Such is the career of thousands!

(Bonar, "The Way Of Cain" 1846)

Man is weary, toiling for that which is
not bread; trying to wring water out of
the world's dry sands and broken cisterns.

Such is the career of thousands . . .
  a fruitless worldliness;
  a life of vanity;
  a soul utterly empty;
  a being wholly wasted.