Psalm XC. Verse 12.
Teach me my days to number, and apply
My trembling heart to wisdom.
Young.—Night IX. Line 1314.
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. I. Line 113.
Vain man would trace the mystic maze
With foolish wisdom, arguing, charge his God,
His balance hold,
and guide his angry rod;
New-mould the spheres, and mend the skies’ design,
And sound th’ immense
with his short scanty line.
Do thou, my soul, the destin’d period wait,
When God shall solve the dark decrees
of fate,
His now unequal dispensation clear,
And make all wise and beautiful appear.
Tickell.—Thoughts on King Charles’ Picture.
All human wisdom to divine is folly;
This truth, the wisest man made melancholy.
Denham.—Progress of Learning.
How ill agree the views of vain mankind,
And the wise counsels of th’ eternal mind!
Pope.—The Iliad, Book X. Line 116.
Thy form benign, O goddess! wear,
Thy philosophic train be there,
The generous spark extinct revive;
Teach me to love and to forgive;
Exact my own
defects to scan;
What others are to feel, and know myself a man.
Gray.—Hymn to Adversity, Verse 6.