THE LAPSE OF TIME. 125 



parison between the short duration of man's life and its 

 own unceasing current 



' For men may come, and men may go, 

 But I flow on for ever.' 



Such is the proud language of the murmuring brook. 

 Yet the boast is an untrue one; for if any conclusion 

 in regard to the future can be warranted from the facts 

 of the past, none can be more sure than that no parti- 

 cular brook will flow on for ever. Instead of a brook, 

 it may become a mighty river like the St. Lawrence ; 

 it may dash over precipitous cliffs with a vaster fall and 

 volume than Niagara ; and, after all, the slow inexorable 

 changes of the earth's crust will one day make its flow 

 impossible, and the channel of it shall know its stream 

 no more. Only the flow of time is unending, of time 

 which does nothing, but out of or without which nothing 

 can be done, of time, replete with glorious wonders 

 as far back as the knowledge or the imagination of 

 man can penetrate, through every age, through every 

 million of years that can be rescued from forgetfulness, 

 bearing fresh testimony, in the greatness and the end- 

 lessness of the work, to the eternal power and wisdom 

 of the Supreme Worker. 



