We spend our lives in learning pilotage, <br />And grow good steersmen when the vessel's crank! <br />Gap-toothed he spake, and with a tottering shank <br />Sidled to gain the sunny bench of Age. <br />It is the sentence which completes that stage; <br />A testament of wisdom reading blank. <br />The seniors of the race, on their last plank, <br />Pass mumbling it as nature's final page. <br />These, bent by such experience, are the band <br />Who captain young enthusiasts to maintain <br />What things we view, and Earth's decree withstand, <br />Lest dreaded Change, long dammed by dull decay, <br />Should bring the world a vessel steered by brain, <br />And ancients musical at close of day.<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wisdom-of-eld/
