Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,

Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:

Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight,

A little louder, but as empty quite:

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage;

And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:

Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;

'Till tir'd he sleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er. . . .

Alexander Pope.