Uncertainty alone is certain here…

This is excerpted from Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren, which is probably the best and most comprehensive biography on Franklin. The text below is one of his earliest known writings, which is an excerpt from an elegy he wrote (probably around the age of 17 or 18) upon the death of a sister-in-law:

O what is Life which we so high esteem

A Bubble, Vapous, Shadow, fleeting Dream

From sordid Dust we sprang & surely must

Or soon or late return to native Dust

What mortal Man even in his best Estate

All Vanity, Pride, Folly and Deceit…

Crowns have their Thorns and Opulence its Bane

And all our Pleasures their Alloy of Pain

All the Vicissitudes of Life declare

Uncertainty alone is certain here…

The complete elegy can also be read in THIS article about the book, back when it was first published, or on page 26 of the paperback.