THE COMMON LOT. ONCE, in the flight of ages past, There lived a man :--and WHO was HE? -Mortal! howe'er thy lot be cast, That Man resembled Thee. Unknown the region of his birth, That joy, and grief, and hope and fear, The bounding pulse, the languid limb, He suffer'd, but his pangs are o'er; He loved, but whom he loved, the grave He saw whatever thou hast seen; The rolling seasons, day and night, The clouds and sunbeams, o'er his eye That once their shades and glory threw, Have left in yonder silent sky No vestige where they flew. The annals of the human race, Their ruins, since the world began, Of HIM afford no other trace Than this,-THERE LIVED A MAN END OF VOL. I |