Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/266

 eager to come

Once more to its kind    as soon as it can.

On earth there now lives    no single creature

That craves not    one day to come

Back to its home    whence it once came.

Here no care racks,    here rest is eternal

'Tis God Almighty,    as all men know.

Over the earth now    there lives no creature

That spins not round    and on itself turns,

Even as a wheel;    for it so whirls

That at last it stands    in its ancient station

And ever as soon    as it has spun round,

When all its round    is run to the end,

Then duly again    it shall do what it did,

And be yet again    what it was of yore.

XIV
What avails the greedy one    in earth's goods wealthy,

What boot for his mind,    though much he owns

Of gold and of gems,    and every thing good,

And countless possessions;    and though his ploughs till

Each day for him    a thousand acres?

What though this middle-earth,    and this race of men,

Under the sun,    south, west, and east,

In his dominion    are all dependent,

When none of his trappings    can he take away from here

Out of this world,    no, not one more

Of his hoarded treasures    than he brought hither?