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TIME, DEATH, AND ETERNITY.
They call me Destroyer, these children of thine;But, ah! from my ruins spring glories divine.I only destroy, that progression's swift car,Whose coming forever I hail from afar,May move unimpeded upon its bright way,Till o'er thee, O Earth! dawn Millennial day,Till man to his God-given dignity rise,His dwelling on earth, but his goal in the skies;Till error's dark reign on the earth shall be o'er,And truth to her throne mount triumphant once more. O Earth! o'er my ruins thy children may weep,But still for me ever deep rev'rence they keep:The shadowy halls of the dim past are mine,And round them forever sweet memories twine;And gems of the soul there forever I keep,Brought up from its fountains so sacred and deep;There strains of soft music in melody flow;There wander the forms of the dear Long Ago;And tender and holy the sweet light that fallsO'er pictures that hang there in Memory's halls. Ceaselessly onward, O Earth! is my way; Moments I bring thee, how brief is their stay! From me thus ever thy children must learn Much which is lost once can never return. Leaving all vanities, may they pursue Only the noble, the pure, and the true!
