O Time! the beautifier of the dead,
Adorner of the ruin, comforter
And only healer when the heart hath bled--
Time! the corrector where our judgments err,
The test of truth, love,--soul philosopher,
For all besides are sophists, from thy thrift
Which never loses though it doth defer--
Time, the avenger! unto thee I lift
My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift.
_Childe Harold, Canto IV_. LORD BYRON.
The more we live, more brief appear
Our life's succeeding stages:
A day to childhood seems a year,
And years like passing ages.
* * * * *
Heaven gives our years of fading strength
Indemnifying fleetness;
And those of youth, a seeming length,
Proportioned to their sweetness.
_The River of Life_. T. CAMPBELL.
Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him
In soul and aspect as in age; years steal
Fire from the mind as vigor from the limb:
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
_Childe Harold, Canto III_. LORD BYRON.
Catch! then, O catch, the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies;
Life's a short summer--man a flower.
_Winter: An Ode_. DR. S. JOHNSON.
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
_Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:
Thus may we see," quoth he, "how the world wags:
'T is but an hour ago since it was nine;
And after one hour more 't will be eleven;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale."
_As You Like it, Act ii. Sc. 7_. SHAKESPEARE.
Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.
_Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus_. SIR W. JONES.
Nought treads so silent as the foot of Time;
Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime.
_Love of Fame, Satire IV_. DR. E. YOUNG.
Not one word more of the consumed time.
Let's take the instant by the forward top;
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time
Steals ere we can effect them.
_All's Well that End's Well, Act v. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.