“ Truths that the learn’ d pursue with eager thought 
Are not important always as dear bought, 
Proving at last, though told in pompous Strains, 
A childish waste of philosophic pains ; 
But truths, on which depends our main concern, 
That ’tis our shame and misery not to learn, 
Shine by the side of every path we tread 
With such a lustre, he that runs may read. 
’Tis true that, if to trifle life away 
Down to the sunset of their latest day, 
Then perish on futurity’s wide shore 
Like fleeting exhalations, found no more, 
Were all that heaven required of human kind, 
. And all the plan them destiny design’d, 
What none could reverence all might justly blame, 
And man would breathe but for his Maker’s shame. 
But reason heard, and nature v r efl perused, 
At once the dreaming mind is disabused. 
If all we find possessing earth, sea, air, 
Reflect his attributes, who placed them there, 
Fulfil the purpose, and appear design’d 
Proofs of the wisdom of the all-seeing mind ; 
’Tis plain the creature, whom He chose to invest 
With kingship and dominion o’er the rest, 
Received his nobler nature, and was made 
Fit for the power in which he stands array’d ; 
That first, or last, hereafter, if not here, 
He, too, might make his author’s wisdom clear, 
Praise him on earth, or, obstinately dumb, 
Suffer his justice in a world to come.” 
COWPER. 
