He lived on the bank of a mighty river,
broad and deep, which was always silently
rolling on to a vast undiscovered ocean. It had
rolled on, ever since the world began. It had
changed its course sometimes, and turned into
new channels, leaving its old ways dry and
barren; but it had ever been upon the flow,
and ever was to flow until Time should be no
more. Against its strong, unfathomable stream,
nothing made head. No living creature, no
flower, no leaf, no particle of animate or
inanimate existence, ever strayed back from the
undiscovered ocean. The tide of the river set
resistlessly towards it; and the tide never
stopped, any more than the earth stops in its
circling round the sun.
He lived in a busy place, and he worked