Untitled (I expect to pass through this life but once)

by Stephen Grellet
(Etienne de Grellet du Mabillier) (1773-1855)

I expect to pass through this life but once.
If, therefore there can be any kindness I can show
or any good thing I can do
for any fellow being let me do it now...
Let me not defer it, or neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again.

Stephen Grellet was a French-born prominent Quaker missionary. He was born Etienne de Grellet du Mabillier in Limoges, the son to a counsellor of King Louis XVI. Raised as a Roman Catholic he was educated at the military College of Lyons, and at the age of seventeen he entered the body-guard of Louis XVI. During the French Revolution he was sentenced to be executed, but escaped and eventually fled Europe to the United States in 1795.

Here is another version of the above "poem" :

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again

Through this toilsome world alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
For a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again!

~ unknown ~