So do not seek to tear the veil
And read the heart of God.
Enough that He is in the gale
And in the velvet sod.
Enough that He has given you
The boon of days and years,
The world of green, the sky of blue,
And sunshine after tears.
--_Douglas Mallock_.
_The Match Box_
Life is a Match Box, and the Matches
Ambitions, and unstruck desires;
Youth the material that catches
And kindles in the darkness fires.
And Love is like an idle fellow
Who sets the match box in a blaze,
And sees the blue flames and the yellow
Shoot up and die beneath his gaze.
But Age is like a man returning
Late homeward. Creeping in his socks
He tries to get a candle burning,
And finds he has an empty box.
The seven ages of man have been well tabulated by somebody or other on
an acquisitive basis. Thus:
First age--Sees the earth.
Second age--Wants it.
Third age--Hustles to get it.
Fourth age--Decides to be satisfied with only half of it.
Fifth age--Becomes still more moderate.
Sixth age--Now content to possess a six-by-two strip of it.
Seventh age--Gets the strip.
_Wisdom_
When I have ceased to break my wings
Against the faultiness of things,
And learned that compromises wait
Behind each hardly opened gate,
When I can look life in the eyes
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth
And taken in exchange--My Youth.
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