"O World! so few the years we live, Were life indeed! Alas! thy sorrows fall so fast, Our happiest hour is when at last The soul is freed. Our days are covered o'er with grief, Veil all in gloom; Left desolate of real good, Within this cheerless solitude No pleasures bloom. Thy pilgrimage begins in tears, And ends in bitter doubts and fears, Or dark despair; Midway so many toils appear, That he who lingers longest here Thy goods are bought with many a groan And weary hearts; Fleet-footed is the approach of woe, But with a lingering step and slow Note 45, p. 229.-My grave! Nils Juel was a celebrated Danish admiral, and Peder Wessel a vice-admiral, who, for his great prowess, received the popular title of Tordenskiold, or Thunder-shield. In childhood he was a tailor's apprentice, and rose to his high rank before the age of twenty-eight, when he was killed in a duel. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY T. NELSON AND SONS. |