Proverbial Philosophy / The First and Second Series - Unknown

There is but the flitting moment, wherein to hope or to enjoy,

But in the calendar of Memory, that moment is all time.

I left the happy fields that smile around the village of Content,

And sought with wayward feet the torrid desert of Ambition.

Long time, parched and weary, I travelled that burning sand,

And the hooded basilisk and adder were strewed in my way for palms;