26 THE HISTORY OF BEES. 
Yet we, who have an heav'n obtain, ° 
How negligent we live ! 
Good God! on what a flender thread 
Hang everlafting things ! 
Th’ eternal ‘fate of all the dead, 
Upon life’s feeble firings. 
Infinite joy, or endlefs woe, 
Attends on every breath ; 
And yet how unconcern’d we go, 
Upen the brink of death * # 
The Ant has no guide to direct her what to do, no 
overfeer to obferve whether it is done or no, nor ruler 
to punifh her negligence and mifconduct 3 yet acts as if 
it were fo. How doth this aggravate our floth and im- 
providence, who have a guide to fhew us what is good, 
an infpector of all our actions, and a Lord and Ruler 
to whom we are accountable! Shall we then be idle 
and inadtive, and fuffer ourfelves to be outdone by fuch 
creatures as thefe? Would not that be both our fin and 
fhame? 
fa morning fair thefe lab’rers eut the fy, 
Thro’ all the gardens and the meadows fly; 
And free from envy, by their labours ftrive, 
Which fhall contribute moft ? enrich the hive. 
Such 
® Dr. Watts’s Hymns, Lib. 2, H, 25. 55. 
’ 

