Chapter XIX · —THE FATE OF TIME.

Inexorable and insatiate Time! Thou, too, shalt die, and dread annihilation meet! The soul shall happier be when thy ruin ’s complete. Listen, then, thou scourge! “And the angel which I saw Stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his hand And sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever That time should be no longer.” Never, no, never, In the night of eternity shall thy face be seen; Thou shalt not break in to mar existence more serene. In the deeps of outer darkness shall be thy doom, In the desolate voids of black, eternal gloom. Farewell, then, Time! By the ruin of the dead centuries, farewell! By the ensanguined fields of millions slain, farewell! By the countless tears of broken hearts, farewell! By the mother’s agonizing prayer, farewell! By the children’s want and orphan’s cry, farewell! By the repentant sinner’s groans and tears, farewell! By the sick and weary wanderers, farewell! By the tortured, dreary lives of slaves, farewell! By the Saviour’s persecuted life, farewell! By His agony and death thou sawest, farewell! Aye, thy cruel flight shall at last reach death’s shore, And the soul shall rejoice when thy stern reign is o’er.