THE PRESENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 59

THE PRESENT.

Tune, the frail shado of an Eternity, Unknown, unproved, but ever stretched before, Has rolled mis million circles year on year Has rolled his million circles which thou and I, Perched high upon the ciurnbhng thioue of

self, Call the great Present — and are sa-tisnecU But pause a moment, and our Present fades, Crushed, e\er indistinguishably blent With the dead-lying past that knows no life; "While onward leap the years to newer years, And man his artificial brain extends To tiuths that wait tlio flying years to baie. This Present's, but a pleasant sounding lie, Loud echoed by each earthly-speaking lip, In vain remonstrance for a surer mark In trembling prayers for a godlike voice, A fixed existence m the end to show. For Present swiftly sinks into Fast, Which looms behind, a partly-studied phase, Reflecting dim the awful Futtire ranged In undiscovered paths of age. But when The whole is Past, and future years are gone, Lost in the overtaking marcn of time, And an eternal vista glows before, The narrow brink of which we may but see, The quailing thought of countless years of men Will to th' unnumbered races be revealed, Olear in the glory of a Golden Morn! — L. E. F.

Dunedin, February, 1904,