The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Parnassian Spring.

On Retirement.

Far from the busy world sequester'd
O'er my passions here I reign,
By no intruding visits pester'd,
Visits formal, empty, vain.
Health and peace of mind possessing,
I ne'er mix in scenes of strife;
Next to health, the greatest blessing
Is to me a private life.
Here I never want employment,
For the speculative mind,
Ever, in itself, enjoyment
Can, by recollection, find.
Yet I wear no gloomy features,
Nor to solitude incline,
For I love my fellow-creatures,
And their happiness is mine.
Oft with friends by taste united,
Time steals unperceiv'd away;
With their converse I delighted
Close the sentimental day.
Those who think the day is wasted
Which is not in public spent,
Peevish oft, and oft distracted,
End that day with discontent.
By the world's false light deluded,
We our intellects confuse,
But, from its dazzling glare excluded,
Clear are all our mental views.
From the busy world retiring,
Nature's wonders I explore,
And in them, by close admiring,
Beauties trace unmark'd before.
Nature's charms in every season
Strike the philosophic eye,
And afford a feast to reason,
Constant—for they never die.

W. M.