The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-10
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Paused, and'observed the spot, and marked It

Paused andobserved the spot, and marked II
Wherein the shadow Of the finger fell:
AND coming back at midnight, delved, and
4 ha secret stairway leading under ground.
DOWN tnis he passed into a spacious hall
Llt by flaming jewel on the wall.
And opposite a brazen statue stood
WIN bow and shaft in threatening attitudo
Upon It's forehead, like coronet
Were these mysterious words OF menace sat
Ihat which am, / am; my fatal aim
None cah escape, not even yon luminous
Midway the hall was fair table placed.
MIN cloth OF gold, and golden cups enchased
WIN r,9ples, and the plates and knives were
And gold the bread and viands manifold.
around II, silent, motonless and sad,
were seated gallant knights in arInor clad
ana fi ladies' beautiful with plume and zone.
but Iney were stone, their hearts within
And the vast hall was filled in every mart
WIN silent crowds, stony In face and heart
Long at the scene, bewildered and amazed
Inc trembling clerk In spcechless wonder
Then from the table, by his greed made bold.
ne selled goblet and n knife OF gold,
anu s STanehy from their seats the guests up
The vaulted ceiling with loud clamors rang.
St uo nIrner spec MS arrow, at their call,
snattering the lambert jewel on the wall
ana all was dark around and overhead
o'arA oh 'he noor the luckless clerk lay dead.
The writer OF this legend then records
1.s gnostly application In these words:
Inc image Is the Adversary old,
whose reckoning finger points to realms OF
Our lusts and passions are the downward
That leads the soul from diviner air.
The archer, Death the flaming Jewel, Life.
terrestrial 1,, goods. the goblet and the knife !:
The knights and ladies', all whose iiesh and
by avarice have been hardened into at one.
Inc clerk. the scholar whom the love OF pelf
self ''''
The s, scholar aad the world! The endless
The discord In the harmonies of life,
the love OF learning, the sequestered hooks.
Ana all the sweet serenity OF books;
I. market,place, the eager love OF gain,
But why, you ask me, should this tale be told
10 men grown old. or who are growing old ?
T ~ ~ , zoo , iade All nothing is too late
Salo learned Greek at eighty Sophocles
Wrote his grand Gdipus and Smonides
Bore OH the prize OF Verse from his compeers.
"he ecor eac Yao nsa numbered more than four
And A Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,
i nad Dut begun his Characters OF Men.
Chaucer, at Woodstock with the piphtinpales
Az slXty wrote the Canterbury Tales
Goethe at Weimar, toillng TO the last,
TS9ShnpietedFaust when eighty years were past,
,
now 1ar the gulf stream OF our youth may flow
into the arctic regions OF our lives,
Where little else than life itself survives
AS the barometer foretells the storm
While still the .skies are clear the weather
warm.
70 something in us, as old age draws near
Betrlys the pressure OF the atmosphere.
me nlmDle mercury, ere we are 0ware,
Descends the elastic ladder OF the air;
The telltale blood In artery and vein
Sinks from Its higher levels In the brain
Whatever poet, orator, or sage
May say OF IL, old age is still Old age
IL Is the waning, not the crescent MOON
The dusk or evening, not the blaze OF noon:
IL Is not strength, but weakness not desire
But us surcease; not the fierce heat OF IRE
The burning and consuming element,
But that or ashes and OF embers spent.
In which some living sparks we still discern
Enough to warm, but not enough to burn.
What then? Shall we sit idly down and saw
The night hath come ; 1t is no longer dsy
The night hath not yet come; we are not quite
cut of from labor by the falling light
Something remains for us to do or dare:
Even the Oldest tree some fruit may bear:
S 9t SSEffattPqs NBT eeE 8depur,u
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though In another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.