Past, Present, And Future Poem by John Bowring

By what a charm is life attended,
Led from activity to rest,
The past, the future, sweetly blended,
To make the present blest!


The memories of the time departed,
The hopes that light the days to come,
Life-busy, brief, and eager-hearted,
And death-a quiet home.


Yet, in its earthly course, the spirit
Through all creation's orbit flies,
And its expansive powers inherit
Two vast eternities,-


The eternity unrolled before us,
The volumes of recorded time;
The light of ages beaming o'er us,
Instructive and sublime:


And that eternity whose portal
Is opened by the book of truth,
Where man and virtue are immortal,
And wear immortal youth.