TO-DAY—TO-MORROW.
Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.—Proverbs, xxvii. 1.
Ye know not what shall be on the morrow.—James, iv. 14.
To-day is yesterday returned; returned
Full-powered to cancel, expiate, raise, adorn,
And reinstate us on the rock of peace.
Let it not share its predecessors’ fate;
Nor, like its elder sisters, die a fool.
Young.
At thirty man suspects himself a fool,
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve.
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves and re-resolves, then dies the same.
In human hearts what bolder thought can rise
Than man’s presumption on to-morrow’s dawn.
Where is to-morrow? in another world.
And yet on this perhaps, this peradventure,
(Infamous for lies) as on a rock of adamant
We build our mountain hopes, spin our eternal schemes,
And big with life’s futurities expire.
Young.
To-morrow you will live, you always cry,
In what far country does this morrow lie,
That ’tis so mighty long ere it arrive?
Beyond the Indies does this morrow live?
’Tis so far fetch’d this morrow, that I fear
’Twill be both very old and very dear.
To-morrow I will live, the fool does say;
To-day itself’s too late, the wise lived yesterday.
Cowley.
To-morrow!
That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy,
The coward and the fool, condemned to lose
An useless life in waiting for to-morrow,
Till interposing death destroys the prospect:
Strange! that this general fraud, from day to day,
Should fill the world with wretches undetected.
Dr. Johnson.
To-morrow then begins the task, you say:
Alas! you’ll act to-morrow as to-day:
What? is one day, (you cry,) too much to ask?
Trust me to-morrow shall commence the task.
But think, ere yet to-morrow’s dawn come on,
Our yesterday’s to-morrow will be gone.
Thus, while the present from the future borrows,
To-morrows slowly creep upon to-morrows,
Till months and years behold the task undone,
Which, still beginning, never is begun.
Just as the hinder of two chariot wheels
Still presses closely on its fellow’s heels;
So flies to-morrow, while you fly so fast,
For ever following, and for ever last.
Howes, from Persius.
To-morrow, didst thou say?
Methought I heard Horatio say, To-morrow.
Go to—I will not hear of it—To-morrow!
’Tis a sharper, who stakes his penury
Against thy plenty—who takes thy ready cash,
And pays thee nought but wishes, hopes, and promises,
The currency of idiots—injurious bankrupt,
That gulls the easy creditor!—To-morrow!
It is a period nowhere to be found
In all the hoary registers of Time,
Unless perchance in the fool’s calender.
Wisdom disclaims the word, nor holds society
With those who own it. No, my Horatio,
’Tis Fancy’s child, and folly is its father;
Wrought of such stuff as dreams are, and as baseless
As the fantastic visions of the evening.
Cotton.
As Time glides on in silent flow,
To-day yields to to-morrow;
To-morrow’s expectations grow
To-day’s own bliss or sorrow.
Still, as to-morrow’s sun appears,
It shines upon to-day;
So, realized, our hopes and fears
For ever melt away.
Anon.