V. JOB X. 9. Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust again? T HUS from the bosom of the new-made earth Poor man was delv'd*, and had his unborn birth; The same the stuff, the self-same hand doth trim The plant that fades, the beast that dies, and him: One was their sire, one was their common mother, Plants are his sisters, and the beast his brother, The elder too; beasts draw the self-same breath, Wax old alike, and die the self-same death : Plants grow as he, with fairer robes array'd; Alike they flourish, and alike they fade: The beast in sense exceeds him, and, in growth, The three-ag'd oak doth thrice exceed them both. Why look'st thou then so big, thou little span Of earth? what art thou more in being man? I,† but my Creator did inspire My chosen earth with the diviner fire Of reason; gave me judgment and a will; A jurisdiction over sea and land; He gave me art to lengthen out my span * Delv'd; i. e. dug. + I; i. e. Aye. H The The greater height sends down the deeper fall; O mend what thou hast made, what I have broke : $. AU S. AUGUST. Soliloq. xxxii. Shall I ask, who made me? It was thou that madest me, without whom nothing was made: Thou art my maker, and I thy work. I thank thee, my Lord God, by whom I live, and by whom all things subsist, because thou madest me: I thank thee, O my Potter, because thy hands have made me, because thy hands have formed me. EPIG. 5. Why swell'st thou, man, puft up with fame and purse ? |