This is the time appointed, this the place:

Now shall I learn, how some have run their race

With honour, some with shame; and I shall know

How man behaves in Fortune’s ebb and flow;—

What wealth or want, what trouble, sorrow, joy,

Have been allotted to the [girl] and boy

Whom I left laughing at the ills of life—

Now the grave father, or the awful wife.

Then shall I hear, how tried the wise and good! 160}

How fall’n the house that once in honour stood! }