AGAINST PROCRASTINATION.

Young.

Be wise to- | day; | 'tis | madness | to de- |

fer; 11771

Next day the | fatal | precedent

Thus on, till | wisdom
life;។ | ។ ។ | ។ ។ |
Pro-crastination is the
Year after year it | steals, |

will plead, |11|

is pushed out of |

thief of time; 1 till | all are | fled,▼

And to the mercies of a | moment | leaves |

The vast con- | cerns

of an e- | ternal | scene.

If not so frequent, would not | this be | strange? || That 'tis so frequent, this is | stranger | still. ។។។។ |

Of | Man's mi- | raculous mis- | takes, | this | bears

For-ever on the | brink of being born. 1971 All pay themselves the compliment to think | [

They one day I shall not | drivel; and their | pride On this re-version | takes up | ready | praise,| At least their own: their | future | selves |

ap- plaud;1911/191

How | excellent that life | they | ne'er will | lead! 771

Time lodged in their | own | hands is folly's | vails; 171

That lodged in | fate's, to | wisdom | they con- sign; 11

The thing they can't but | purpose, | they post- |

pone;

'Tis not in | Folly, And scarce more.

All | promise

And that

not to | scorn a | fool; ||

in | human | wisdom, │to | do |

77771

is poor | dilatory | man,

through every stage: 11

when young, in- | deed, |

In full content we | sometimes | nobly | rest
Un-anxious for our-selves; and only wish,
Asduteous sons, our | fathers were
more wise. 171

At thirty
a fool;

Knows it at forty,

and re- | forms his | plan; ;|11| At | fifty || chides his | infamous de- | lay, 1|

Pushes his prudent | purpose to re-solve; | In all the magna- | nimity of | thought Re-solves; | and | re-re- | solves; then | dies the same. |19|19|

EXTRACT FROM COWPER'S TASK.

Book 5.

Acquaint thyself with | God, if thou would'st taste

His works. 11 Ad- | mitted | once to his em- brace

Thou shalt per- | ceive that thou wast | blind be- | fore: 771

Thine eye shall be in- | structed; and thine |

heart,

Made pure, shall relish with di- | vine de- | light

Till then un- felt, what 'hands di- | vine have wrought. 17|

Brutes graze the mountain | top, with faces | prone

And eyesin- tent upon the | scanty | herb,

With what he | views. The | landscape | has his praise, |

But not its author. Uncon- | cerned |

who formed

The paradise he sees, he | finds it | such

And in the school of sacred | wisdom taught ||

To read

his wonders, in whose thought |

the world, 1991

Fair as it is,

ex-isted | ere it was: 1

Not for its own | sake | merely, | but for | his
Much more, who | fashioned it,

praise;

he

gives it |

Praise that from | earth re- | sulting, as it | ought ។ | ។ ។ |

To earth's ac- | knowledged | sovereign, 791 finds at once

Its only just pro- | prietorin | Him 17|11|17| The soul that | sees him, or re- |ceives sub- |

limed New faculties,

or learns at | least to em- | ploy || the powers she | owned be- |

Dis- cerns in all things | what with | stupid | gaze |

1

Of ¦ ignorance, till then she | over- | looked,|| Aray of heavenly | light, gilding all | forms Terrestrial in the vast and the mi- nute; 11 The | unam- | biguous | footsteps of the | God,| Who gives its lustre | to an | insect's | wing,| And wheels his throne upon the rolling |

worlds.

991

Much conversant with heaven, she | often |

holds

With those fair | ministers of light to | man, ¦ | That fill the skies nightly with | silent | pomp, Sweet conference. 111 In- | quires what |

strains were they

With which heaven | rang, when every |

star in haste |

To gratulate the Sent forth a voice,

new-cre- | ated ¦ earth, | and all the | sons of God |

Shouted for joy1|11|17| "Tell me, ye | shining hosts,||

That navigate a | sea that knows no storms, Beneath a vault un- | sullied with a cloud, 9| If from your ele- | vation, | | whence ye | view | Distinctly scenes in-visible to | man,|7| And systems, of whose | birth no | tidings | yet | | Have reached this | nether | world, |

spy a race

||ye|

Favored as ours; trans- gressors from the |

womb,

And hastening to a grave, yet doomed to rise,

And to possess a | brighter | heaven than | yours? |
As one who | long de- | tained on | foreign | shores,
Pants to re- turn and when he | sees a- | far |
His country's | weather bleached | and | batter-
ed | rocks,

From the green | wave e- | merging, darts an eye Radiant with joy towards the | happy | land; 1 So I with | animated | hopes be- | hold,| And many an | aching | wish, your beamy |

fires,

That show like | beacons

in the | blue a- | byss,|| Ordained to guide the em- | bodied | spirit | home | | From toilsome life

to never-ending

That give assurance of their own suc- | cess, 17.71