Human Life

What mortal, when he saw,     Lifes voyage done, his heavenly Friend,     Could ever yet dare tell him fearlessly:     I have kept uninfringd my natures law;     The inly-written chart thou gayest me     To guide me, I have steerd by to the end?     Ah! let us make no claim     On lifes incognizable sea     To too exact a steering of our way!     Let us not fret and fear to miss our aim     If some fair coast has lured us to make stay,     Or some friend haild us to keep company !     Aye, we would each fain drive     At random, and not steer by rule!     Weakness! and worse, weakness bestowd in vain!     Winds from our side the unsuiting consort rive,     We rush by coasts where we had lief remain;     Man cannot, though he would, live chances fool.     No! as the foaming swathe     Of torn-up water, on the main,     Falls heavily away with long-drawn roar     On either side the black deep-furrowd path     Cut by an onward-labouring vessels prore,     And never touches the ship-side again;     Even so we leave behind,     As, charterd by some unknown Powers,     We stem across the sea of life by night,     The joys which were not for our use designd,     The friends to whom we had no natural right,     The homes that were not destined to be ours.