What ground, alas! has any man To set his heart on things below, Which, when they seem most like to stand, Fly like an arrow from a bow? Things subject to exterior sense Are to mutation most propense. If stately houses we erect, And therein think to take delight, On what a sudden are we checked, And all our hopes made groundless quite! One little spark in ashes lays What we were building half our days. If on estate an eye we cast, And pleasure there expect to find, A secret providential blast Gives disappointment to our mind: Who now’s on top ere long may feel The circling motion of the wheel. If we our tender babes embrace, And comfort hope in them to have, Alas! in what a little space Is hope, with them, laid in the grave! Whatever promiseth content Is in a moment from us rent. This world cannot afford a thing Which, to a well-composed mind, Can any lasting pleasure bring, But in its womb its grave will find. All things unto their centre tend; What had {230} beginning will have end. But is there nothing then that’s sure For man to fix his heart upon— Nothing that always will endure, When all these transient things are gone? Sad state! where man, with grief oppressed Finds nought whereon his mind may rest. O yes; there is a God above, Who unto men is also nigh, On whose unalterable love We may with confidence rely, No disappointment can befall Us, having him that’s All in All. If unto Him we faithful be, It is impossible to miss Of whatsoever He shall see Conducible unto our bliss. What can of pleasure him prevent Who hath the fountain of content? In Him alone if we delight, And in His precepts pleasure take, We shall be sure to do aright— ’Tis not His nature to forsake. A proper object’s He alone, For man to set his heart upon. _Domino mens nixa quieta est_. The mind which upon God is stayed Shall with no trouble be dismayed. T. E. KENT, _the 4th of the Seventh Month_, 1650. A copy of the foregoing lines, enclosed in a letter of condolence, I sent by the first post into Buckinghamshire, to my dear friends the afflicted parents; and upon my return home, going to visit them, we sat down, and solemnly mixed our sorrows and tears together.