The collection / 6 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01c. 1807 AD

Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a fast-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passes from life to his rest in the grave.

William Knox / quote

02c. 1807 AD

Oh! Youth is firmly bound to earth, When hope beams on each comrade’s glance: His bosom-chords are tuned to mirth, Like harp-strings in the cheerful dance; But Age has felt those ties unbound, Which fixed him to that spot of ground Where all his household comforts lay; He feels his freezing heart grow cold, He thinks of kindred in the mould, And cries, amid his grief untold, “I would not live alway.”

William Knox / quote

03c. 1807 AD

No God! Who warms the heart to heave With thousand feelings, soft and sweet, And prompts the aspiring soul to leave The earth we tread beneath our feet, And soar away on pinions fleet, Beyond the scene of mortal strife, With fair ethereal forms to meet, That tell us of an after life?

William Knox / quote

04c. 1807 AD

Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath,From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud-Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

William Knox / quote

05c. 1807 AD

MortalityOh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,He passes from life to his rest in the grave.The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,Be scattered around, and together be laid;And the young and the old, the low and the high,Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie.Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.'Tis the wink of an eye - 'tis the draught of a breath -From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroudOh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

William Knox / quote

06c. 1807 AD

Oh! Why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a swift-fleeing meteor a fast flying cloud A flash of the lightning a break of the wave Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.

William Knox / quote