Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 17 – The Child’s Death
He did but float a little way,
Adown the stream of time;
With dreamy eyes watching the ripples play,
Or listening to their chime.
His slender sail
Scarce felt the gale:
He did but float a little way.
And, putting to the shore,
While yet ’twas early day
Went calmly on his way,
To dwell with us no more,
No jarring did he feel,
No grating on his vessel’s keel;
A strip of silver sand
Mingled the waters with the land,
Where he was seen no more:
O stern word Never more!
Full short his journey was; no dust
Of earth unto his sandals clave;
The weary weight that old men must,
He wore not to his grave.
He seemed a cherub who had lost his way
And wander’d hither: so his stay
With us was short: and ’twas most meet
That he should be no delver in earth’s clod
Nor need to pause and cleanse his feet
To stand before his God:
O blest word Never more!
(J. R. Lowell)
oooOOOooo
From the Introduction to Precept and Practice
The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.
The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;- with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;- with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.
CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW
Suffolk Vicar 