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The New Zealand Evangelist

Poetry

page 37

Poetry

Loss in Delays.

Shun delays, they breed remorse;
Take thy time, while, time doth serve thee;
Creeping snails have weakest force,
Fly their fault, lest thou repent thee;
Good is best, when soonest wrought,
Lingering labours come to nought.

Hoist up sail while gale doth last,
Time and tide stay no man's pleasure;
Seek not time, when time is past,
Sober speed is wisdom's leisure;
After wits are dearly bought,
Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought.

Time wears all his locks before,
Take then hold upon his forehead;
When he flies, he turns no more,
And behind his scalp is naked:
Works adjourned have many stays,
Long demurs breed new delays.

Seek thy salve while sore is green,
Festered wounds ask deeper lancing;
After cures are seldom seen,
Often sought, scarce ever chancing.
Time and place give best advice;
Out of season, out of price.

Drops do pierce the stubborn flint,
Not by force, but often felling;
Custom kills with feeble dint,
More by use, than strength prevailing;
Single sands have little weight,
Many make a drowning freight.

page 38

Yonder twigs are bent with ease,
Aged trees do break with bending;
Young desires make little prease,*
Growth doth make them past amending:
Happy man that soon doth knock
Babel's babes against the rock.

The Fountain

Stranger whoe'er thou art, that stoop'st to taste
These sweeter streams, let me arrest thy haste;
Nor of their fall.
The murmurs (though the lyre
Less sweet be) stand to admire:
But as you shall
See from this marble tun
The liquid Crystal run,
And mark withal
How fixed the one abides,
How fast the other glides;
Instructed thus, the difference learn to see
“I wixt mortal life and immortality.

* Prease, (French) hold.