Quote#Time
Once, in the flight of ages past
Quote byJames Montgomery · 1771–1854
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)., The Common Lot..
English (original)
Once, in the flight of ages past, There lived a man.
— James Montgomery
More from James Montgomery
Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea.
When the good man yields his breath (For the good man never dies).
Nature's prime favourites were the Pelicans; High-fed, long-lived, and sociable and free.
Gashed with honourable scars, Low in Glory's lap they lie; Though they fell, they fell like stars, Streaming splendour through the sky.
The nursery of brooding Pelicans, The dormitory of their dead, had vanish'd, And all the minor spots of rock and verdure, The abodes of happy millions, were no more.
Counts his sure gains, and hurries back for more.