He paused a while; at last he thus began:
“Sachem of many moons, and wise as gray!
Well knowest thou how short the life of man;
These aged oaks have witnessed the decay
Of many a generation of thy clan,
Which flourished like their leaves, and past away;
Why war ye, then, upon a life so brief!—
Why fill its little span with wretchedness and grief?
XXVI.
“But they who seek the pure unmingled goods