The Only Sure Friend Of Declining Life A Soliloquy Unchanged Within, To See All Changed Without, Is A Blank Lot And Hard To Bear, No Doubt. Yet Why At Others' Wanings Should'St Thou Fret? Then Only Might'St Thou Feel A Just Regret, Hadst Thou Withheld Thy Love Or Hid Thy Light In Selfish Forethought Of Neglect And Slight. O Wiselier Then, From Feeble Yearnings Freed, While, And On Whom, Thou May'St, Shine On! Nor Heed Whether The Object By Reflected Light Return Thy Radiance Or Absorb It Quite: And Tho' Thou Notest From Thy Safe Recess Old Friends Burn Dim, Like Lamps In Noisome Air, Love Them For What They Are ; Nor Love Them Less, Because To Thee They Are Not What They Were