In vain do we complain our life is short,
(Which well disposed, great matters might effect)
While we ourselves, in toys and idle sport,
Consume the better part without respect.
And careless (as though time should never end it)
'Twixt sleep, and waking, prodigally spend it.
XII.
Youthful Desire is like the summer season
That lasts not long; for winter must succeed:
And so our Passions must give place to Reason;
And riper years, more ripe effects must breed.
Of all the seed, Youth sowed in vain desires,
I reapèd nought, but thistles, thorns, and briars.
XIII.
Chi non fa, non falla; chi falla, l'amenda.
"To err and do amiss, is given to men by Kind."
"Who walks so sure, but sometimes treads awry?"
But to continue still in errors blind,
A bad and bestial nature doth descry.
"Who proves not; fails not; and brings nought to end:
Who proves and fails, may, afterward, amend."
XIV.
There was but One, and doubtless She the best!
Whom I did more than all the world esteem:
She having failed, I disavow the rest;
For, now, I find "things are not as they seem."
"Default of that, wherein our will is crost,
Ofttimes, unto our good availeth most."
XV.