I am not in youth, nor in manhood or age,

But in infancy ever am known, I'm a stranger alike to the fool and the sage, And though I'm distinguished on history's page,

I always am greatest alone.

I'm not in the earth, nor the sun, nor the moon;

You may search all the sky, I'm not there: In the morning and evening, though not in the noon, You may plainly perceive me, for, like a balloon,

I am always suspended in air.

Though disease may possess me, and sickness, and pain,

I am never in sorrow or gloom, Though in wit and in wisdom I equally reign, I am the heart of all sin, and have long lived in vain,

Yet I ne'er shall be found in the tomb.