Explore "The World's Age" by Charles Kingsley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Who will say the world is dying? / Who will say our prime is past? / Sparks from Heaven, within us lying, / Flash, and will flash till the last.
Fools! who fancy Christ mistaken; / Man a tool to buy and sell; / Earth a failure, God-forsaken, / Anteroom of Hell.
Still the race of Hero-spirits / Pass the lamp from hand to hand; / Age from age the Words inherits -- / 'Wife, and Child, and Fatherland. ' / Still the youthful hunter gathers / Fiery joy from wold and wood; / He will dare as dared his fathers / Give him cause as good.
While a slave bewails his fetters; / While an orphan pleads in vain; / While an infant lisps his letters, / Heir of all the age's gain; / While a lip grows ripe for kissing; / While a moan from man is wrung; / Know, by every want and blessing, / That the world is young.
1849.