While beauty and youth are in their full prime,
And folly and fashion affect our whole time;
Oh, let not the phantom our wishes engage;
Let’s live so in youth that we blush not in age.

I sigh not for beauty, nor languish for wealth,
But grant me, kind Providence, virtue and health;
Then, richer than kings, and far happier than they,
My days shall pass swiftly and sweetly away.

The vain and the young may attend us a while,
But let not their flatt’ry our prudence beguile.
Let’s covet those charms that shall never decay,
Nor listen to all that deceivers can say.