The Story of Justin Martyr; Sabbation and Other Poems (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844. Excerpt: ... ON AN EARLY DEATH. Ah me of them from whom the good have hope, Of them whom virtue for her liegemen claims, How many the world tames, That with its evil they quite cease to cope, And their first fealty sworn to beauty and truth Break early; and amid their sinful youth Make shipwreck of all high and glorious aims. How few the fierce and fiery trial stand, To be as weapons tempered and approved For an Almighty hand. How few of all the streamlets that were moved, Do ever unto clearness run again; And therefore is it marvellous to us, When of these weapons one is broken thus, When of these fountains one would seem in vain Renewed in clearness, and is staunched before It has had leave to spread fresh streams the desert o'er IL Ah me that by so frail and feeble thread Our life is holden--that not life alone, But all that life has won May in an hour be gathered to the dead; The slow additions that build up the mind, The skill that by temptation we have bought And suffering, and whatever has been taught By lengthened years and converse with our kind, That all may cease together--and the tree Reared to its height by many a slow degree, And by the dews, the sunshine, and the showers Of many springs, an instant may lay low, With all its living towers, And all the fruit mature of growth and slow, Which on the trees of wisdom leisurely must grow. nr. Alas it is another thing to wail, That when the foremost runners sink and fail, They cannot pass their torch or forward place To them that are behind them in the race, But their extinguished torches must be laid Together with them in the dust of death: That when the wise and the true-hearted fade, So little of themselves they can bequeath To us, who yet are in the race of life, For labour and for toil, for weariness an...