The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme! The young men's vision, and the old men's dream.

O visions ill foreseen! Better had I Liv'd ignorant of future, so had borne My part of evil only.

Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras dire.

So little distant dangers seem: So we mistake the future's face, Ey'd thro' Hope's deluding glass; As yon summits soft and fair, Clad in colours of the air, Which to those who journey near, Barren, brown, and rough appear.

I just have visions of him doing great things.

Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme, The air-built castle, and the golden dream, The maid's romantic wish, the chemist's flame, And poet's vision of eternal fame.