How beautifully has Burns alluded to these influences, in his “Lines to Mary in Heaven:”
Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.
The Hon. W. R. H. Spencer has something akin to this in his “Lines to Lady A. Hamilton:”
Too late I stay’d; forgive the crime;
Unheeded flew the hours;
How noiseless falls the foot of Time
That only treads on flow’rs!
Edward Moore, in one of his pleasing Songs, thus points to these charming influences:
Time still, as he flies, adds increase to her truth,