3 22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Ages ago, when Earth was young, 

 And all her beauties yet unsung 

 Save in the songs that Nature weaves 

 Into the texture of the leaves, 

 Or teaches to the insect swarms 

 That fill the light with darting forms 

 A meteor, like some silly moth, 

 To meet destruction nothing loath, 

 Drawn by a force it could not shun, 

 Broke from its circles round the Sun, 

 And in a flashing spiral flight 

 Shot to the central source of light. 

 New fuel fed the solar flame ; 

 New sunbeams into being came ; 

 And these, unconscious of their birth, 

 Sought speedily the whirling Earth. 



In that far-off, mysterious day 



The undeveloped planet lay 



Afloat in space, a different thing 



From that which bears us on its wing. 



Forgotten rivers downward ran 



From mountains never seen by man, 



To oceans, long since dried away, 



Whose beds are continents to-day. 



And overhead the heavens bent 



Not wholly like our firmament. 



Some stars, perchance, that now are cold, 



In their deserted orbits rolled ; 



And others shone more brightly then 



Than since abashed by gaze of men. 



The very Sun intenser glowed 



As on the heavenly way he strode, 



And sent to space the fiercer heat 



Of fiery youth and vigor sweet. 



Through vapors dense the sunbeams fell, 

 And worked in passing many a spell 

 On ancient rocks and flowing streams, 

 And decked with unaccustomed gleams 

 The wings of insects proud to be 

 The wearers of such livery. 

 Then on through forests where the breeze 

 Found giant ferns grown into trees, 

 That in their waving branches held 

 The wealth of summer undispelled. 



