"Any leap in the dark is better than standing still."--_New Proverb_.
Talk not to us of the joys of the Present,
Say not what is is undoubtedly best:
Never be ours to be merely quiescent--
Anything, everything rather than rest!
Placid prosperity bores us and vexes:
What if philosophers Latin and Greek
Say that well-being's a Status and _Exis_? [1]
Nothing should please you for more than a week.
Tinkering, doctoring, shifting, deranging,
Urged by a constant satiety on,
Ever the new for the newer exchanging,
Hazarding ever the gains we have won--
Only perpetual flux can delight us,
Blown like a billow by winds of the sea:
Still let us bow to the shrine of St. Vitus--
_Vite Sanctissime, ora pro me_!
Pray, that when leaps in the darkness uncaring
End in a fall (as they probably will),
Mine be the credit for valiantly daring,
Others be charged with defraying the bill!
[1. Transcriber's note: The word "Exis" was transliterated from the
Greek as follows: Epsilon (with the rough-breathing diacritical), xi,
iota, sigma.]