The Literary Works of James Smetham :: :: University of Virginia Library

Seeing that life is but the Argument
To the great Book of Immortality;
That heaven's divine sufficiencies must be
The expanse of that on which our life is spent,—
But of such only as is finished well;
How what is well requires both care and pain;

273

Of what grave wisdom we have need to spell
That which is true, since only truth can gain
The meed of wisdom—it should give to thought
The cast of reverent fear: for mirth looks strange
In watchful eyes that mark how being's range
Widens and fills and blooms, as seeds are brought
From least to greatest by the omnific power
Which wraps Eternity within an hour.