II.
Much of delusion mixed with truth we find,
Strange whims, and twinings in the human mind:
Delusions, fictions, foibles, glittering lies,
Frescoed with truth, seem real as the skies.
At the same table, sitting side by side,
Oft we do see Humility and Pride,
Wit, Genius, Learning, the great man of law,
In social converse with the man of straw.
Extremes oft meet around the festive board,
An honest beggar and a thieving lord;
Jew, Gentile, Greek, will with the Christian sit,
Say grace, or not—it matters not a whit;
They pass the time most pleasantly away,
But cheat each other on the coming day.
The rich, the poor, the freeman and the slave,
The noble monarch and the princely knave,
Are onward floating with the ebbing tide
Down the great stream of life—on every side
Dangers beset—on the storm-beaten coast
Are wreck’d together—in the grave are lost.