VANITY.
Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.—Job, xxxv. 13.
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth: and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.—Psalm xxxix. 5.
Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.—Psalm cxliv. 4.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.—Ecclesiastes, i. 2.
Cast not thy serious wit on idle things,
Make not thy free-will slave to vanity.
Davies.
What well-devised ear regards
What earth can say?
Thy words are gold, but thy regards
Are painted clay:
Thy cunning can but pack the cards,
Thou canst not play:
Thy game at weakest, still thou vy’st:
If seen and then revy’d, deny’st;
Thou art not what thou seem’st false world, thou ly’st.
Thy tinsel bosom seems a mint
Of new coined treasure:
A paradise that hath no stint,
No change, no measure,
A painted cask, but nothing in it,
Nor wealth, nor pleasure,
Vain earth! that falsely thus comply’st
With man; vain man! that thou rely’st
On earth; vain man, thou dot’st, vain earth, thou ly’st.
What mean dull souls, in this high measure
To haberdash
In earth’s bare wares, whose greatest treasure
Is drop and trash?
The height of whose enchanting pleasure
Is but a flash?
Are these the goods that thou supply’st
Us mortals with? Are these the highest?
Can these bring cordial peace! vain world thou ly’st.
Francis Quarles.
The pride
And wand’ring vanity, when least was safe,
Rejected my forewarning.
Milton.
The man we celebrate must find a tomb,
And we that worship him, ignoble graves.
Nothing is proof against the general curse
Of vanity, that seizes all below.
Cowper.
How wise a short retreat to steal,
The vanity of life to feel,
And from its cares to fly:
To act one calm, domestic scene,
Earth’s bustle and the grave between,
Retire, and learn to die!
Hannah More.
Lord, let me know mine end,
My days, how brief their date,
That I may timely comprehend
How frail my best estate.
My life is but a span
Mine age is nought with Thee;
Man, in his highest honour, man
Is dust and vanity.
James Montgomery.
Art thou puffed with vanity?
Hear the preacher, what saith he?
Be thy state however great,
Lofty though thy station be,
Like a shadow, o’er a meadow
Swiftly that is seen to flee:
Like a morning flower that soon
Withers in the eye of noon;
Like a gleam, upon a stream,
That we but a moment see;—
Such thou art, oh, haughty man,
And thy days are but a span;
And thy works, however strong,
May not have endurance long;
And thy thoughts, however high,
What are they but vanity?
Egone.