{
 "id": "william-cowper/vanity-of-the-world",
 "title": "Vanity of the World",
 "ordinal": "55",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "William Cowper",
 "poet_slug": "william-cowper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 55,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "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,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "God gives his mercies to be spent;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your hoard will do your soul no good;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gold is a blessing only lent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Repaid by giving others food.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The world’s esteem is but a bribe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To buy their peace you sell your own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The slave of a vain-glorious tribe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hate you while they make you known.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The joy that vain amusements give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, sad conclusion that it brings!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The honey of a crowded hive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Defended by a thousand stings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis thus the world rewards the fools",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That live upon her treach’rous smiles:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She leads them blindfold by her rules,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ruins all whom she beguiles.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "God knows the thousands who go down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From pleasure into endless woe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with a long despairing groan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blaspheme their Maker as they go.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O fearful thought! be timely wise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Delight but in a Saviour’s charms.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God shall take you to the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Embraced in everlasting arms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}