‘How Pleasant a Sailor’s Life Passes.’
How pleasant a sailor’s life passes,
Who roams o’er the watery main!
No treasure he ever amasses,
But cheerfully spends all his gain.
We’re strangers to party and faction,
To honour and honesty true,
And wou’d not commit a base action
For power or profit in view.
Then why should we quarrel for riches,
Or any such glittering toys?
A light heart and a thin pair of breeches
Goes through the world, brave boys.
The world is a beautiful garden
Enrich’d with the blessings of life,
The toiler with plenty rewarding,
Which plenty too often breeds strife.
When terrible tempests assail us,
And mountainous billows affright,
No grandeur or wealth can avail us,
But skilful industry steers right.
The courtier’s more subject to dangers,
Who rules at the helm of the State,
Than we that, to politicks strangers,
Escape the snares laid for the great.
The various blessings of nature
In various nations we try.
No mortals than us can be greater,
Who merrily live till we die.