The clouds are transient, but the sky is permanent. The petals of a
flowering plant are transient, the leaves and fruit are less so, and
the roots the least transient of all. The dew on the grass is
transient, as is the frost of an autumn morning. The snows and the
rains abide longer. The splendors of summer and sunrise and sunset
soon pass, but the glory of the day lasts. The rainbow vanishes in a
few moments, but the prismatic effect of the drops of rain is a law of
optics. Colors fade while texture is unimpaired.
Of course change marks everything, living or dead. Even the pole star
in astronomic time will vanish. But consider things mundane only. How
the rocks on the seacoast seem to defy and withstand the waves that
beat against them! "Weak as is a breaking wave" is a line of
Wordsworth's. Yet the waves remain after the rocks are gone. The sea
knows no change as the land does. It and the sky are the two
unchanging earth features.
In our own lives how transient are our moments of inspiration, our
morning joy, our ecstasies of the spirit! Upon how much in the world
of art, literature, invention, modes, may be written the word
"perishable"! "All flesh is grass," says the old Book. Individuals,
species, races, pass. Life alone remains and is immortal.