Gently, Time!
Let thy car settle slowly to the earth again.
Say, has not our far quest for knowledge been in vain?
We sought the mighty planets, systems, voids that chill,
But the mystery of creation ’s a mystery still.
But with enlarged ideas we seek the solid ground,
And leave to solve the problem wisdom more profound.
Ah! at last
’Tis done! we alight safely from the car of Time,
And we give thanks for the protecting Hand Divine.
Welcome, terra firma! Mother Earth, we welcome thee,
Our terrestrial home. We hail! we hail and bless thee!
And now, comrade Time, temporarily adieu!
Leave me and go thy way until my hour is due.
I’ve mark’d thee well, thou scourge, and thy cold looks of scorn;
Thou hast no sympathy for man’s lot all forlorn.
I saw thy derisive smile when dangers round us fell;
And I suffered in doubt and fear, and knew well
Of thy indifference as to what became of me
In life, in death, and even in eternity!
Hast thou not e’er since thy repellent course began
Been the dread foe of nations and the fate of man?
In vain the pleading prayer to stay thy ruthless hand
For a moment longer of life at thy command:
A mother for her son—a child ’tis hard to spare—
And poverty and wrong aboundeth everywhere.
Oh, the red fatal fields thy cruel feet have trod,
And the millions of ghastly slain beneath the sod,
And the graves of nations thy savage hands have made,
And the tomb of friendship, and hope by thee betrayed!
What is the fate of nations, man’s calamity, to thee?
From vague dread and uncertainty none, none is free.
Thy mandates mar all life, driving man’s joys away;
The shadow of thy wing appals the fairest day.
CHAPTER XIX.—THE FATE OF TIME.
Inexorable and insatiate Time!
Thou, too, shalt die, and dread annihilation meet!
The soul shall happier be when thy ruin ’s complete.
Listen, then, thou scourge! “And the angel which I saw
Stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his hand
And sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever
That time should be no longer.” Never, no, never,
In the night of eternity shall thy face be seen;
Thou shalt not break in to mar existence more serene.
In the deeps of outer darkness shall be thy doom,
In the desolate voids of black, eternal gloom.
Farewell, then, Time!
By the ruin of the dead centuries, farewell!
By the ensanguined fields of millions slain, farewell!
By the countless tears of broken hearts, farewell!
By the mother’s agonizing prayer, farewell!
By the children’s want and orphan’s cry, farewell!
By the repentant sinner’s groans and tears, farewell!
By the sick and weary wanderers, farewell!
By the tortured, dreary lives of slaves, farewell!
By the Saviour’s persecuted life, farewell!
By His agony and death thou sawest, farewell!
Aye, thy cruel flight shall at last reach death’s shore,
And the soul shall rejoice when thy stern reign is o’er.
LOST AND WON; OR, WINTER AND SUMMER.
O Summer! thy regal splendor
Hath borne the spring-time away;
Thy proud and passionate wooing
Hath won thee a bride to-day.
Her sweet smiles and tears and sunshine,
Her glory of flowers and streams
Are gone, and alone I ponder
O’er vain, delusive dreams.