Neither of
them know anything about the benevolent man, who over thirty-five years
before set out the maple trees, whose shade they enjoy and which protects
them, from the scorching rays of the sun, and makes them so comfortable.
Now, in looking at the shortness of human life, which is compared to a
hand's breadth or to the vapor, which appears in the morning is seen but
a little while and then vanishes away to be seen no more; and thinking
that the pioneers stopped but so short a time to enjoy the fruits of
their toil and the labor of their hands, I would exclaim again in
language similar to that of the good man of old, "O, pioneers, pioneers,
live forever!"
O, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.
The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around and together be laid;
And the young and the old, and the low and the high,
Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie.
So the multitude goes, like the flowers or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes, even those we behold,
To report every tale that has often been told.
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