sible now, and only now. Without wisdom to guide him, mistaking the unreal for the real, a man says, "If I had done so and so last week, last month, or last year, it would have been better with me to-day"; or, "I know what is best to be done, and I will do it to-morrow." The selfish cannot comprehend the vast importance and value of the present, and fail to see it as the substantial reality of which past and future are the empty reflections. It may truly be said that past and future do not exist except as negative shadows, and to live in them—that is, in regretful and selfish contemplation or expectation of them—is to miss the reality in life.
“The Present, the Present is all thou hast
For thy sure possessing;
Like the patriarch's angel, hold it fast,
Till it gives its blessing. . . .
“All which is real now remaineth,
And fadeth never;
The hand which upholds it now sustaineth
The soul for ever. . . .
“Then of what is to be, and of what is done.
Why queriest thou?
The past and the time to be are one,
And both are NOW!”
