THE APPROACHING END

The universe has already grown old. The earth has lost its pristine vigour, and can no longer put forth the energies of youth. The rains of winter and summer now maintain not their just proportion; the spring smiles not as formerly with the promise of fruitfulness, nor does autumn bend beneath so rich a burden. Less marble is dug from the exhausted quarries, less gold and silver from the impoverished mines. Husbandmen are wanted for the fields, sailors for the sea and soldiers for the camp. Everything is necessarily attenuated as its end approaches. The sun shines more feebly in its setting and the moon in her wane dwindles to a slender thread. The tree, once green and stately in its broad shade, withers and diminishes to a stump; and the most abundant foundation is at last exhausted, and pours out drop by drop the scanty remainder of its waters. This is a law imposed upon all things by the Creator, that whatever is born must die and eventually perish. 

St. Cyprian

(08-12-02)