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The poetical works of Isaac Watts and Henry Kirke White
The poetical works of Isaac Watts and Henry Kirke White Author:Isaac Watts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EARTH AND HEAVEN. Hast thou not seen, impatient boy, Hast thou not read the solemn truth That gray experience writes for giddy youth On every mortal jo... more »y— ' Pleasure must be dash'd with pain ?' And yet, with heedless haste, The thirsty boy repeats the taste, Nor hearkens to despair, but tries the bowl again. The rills of pleasure never run sincere; Earth has no unpolluted spring ; From the curs'd soil some dangerous taint they bear; So roses grow on thorns, and honey wears a sting. In vain we seek a heaven below the sky; The world has false, but flattering, charms: Its distant joys show big in our esteem, But lessen still as they draw near the eye; In our embrace the visions die, And when we grasp the airy forms, We lose the pleasing dream. Earth, with her scenes of gay delight, Is but a landskip rudely drawn With glaring colors, and false light ; Distance commends it to the sight, For fools to gaze upon ; But bring the nauseous daubing nigh, Coarse and confus'd the hideous figures lie, Dissolve the pleasure, and offend the eye. Look up. my soul, pant toward the eternal hills ; Those heavens are fairer than they seem ; There pleasures all sincere glide on in crystal rills, There not a dreg of guilt defiles, Nor grief disturbs the stream. That Canaan knows no noxious thing, No cursed soil, no tainted spring, Nor roses grow on thorns, nor honey wears a sting. FELICITY ABOVE. No, 'tis in vain to seek for bliss ; For bliss can ne'er be found Till we arrive where Jesus is, And tread on heavenly ground. There 'a nothing round these painted skies, Or round this dusty clod, Nothing, my soul, that's worth thy joys, Or lovely as thy God. 'Tis heaven on earth to taste his love, To feel his quickening grace; And...« less