As various as the moon

Written by Thomas Scott, this hymn on divine providence and the changing conditions of human life was first contributed anonymously to Dr. William Enfield's Hymns for Public Worship (Warrington, 1772, No. 130) in six stanzas of four lines under the heading "The changes of human life appointed by God." In 1795, it was reprinted in Andrew Kippis's Unitarian collection, A Collection of Hymns and Psalms for Public and Private Worship, where it was correctly ascribed to Scott. The text subsequently entered various hymnals across Great Britain and North America, occasionally appearing with the altered opening line "As changing as the moon." Hymnologists have noted as a curious detail that Scott omitted this popular composition from his own compiled volume, Lyric Poems and Hymns (1773).