MODERN PERIOD 
Upon thy scenes will rise a people proud, 
Welded to strength, and rich with gifts endowed : 
Gifts not alone to them to be confined, 
But by them freely used to raise mankind : 305 
And from thy shores to lands far o'er the sea 
Will spread their empire, light, and liberty. 
All, all is change, not e'en the studded sky 
Has held its jewels from all eternity. 
And these, not formed for ever from the past, 
Will cease, in time, their lustrous lights to cast : 
And other orbs, as bright, will fill their place, 
And with new light illumine endless space. 
So must our earth, part of a common fate, 
Sink in its turn, cold and inanimate ; 
And to its sun, burnt out, oncejoined again 
Be borne through space, and at Fate's call remain. 
And must the spirit of the life here spent 
Sink with the scene of its development ? 
Is all the work around, by Nature wrought, 
A passing show, destined to end in naught ? 
But here to things unknown we vainly press, 
And man, bowed down, feels all his littleness. 
Yet seeing mystery is in things that be, 
He ploughs his way in hope, and reverently. 
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