’ The pageant of the ages I behold,

The high ennobling struggle of mankind, Heart-stirring as a trumpet is unroll’d Before my eyes, to quicken will and mind.’

‘Record of crimes and follies, age by age,

The shame of fallen man repeated still,

His vain presumption; here and there a page Of glory in a library of ill.’

Thus youth and eld have bandied to and fro Age after age their still unspent debate.

But wisdom God-inspir’d said long ago :

While knowledge groweth sorrows aggravate.

Youth’s ardour, sadness of experience,

Man fallen, and God’s judgments manifold, Life’s landscape, human history now dense And murk, now sunlight-gladden’d, I behold.

Interpret well the lesson, see it whole;

Lose not thyself amid the forest maze,

Roam not at random; see and mark, my soul, And thou shalt firmlier tread the appointed ways.

H. E. G. Rope.