Spin, spin, Clotho, spin!
Lachesis, twist! and Atropos, sever!
In the shadow, year out, year in,
The silent headsman waits forever!
Smooth sails the ship of either realm,
Kaiser and Jesuit at the helm;
But we look down the deeps and mark
Silent workers in the dark,
Building slow the sharp-tusked reefs,
Old instincts hardening to new beliefs:
Patience, a little; learn to wait;
Hours are long on the clock of Fate.
Spin, spin, Clotho, spin!
Lachesis, twist! and Atropos, sever!
Darkness is strong, and so is Sin,
But only God endures forever!
* * * * *
THE AURORA BOREALIS.
The aurora borealia, or rather, the polar aurora,--for there are
aurorae australes as well as aurorae boreales,--has been an object of
wonder and admiration from time immemorial.
Pliny and Aristotle record phenomena identical with those which later
times have witnessed. The ancients ranked this with other celestial
phenomena, as portending great events.
In a Bible imprinted at London in the year 1599, the 22d verse of the
37th chapter of Job reads thus: "The brightness commeth out of the
Northe, the praise to God which is terrible.
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