Alike the Busy and the Gay

But flutter thro’ Life’s little day,

In Fortune’s varying colours drest:

Brush’d by the hand of rough Mischance,

Or chill’d by Age, their airy dance

They leave, in dust to rest.

Methinks I hear, in accents low,

The sportive kind reply:

Poor Moralist! and what art thou?

A solitary fly!