Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1875-07-22

| Whereon the shadow Of the finger fell:
! And, coming back at midnight, delsed, and
/ found.
4 secret stairway leading under ground
Down this be passed into a spacious hall,
I Lit by flaming jewell on the wall;
I Aud opposite Il braZen statue stood
With bow and shan and threatening attitude.
/ Upon its forehead, like a eOronet,
" ere these mysterious words OF menace set;
/ That which am; my fatal aim
| None can escape, Iot even yon luminous
flame -
Midway the hall was a fair table placed.
With cloth of gold. and golden cups encbas ed
With rubies, and the plates and knives were
gold,
And gold the bread and viands manifold.
Around it, silent. motionless and sad,
Were seated gallant knights in armor clad,
And ladies beautiful vito plume and zone,
But they were stone, their hearts within were
stone
And the vast hall was filed in every part
With silent crowds, stony in face and heart.
Long at the scene. bewildered and amazed
The trembling clerk in speeches. wonder
gaZed;
Then from the table, by his greed made bold,
He seized goblet and 4 knife of gold,
And suddenly from their seats the guests up
sprang.
The vaultcd ceiling with loud clsmors rang,
The archer sped his arrow, at their call.
ShatteriDg the iambent jewel on the wall,
And all WAS dark around and overhead;
Stark ON the floor the luckless clerk lay dead.
The writer Of this legend then record,
l., ghostly application in these words;
The image is The Adversary old,
Whose beckoniDg finger points TO realms OF
gold;
our lusts aud passions are the dow NV ard stair
That lead, the soul from 4 diyiner air;
The archer. Death: the flaming je wei, Lie.
Terrestrial goods. the goblet snl the knife;
The knight, and ladies, all whose fish and
bone
By ayarice have been hardened into stone;
In clerk. the scholar whom the love OF pelf
Icmpts from his books aud from his nOber
self.
The scholar and the world The endles, strife.
The dl,cord in the harmonic, of iiie.
The love Of learn .ng, the seque>tcred notes,
And all the sweet serenity oI books;
he market-place. the eager love of gain
hose aim Is vanity, anu whose eud !, pain.
But why. YOU ask me, should this tale be told
10 men grown cid, or who are growing old:
Il j. too late, All. nothing IS too late
I'll the tired heart shall cease TO palpitaie.
Cato learned Greek at eighty; >oph0cles
Wrote his grand udipu>, and simonidc,
Bbrc of the prize of verse from HI compcer-,
When each had numbered more than fOurscore
year.
bad but begun hi Characters Of Men.
Chaucer, At Woodstock with the nightngalcs.
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Gsle>;
Goethe at Weimar. toiing To the last.
Complete Faust when eighty years were past.
These are indeed exceptions; but they show
HOW far the suli->iream of our youth may ilow
Into the arctic regions Of our lives.
W here little else than life itself survives.
A. the barometer foretclis the storm
W nile sill the sklss clear ha weather
warm
- something in u. 4, old age draws near.
Bctray, the pressure OF the atmos pherc.
The nimble mercury. ere we are aware.
pcscenJs the elastic ladder Of the air;
The teIitale blood in artery and vein
sinks from it. higher levels in the brain;
"haieScr poet. orator, or sage
May say of ii. Old aye i still old are.
II i the waning, not the crescent moon.
The dusk Of evening, not the blaZe Of noon;
II i not strength, but weakness. not desire.
But it, surcease; Ot the fierce heat OF fire.
The burning AMI con,u ming element.
But tha, of ashes aud OF ember, spent
In which some living sparks we still discern.
Enough 10 warm, but not enough 10 burn
Whist then: Shall We sit idly down and saw
The night hath come; l. i no longer day:
The night hath not vet come; We are not quit
Cut of from labor by the falling light:
Something remains for u, 10 DO or dare:
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear:
Not P.iipu>, coloneus, or Greek ode.
Or talc> OF pilgrims that one morning rode
out of the gateway Of the Tabard Ina
But other something, would we but Begin
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth IT, elt. though in another dress.
And a, the evening twilight fades away
The ky i filed with starr. invisible by day.