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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416308" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>On Happiness</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Warm'd by the summer sun's meridian ray, <br>As underneath a spreading oak I lay <br>Contemplating the mighty load of woe, <br>In search of bliss that mortals undergo, <br>Who, while they think they happiness enjoy, <br>Embrace a curse wrapt in delusive joy, <br>I reason'd thus: Since the Creator, God, <br>Who in eternal love makes his abode, <br>Hath blended with the essence of the soul <br>An appetite as fixed as the pole, <br>That's always eager in pursuit of bliss, <br>And always veering till it points to this, <br>There is some object adequate to fill <br>This boundless wish of our extended will. <br>Now, while my thought round nature's circle runs <br>(A bolder journey than the furious sun's) <br>This chief and satiating good to find <br>The attracting centre of the human mind, <br>My ears they deafen'd, to my swimming eyes <br>His magic wand the drowsy God applies, <br>Bound all my senses in a silken sleep, <br>While mimic fancy did her vigils keep; <br>Yet still methinks some condescending power <br>Ranged the ideas in my mind that hour. <br>Methought I wandering was, with thousands more, <br>Beneath a high prodigious hill, before, <br>Above the clouds whose towering summit rose, <br>With utmost labour only gained by those <br>Who groveling prejudices throw away, <br>And with incessant straining climb'd their way; <br>Where all who stood their failing breath to gain, <br>With headlong ruin tumbled down amain. <br>This mountain is through every nation famed, <br>And, as I learned, Contemplation named. <br>O happy me! when I had reach'd its top <br>Unto my sight a boundless scene did ope. <br>First, sadly I survey'd with downward eye, <br>Of restless men below the busy fry, <br>Who hunted trifles in an endless maze, <br>Like foolish boys, on sunny summer days, <br>Pursuing butterflies with all their might, <br>Who can't their troubles, in the chase requite. <br>The painted insect, he who most admires, <br>Grieves most when it in his rude hand expires; <br>Or should it live, with endless fears is toss'd, <br>Lest it take wing and be for ever lost. <br>Some men I saw their utmost art employ <br>How to attain a false deceitful joy, <br>Which from afar conspicuously did blaze, <br>And at a distance fix'd their ravish'd gaze, <br>But nigh at hand it mock'd their fond embrace. <br>When lo! again it flashed in their eyes, <br>But still, as they drew near, the fond illusion dies. <br>Just so I've seen a water-dog pursue <br>An unflown duck within his greedy view, <br>When he has, panting, at his prey arrived, <br>The coxcomb fooling—suddenly it dived; <br>He, gripping, is almost with water choked, <br>And grieves that all his towering hopes are mock'd. <br>Then it emerges, he renews his toil, <br>And o'er and o'er again he gets the foil. <br>Yea, all the joys beneath the conscious sun, <br>And softer ones that his inspection shun, <br>Much of their pleasures in fruition fade. <br>Enjoyment o'er them throws a sullen shade. <br>The reason is, we promise vaster things <br>And sweeter joys than from their nature springs: <br>When they are lost, we weep the apparent bliss, <br>And not what really in Fruition is; <br>So that our griefs are greater than our joys, <br>And real pain springs from fantastic toys. <br>Though all terrene delights of men below <br>Are almost nothing but a glaring show; <br>Yet if there always were a virgin joy <br>When t'other fades to soothe the wanton boy, <br>He somewhat might excuse his heedless course, <br>Some show of reason for the same enforce: <br>But frugal nature wisely does deny <br>To mankind such profuse variety; <br>Has what is needful only to us given, <br>To feed and cheer us in the way to Heaven; <br>And more would but the traveller delay, <br>Impede and clog him in his upward way. <br>I from the mount all mortal pleasures saw <br>Themselves within a narrow compass draw: <br>The libertine a nauseous circle run, <br>And dully acted what he'd often done. <br>Just so when Luna darts her silver ray, <br>And pours on silent earth a paler day: <br>From Stygian caves the flitting fairies scud, <br>And on the margent of some limpid flood, <br>Which by reflected moonlight darts a glance, <br>In midnight circles range themselves and dance. <br>To-morrow, cries he, will us entertain: <br>Pray what's to-morrow but to-day again? <br>Deluded youth, no more the chase pursue, <br>So oft deceived, no more the toil renew. <br>But in a constant and a fix'd design <br>Of acting well there is a lasting mine <br>Of solid satisfaction, purest joy, <br>For virtue's pleasures never, never cloy: <br>Then hither come, climb up the steep ascent, <br>Your painful labour you will ne'er repent, <br>From Heaven itself here you're but one remove, <br>Here's the præludium of the joys above, <br>Here you'll behold the awful Godhead shine, <br>And all perfections in the same combine; <br>You'll see that God, who, by his powerful call, <br>From empty nothing drew this spacious all, <br>Made beauteous order the rude mass control, <br>And every part subservient to the whole; <br>Here you'll behold upon the fatal tree <br>The God of nature bleed, expire, and die, <br>For such as 'gainst his holy laws rebel, <br>And such as bid defiance to his hell. <br>Through the dark gulf, here you may clearly pry <br>'Twixt narrow Time and vast Eternity. <br>Behold the Godhead just, as well as good, <br>And vengeance pour'd on tramplers on his blood: <br>But all the tears wiped from his people's eyes, <br>And, for their entrance, cleave the parting skies. <br>Then sure you will with holy ardours burn, <br>And to seraphic heats your passion turn; <br>Then in your eyes all mortal fair will fade, <br>And leave of mortal beauties but the shade; <br>Yourself to him you'll solemnly devote, <br>To him, without whose providence you're not; <br>You'll of his service relish the delight, <br>And to his praises all your powers excite; <br>You'll celebrate his name in heavenly sound, <br>Which well pleased skies in echoes will rebound; <br>This is the greatest happiness that can <br>Possessed be in this short life by man. <br>But darkly here the Godhead we survey, <br>Confined and cramped in this cage of clay. <br>What cruel band is this to earth that ties <br>Our souls from soaring to their native skies? <br>Upon the bright eternal face to gaze, <br>And there drink in the beatific rays: <br>There to behold the good one and the fair, <br>A ray from whom all mortal beauties are? <br>In beauteous nature all the harmony <br>Is but the echo of the Deity, <br>Of all perfection who the centre is, <br>And boundless ocean of untainted bliss; <br>For ever open to the ravish'd view, <br>And full enjoyment of the radiant crew <br>Who live in raptures of eternal joy, <br>Whose flaming love their tuneful harps employ <br>In solemn hymns Jehovah's praise to sing, <br>And make all heaven with hallelujahs ring. <br>These realms of light no further I'll explore, <br>And in these heights I will no longer soar: <br>Not like our grosser atmosphere beneath, <br>The ether here's too thin for me to breathe. <br>The region is unsufferable bright, <br>And flashes on me with too strong a light. <br>Then from the mountain, lo! I now descend, <br>And to my vision put a hasty end.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=James+Thomson">James Thomson</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416308" data-title="On Happiness de James Thomson" data-description="Warm'd by the summer sun's meridian ray, 
As underneath a spreading oak I lay 
Contemplating the mighty load of woe, 
In search of bliss that mortals undergo, 
Who, while they think they happiness enjoy, 
Embrace a curse wrapt in delusive joy, 
I ..."></div>
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