4.
“As a drop of water unto the sea, and a gravel-stone in
comparison of the sand; so are a thousand years to the days of eternity.”
But if the things beheld so glorious seem,
And long the time to be, and which hath been;
But yet how short the time, how poor the scene
Compared with that which issues from this dream,
Of which the sun is but a spark or beam?
And it may be, when death shall intervene,
All time hath comprehended then is seen
As instantaneous as a lightning gleam;
Or as when God first spake, and there was light.
E'en now more old we grow, or more the soul
Is in her view enlarged, or to the goal
Draws near, more brief appear the things of sight:
How short shall then appear this little whole,
When we behold it from the shore aright?
