ALL the earthly things around us,
Which we prize and hold so dear
Are not worth the joy they wive us,
With the pleasure and the fear.
For they waver and they vanish
And they move at beck and call.
Do not pin affections to them
They're but shadows on the wall.
All our sorrows and our grieving,
All that touches human heart
Comes to naught, in th' real weaving,
In our Life they have no part.
For they waver and they vanish,
And in Truth are not at all.
Do not cling to earthly sorrows
They're but shadows on the wall.
Though with human eye we see them,
And they seem to us as real,
They're but pictures ever changing
And they bear the mortal seal.
For they waver and they vanish,
And they move at beck and call.
Do not pin affections to them,
They're but shadows on the wall.
