POETS AND POETRY, 245 



mon-sense in them, and they will apply as well to-day 

 as they did two hundred years ago.) 



Now, loving friends and countrymen, 



I wish we may be wise ; 

 'Tis now a time for every man 



To see with his own eyes. 



'T is easy to provoke the Lord 



To send a*mong us war; 

 'Tis easy to do violence, 



To envy and to jar; 



To show a spirit that is high, 



To scorn and domineer; 

 To pride it out, as if there were 



No God to make us fear. 



To covet what is not our own, 



To cheat and to oppress, 

 To live a life that might free us 



From acts of righteousness. 



To swear and lie, and to be drunk, 



To backbite one another, 

 To carry tales that may do hurt 



And mischief to our brother. 



To live in such hypocrisy 



As men may think us good, 

 Athough our hearts within are full 



Of evil and of blood. 



All these and many evils more are easy for to do, 



But to repent and to reform we have no strength unto. 



Let us then seek for help from God, and turn to him that smite; 



Let us take heed, that at no time we sin against our light. 



