NEBULA TO MAN 
And to her form, more shapely, Time would bring 
For gas and liquid, solid covering. 
That aqueous vapours, hovering long around, 
Would then descend, and flood the thickening ground. 
That sea and land would thus her surface hold, 25 
By uplifts and subsidences controlled. 
That on the unstable scene would life arise, 
Formed and reformed to meet emergencies. 
And that the globe in time would come to be 
A world of life, alike through land and sea : 30 
What man indeed, mist gazing, could have guessed 
The floating haze such wealth unformed possessed. 
Indeed the unfolding passes as a dream ; 
And things must often be what not they seem. 
Although, perchance, far, far back in the past, 35 
In outline rude the continents were cast 
Much as to-day ; still have the land and sea 
Disputed portions held alternately. 
Lands once beneath the brine have upheaved been, 
Lands once in view have joined the briny scene. 40 
But now with glacial epochs left behind, 
The land and sea for most part are confined 
As seen to-day. (Not but exchange, though small, 
Goes ever on along the littoral.) 
Nor are there any forms of life to-day 45 
But what these scenes before us now display. 
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