Then would'st thou murmur not, but bless the Providence,
which in so short a span, made thee the instrument of wide and spreading
blessings, to the helpless and oppressed! Though sinking in decrepit age,
he prematurely falls, whose memory records no benefit conferred by him on
man. They only have lived long, who have lived virtuously.
_Sheridan._
3
O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are
thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful
beauty: the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale,
sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone: who can be a
companion of thy course? The oaks of the mountains fall; the mountains
themselves decay with years; the ocean shrinks and grows again; the moon
herself is lost in the heavens; but thou art forever the same, rejoicing in
the brightness of thy course. When the world is dark with tempests, when
thunders roll and lightnings fly, thou lookest in thy beauty from the
clouds, and laughest at the storm.
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