind's Intenseness, and too fixt Employ,
No less our active Body will destroy.
Action and Thought should then successive reign,
Each other's Force by Exercise maintain,
And ease each other by alternate Pain.

Man was no more to live alone design'd,
A shameful Renegade from Humane Kind;
Than him his wise just Maker did create
A publick Slave to drag the Yoke of State.
Yet most in Life's short Course untimely fall
By too much Motion, or by none at all;
And to Themselves, or Others dang'rous grown,
Still prove their Neighbour's Ruin, or their own.

Thus either Men in private useless Ease
Lose a dull Length of undeserving Days;
Or waste, for others Use, their restless Years
In busie Tumults, and in publick Cares,
And run precipitant, with Noise and Strife,
Into the vast Abyss of future Life;
Or others Ease and theirs alike destroy,
Their own Destruction by their Industry.
So Waters putrifie with Rest, and lose
At once their Motion, Sweetness, and their Use;
Or haste in headlong Torrents to the Main,
To lose themselves by what shou'd them maintain,
And in th' impetuous Course themselves the sooner drain:
Neglect their Native Channel, Neighb'ring Coast,
Abroad in foreign Service to be lost;
Or else their Streams, when hinder'd in their Course,
Quite o'er the Banks to their own Ruin force.

The Stream of Life shou'd more securely flow
In constant Motion, nor too swift nor slow,
And neither swell too high, nor sink too low;
Not always glide thro' gloomy Vales, and rove
('Midst Flocks and Shepherds) in the silent Grove;
But more diffusive in its wand'ring Race,
Serve peopled Towns, and stately Cities grace;
Around in sweet Meanders wildly range,
Kept fresh by Motion, and unchang'd by Change.

Delightful Change our fickle Minds will please,
And sweet Vicissitude secures our Ease;
A various Life will best each Want supply
In this wide World of vast Variety:
Where Dangers offer'd from our selves to shun,
We from our selves to sheltring Crowds shou'd run;
But when by that we find we must be squeez'd,
Be spurn'd and trampled, shoulder'd and opprest,
Again to safer Solitude may go,
Where Man has but himself to be his Foe.

As captive Birds in Cages taught to thrive,
If once enlarg'd, in Desarts scarce can live;
And those in Desarts us'd to ply the Wing,
If once confin'd, in Cages scarce will sing:
So ill can Men endure a Change of State,
Forc'd from their own by unexpected Fate.
Those who thro' all the Scenes of Life wou'd be
Still blest, and still from Fortune's Changes free,
Must prove in Life as variable as She;
Of whose Incertainty we but in vain
(Which best our own can disappoint) complain.

In the same State we seek Content in vain,
Since Ease and Pleasure, but for Change, were Pain:
Change is alone our Pleasure and our Ease,
And still is sure, tho' for the worse, to please.
Thus, after surfeiting on Delicates,
The greatest Dainties are the coarsest Meats.
'Tis in our Taste that our Enjoyments lie,
Which please us more from our Inconstancy.
Nor Pow'r, nor Wealth cou'd please, thro' their Excess,
But for our Own or Fortune's Fickleness.
What are the Joys of, Life's chief Blessing, Love,
But various Charms, of various Dames to prove?
And if we're brib'd to Constancy to One,
'Tis by her Charms Variety alone.
Variety must make our Pleasures please;
Variety, ev'n in our Pain, is Ease.
From this Relief, Life like a pleasing Dream,
Does ev'n when longest, the less tedious seem:
In mutual Change all Elements conspire,
'Tis that preserves Earth, Water, Air and Fire,
And Man himself; that Thing of various Minds,
Sprung from the Change of all those changing Kinds!
To Whom that nothing here might tedious grow,
Whatever shines above, or smiles below,
The moving Planets, and the turning Sphere,
The Course of Seasons, and the circling Year,
What lives, or lives not, All to Change are giv'n;
Change rules the Earth, as it supports ev'n Heav'n.

We from our selves alone, and not from Fate,
Derive our happy, or unhappy State;
Since by a publick Life, or private one,
The Busie, or the Idle, are undone,
By too much Strife and Action, or by none:
'Tis not as either can more Pleasure give,
But as in both, we more contented live;
And for all sorts of Changes, never find
A Change in our own constant steady Mind.
If Fates Inconstancy we wou'd prevent,
We, in all States of Life, shou'd seek Content;
So make ev'n Change our best Establishment.