World, adieu, thou real cheat!

Oft have thy deceitful charms

Fill’d my heart with fond conceit,

Foolish hopes, and false alarms:

Now I see as clear as day

How thy follies pass away.

Vain thy entertaining sights,

False thy promises renew’d,

All the pomp of thy delights

Does but flatter and delude:

Thee I quit for Heaven above,

Object of the noblest love.

Farewell Honour’s empty pride!

Thy own nice, uncertain gust,

If the least mischance betide,

Lays thee lower than the dust:

Worldly honours end in gall,

Rise to-day, to-morrow fall.

Foolish Vanity, farewell,

More inconstant than the wave!

Where thy soothing fancies dwell,

Purest tempers they deprave:

He, to whom I fly, from thee,

Jesus Christ, shall set me free,

Never shall my wandering mind

Follow after fleeting toys,

Since in God alone I find

Solid and substantial joys;

Joys that, never overpast,

Through eternity shall last.

Lord, how happy is a heart

After Thee while it aspires!

True and faithful as Thou art,

Thou shalt answer its desires:

It shall see the glorious scene

Of Thy everlasting reign.