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| WHEN the black-letter’d list to the gods was presented, | |
| (The list of what Fate for each mortal intends) | |
| At the long string of ills a kind goddess relented | |
| And slipt in three blessings—wife, children, and friends. | |
| |
| In vain surly Pluto maintained he was cheated, | 5 |
| For justice divine could not compass her ends; | |
| The scheme of man’s penance he swore was defeated, | |
| For earth becomes heaven with wife, children, and friends. | |
| |
| If the stock of our bliss is in stranger hands vested, | |
| The fund ill-secured oft in bankruptcy ends; | 10 |
| But the heart issues bills which are never protested | |
| When drawn on the firm of Wife, Children, and Friends. | |
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| Though valour still glows in his life’s waning embers, | |
| The death-wounded tar who his colours defends, | |
| Drops a tear of regret as he dying remembers | 15 |
| How blest was his home with wife, children, and friends. | |
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| The soldier, whose deeds live immortal in story, | |
| Whom duty to far distant latitudes sends, | |
| With transport would barter whole ages of glory | |
| For one happy day with wife, children, and friends. | 20 |
| |
| Though spice-breathing gales o’er his caravan hover, | |
| Though round him Arabia’s whole fragrance ascends, | |
| The merchant still thinks of the woodbines that cover | |
| The bower where he sat with wife, children, and friends. | |
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| The day-spring of youth, still unclouded by sorrow, | 25 |
| Alone on itself for enjoyment depends; | |
| But drear is the twilight of age if it borrow | |
| No warmth from the smiles of wife, children, and friends. | |
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| Let the breath of Renown ever freshen and cherish | |
| The laurel which o’er her dead favourite bends, | 30 |
| O’er me wave the willow! and long may it flourish | |
| Bedewed with the tears of wife, children, and friends. | |
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| Let us drink—for my song, growing graver and graver, | |
| To subjects too solemn insensibly tends: | |
| Let us drink—pledge me high—Love and Virtue shall flavour | 35 |
| The glass which I fill to wife, children, and friends. | |
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