Retires unseen the slipp’ry ground;
If melted metals pour’d from high
A verdant mountain grows by time,
Where frisking kids can browze and climb,
And softer scenes supply:
Let us who view the varying scene,
And tread th’ instructive paths between,
See famish’d Time his fav’rite sons devour,
Fix’d for an age—then swallow’d in an hour;
Let us at least be early wise,