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The Man of Life Upright
The man of life upright,
Whose guiltless heart is free From all dishonest deeds, Or thought of vanity; The man whose silent days In harmless joys are spent, Whom hopes cannot delude, Nor sorrow discontent; That man needs neither towers Nor armour for defence, Nor secret vaults to fly From thunder’s violence: He only can behold With unaffrighted eyes The horrors of the deep And terrors of the skies. Thus, scorning all the cares That fate or fortune brings, He makes the heaven his book, His wisdom heavenly things; Good thoughts his only friends, His wealth a well-spent age, The earth his sober inn And quiet pilgrimage. |
Upright implies independence of spirit and self-mastery and is therefore referable chiefly to thoughtful and highly disciplined men. Honest, on the other hand, may be used in reference to the ignorant as well as the learned, and to the simple as well as the wise.
Vanity and vain imply an excessive desire to win the notice, approval, or praise of others; both connote an interest centered on oneself and often suggest a concentration on things of little or no importance relatively. A person or thing deludes one by deceiving or misleading one so completely as to make one a fool, a dupe, or so befuddled as to be incapable of distinguishing the false from the true. Unaffrighted means fearless. The deep means the ocean. Care (archaic in this sense) implies preoccupation and oppression of mind because of heavy responsibilities or disquieting fears or apprehensions. |