Though various are the titles men can plead,
Some for a time enjoy the glorious meed

That merit claims; yet unrelenting fate

On all the doom pronounces soon or late;
And whatsoe'er the vulgar think or say,
Were not your lives thus shorten'd to a day,
Your eyes would see the consummating power
His countless millions at a meal devour."
Conviction soon the solemn words pursued,
And reason's voice my stubborn mind subdued;
I saw all mortal glory pass away,

Like vernal snows beneath the rising ray;

And wealth, and power, and honour, strive in vain
To scape the laws of Time's despotic reign.
Though still to vulgar eyes they seem to claim
A lot conspicuous in the lists of Fame,
Transient as human joys; to feeble age
They love to linger on this earthly stage,
And think it cruel to be call'd away
On the faint morn of life's disastrous day

Yet ah! how many infants on the breast
By heaven's indulgence sink to endless rest!
And oft decrepid age his lot bewails,
Whom every ill of lengthen'd life assails.
Hence sick despondence thinks the human lot
A gift of fleeting breath too dearly bought:
But should the voice of Fame's obstreperous blast
From ages on to future ages last,

E'en till the trump of doom,-how poor the prize
Whose worth depends upon the changing skies!
What time bestows and claims (the fleeting breath
Of Fame) is but, at best, a second death-

A death that none of mortal race can shun,

That wastes the brood of time, and triumphs o'er the

sun.

NOTES

ON THE

TRIUMPH OF TIME.

(1) The Translator has taken the liberty of substituting the personification of Time (a fiction easily admitted by all the readers of poetry) for that extravagant conceit of the poet, who puts this speech in the mouth of the Sun!

(2)

This idea at first seems extravagant: but it is founded on the most general experience; for in fact Time is the great arbiter of the merits and demerits of all the candidates for reputation; and by it that test is furnished, which in the final result anuihilates the claims of all but those who make virtue or utility their object: of such only the concluding Triumph is made to consist.-See the next Poem.

(3) Since all the parts of duration are present to the Supreme Mind, as any being rises on the intellectual scale, his comprehension must be enlarged:

he will consequently take in more ideas belonging to space and duration ; and they both will seem to conBut however this may be,

tract their dimensions.

the lapse of time itself, as years advance, renders it less observable. Ideas from external objects, and even those obtained by reflexion, lose their novelty: as they arise in association, they form into leading trains; and habits, good or bad, become predominant, the mind clings to the notions or propensities which it has acquired, and becomes torpid to new accessions to knowledge or new incentives to virtue. From this appears the importance of early habits.

END OF THE TRIUMPH OF TIME.

THE

TRIUMPH OF ETERNITY.

WHEN all beneath the ample cope of heaven
I saw, like clouds before the tempest driven,
In sad Vicissitude's eternal round,

Awhile I stood in holy horror bound;

And thus at last with self-exploring mind,
Musing, I asked, "What basis I could find
To fix my trust?"-An inward voice replied,
"Trust to th' Almighty: He thy steps shall guide;
He never fails to hear the faithful prayer,
But worldly hope must end in dark despair."

Now, what I am, and what I was, I know;
I see the seasons in procession go