'We poets, in our youth, begin in gladness,
But thereof cometh, in the end, despondency and madness.'

'Vanity of vanities! saith'--not the Preacher only, but the inmost
heart of every godless man and woman--'vanity of vanities! all is
vanity!'

And do not forget that, partial and transient as these satisfactions
of which I have been speaking are, they derive what power of helping
and satisfying is in them only from the silence of our consciences,
and our success in being able to shut out realities. One word, they
say, spoken too loud, brings down the avalanche, and beneath its
white, cold death, the active form is motionless and the beating heart
lies still. One word from conscience, one touch of an awakened
reflectiveness, one glance at the end--the coffin and the shroud and
what comes after these--slay your worldly satisfactions as surely as
that falling snow would crush some light-winged, gauzy butterfly that
had been dancing at the cliff's foot. Your jewellery is all imitation.
It is well enough for candle-light. Would you like to try the testing
acid upon it? Here is a drop of it. 'Know thou that for all these
things God will bring thee into judgment.' Does it smoke? or does it
stand the test? Here is another drop. 'This night thy soul shall be
required of thee.' Does it stand that test? My brother! do not be
afraid to take in all the facts of your earthly life, and do not
pretend to satisfy yourselves with satisfactions which dare not face
realities, and shrivel up at their presence.

These fatal helpers come as friends and allies, and they remain as
masters. Ahaz and a hundred other weak princes have tried the policy