"How shalt thou bear the cross that now
So dread a weight appears?
Keep quietly to God, and think
Upon the eternal years.
Austerity is little help,
Although it sometimes cheers;
Thine oil of gladness is the thought
Of the eternal years."
"Novissima hora est!" Gerontius exclaims, "and I fain would sleep." He is thinking of the eternal hours and years in this last hour on earth.
At sea, in June, 1833, Newman had written some verses called "Hora Novissima":