Was there nought better than to enjoy?
No feat which, done, would make time break,
And let us pent-up creatures through
Into eternity, our due?
No forcing earth teach heaven's employ?
-- Robert Browning (1812-1890)
-- Dis Aliter Visum or Le Byron de nos Jours
The wheels of nature are not made to roll backward everything presses
on toward Eternity; from the birth of Time an impetuous current has
set in, which bears all the sons of men toward that interminable
ocean....