{
 "id": "john-newton/vanity-of-life",
 "title": "Vanity of Life.",
 "ordinal": "54",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 54,
 "container": "Book I On Select Texts of Scripture",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1779,
  "venue": "Olney Hymns (1779)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_olney-hymns-in-three-bo_newton-john_1779",
   "https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/bulletin/computerised-index-to-the-olney-hymns/",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns",
  "file": "book-1.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Olney_Hymns_%281840%29",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-15"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The evils that beset our path,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who can prevent or cure?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We stand upon the brink of death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When most we seem secure.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If we to-day sweet peace possess,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It soon may be withdrawn;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some change may plunge us in distress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before to-morrow’s dawn.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Disease and pain invade our health,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And find an easy prey;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And oft, when least expected, wealth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Takes wings and flies away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A fever or a blow can shake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our wisdom’s boasted rule,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And of the brightest genius make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A madman or a fool.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The gourds from which we look for fruit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Produce us only pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A worm unseen attacks the root,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all our hopes are vain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I pity those who seek no more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than such a world can give;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wretched they are and blind and poor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dying while they live.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Since sin has fill’d the earth with woe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And creatures fade and die,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord, wean our hearts from things below,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fix our hopes on high.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}