Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, January 22, 2008


“All is Vanity”, Saith the Preacher

Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,
And health and youth possessed me;
My goblets blushed from every vine,
And lovely forms caressed me;
I sunned my heart in beauty’ eyes,
And felt my soul grow tender;
All earth can give, or mortal prize,
Was mine of regal splendour.

I strive to number o’er what days
Remembrance can discover,
Which all that life or earth displays
Would lure me to live over.
There rose no day, there rolled no hour
Of pleasure unembittered;
And not a trapping decked my power
That galled not while it glittered.

The serpent of the field, by art
And spells, is won from harming;
But that which soils around the heart,
Oh! who hath power of charming?
It will not list to wisdom’s lore,
Nor music’s voice can lure it;
But there it stings for evermore
The soul that must endure it.

- George Gordon, Lord Byron
born on this day, 1788

“But that which soils around the heart.” I know what mine is, that “that which soils”. Do you know yours? The World is full of tempters and temptresses, charming, delightful. I have nothing against the delights of earthly life – except perhaps that some hoard them and deny them to others. But they, those things, are as ephemeral as the mist. The pleasure they offer is fantasy. My, don’t I sound old fashioned! But it’s true.

I do not agree with Byron, charmer though he was, that the usurper cannot be dislodged; that it does not yield to any wisdom or music or power. It yields to Charity – to that sweet caring for others which delights the soul more than any other false idol, and lifts us to Bliss.

Go on! Believe!

Brian+