Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CANTO III. O PEACE of mind, how happy is the man Who is possessed of thee ! But to be so There is one only course wherein he can Obtain it in this fickle world below: He must look upward, tread the narrow road, For peace of mind can only be with God. Trusting in One above, who giveth all That man is here to suffer or enjoy; He who looks down and marks each sparrow fall Watches how men below their powers employ; Blesses the man who tries to raise mankind, Pities the wayward and the spirit-blind. How oft we see those working for the best Whose life seems lost, in their unheeded toil; Are scorned at, mocked at, rather than are blest, Till some from the true enterprise recoil! But think not ‘tis from Heaven such ills arise; Tis sin alone which Goodness thus defies. Then shall frail mortals make us swerve or shrink From what we know is right, and good, and true- We who upon Eternity’s vast brink Of future bliss have caught a clearer view; Fear to stand forth and to the world proclaim, The strength of goodness, and of sin the shame ? Pleasure on earth is always joined with pain, Except the pleasure which in Truth is found: It flies, and never will be found again, For it has sunk as ashes to the ground. All mortal pleasure soon is o'er and past; Immortal it must be if meant to last. And thus the old man sought the child’s repose; But he found none, because he sought it not In God, who is the Healer of all woes; And peace of mind with Him is without spot. The little one had found it, though unsought, Because it trusted what its mother taught. Poor aged mortal, lost on trouble’s sea ! Again his mind was clouded o'er with grief; The future was as dark as death could be; He had no place to go and find…
