223

CONTENTMENT,

THE TRUE ALCHYMY OF LI IK,

Ages roll on ; but man, unchanging still,

O'er Mammon's furnace bends with ceaselesscare,

Fans it with sighs, and seeks, with subtlest skill,The mystic stone;—yet never finds it there.

What if possest?—its price is faded health ;

Death comes at last, and speaks these words ofFate :—" If all were gold, then gold no more were wealth!"

Too fatal truth!—and learnt, alas ! too late.

Contentment! angel of the placid brow !

Thine is the bright and never-fading gem-The stone of true philosophy, which thou

Hast placed beyond the regal diadem.