%images; ]> scsm-000049 Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud / copied by F.B. Carpenter, Esq., while our lamented chief was reciting it ; adapted to music expressly composed by C. Everest ...: a machine readable transcription. STERN COLLECTION OF LINCOLNIANA, Library of Congress Selected and converted. American Memory, Library of Congress.

Washington, DC, 2006.

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 Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Public Domain

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 2008/04/18
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Oh! Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?

Oh! why should the spiit [spirit] of mortal be proud? Like a swift fleeting meteor, a fast flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. The leaves of the oak and willow shall fade, Be scatter'd around and together be laid; And the young and the old, and the low and the high, Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie.

The infant and mother attended and loved; The mother that infant's affection who proved. The husband that mother and infant who bless'd, Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne; The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn; The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave, Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap; The herdsman, who climed with his goats up the steep; The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread, Have faded away like the grass that we tread. So the multitude goes, like the flow'r of the weed, That withers away to let others succeed; So the multitude comes, even those we behold, To repeat ev'ry tale that has often been told.