Page:The Talisman.pdf/8

60 chimes; and yet how rarely do we attend to the clock striking! Alas! how emblematic is this of the way in which we neglect the many signs of time! How terrible, when we think of what time may achieve, is the manner in which we waste it! At the end of every man's life, at least three-quarters of the mighty element of which that life was composed will be found void—lost—nay, utterly forgotten! And yet that time, laboured and husbanded, might have built palaces, gathered wealth, and, still greater, made an imperishable name." He was awakened from a long but common meditation on what he might have done, and what he had not done, by a grumbling voice. "How dirty the Thames is! they say the gas kills every fish in the river; yet I suppose it is thought good enough for Christians. Well, well, every thing changes for the worse; I am sure the water was clear enough in my young days. But we shall never get on, if we stay chattering here: do make haste, child!" So saying, an old woman hurried on, bending beneath a heavy basket; and at her side ran one of those wan, under-sized children, ragged, dirty, and meagre, among the most sorrowful spectacles of sorrowful humanity. Poverty is a terrible thing when it bows to the very ground the pride of the strong man—a terrible thing when it leaves old age destitute: still, the strong man may yet redeem his