Classic Poem

Like bubbling Springs, we all begin our Course,
Thro' Life, from some unknown and little Source;
Rip'ning in Years, like spreading Floods we run,
Traverse a World at large, to us unknown,
And drive incessantly each other on.
Silent, when deep, like Streams, our Reason flows,
And still more Noisy, as more Shallow, grows.
Like Rivers too, a winding Course we take,
Indent with Frauds, and crooked Contracts make.
Grown bold in Crimes, with more licentious Course.
Thro' other Mens Proprieties we force,
Like Rivers, that no Bound or Channel know,
Devouring all the Lands we can o'erflow.
Our Hours, Days, Years, course one another on,
As Floods, but to be lost, to th' Ocean run.
And like those Floods, fierce and precipitate,
We hurry on the Torrent of our Fate,
Fond in the vast Abyss of Time to lie,
Drunk up in circular Eternity!
Where all alike, when once we come to fall,
Are lost in one unfathom'd General.
Ev'n as those Streams, which to the Ocean run,
Swell up his Current, but quite lose their own.