A Parable of Immortality by Henry Van Dyke
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails
to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an
object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she
hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come down
to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, " There she
goes! "
Gone where? Gone from my sight . . . that is all.
She is just
as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side
and
just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of
destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the
moment when someone at my side says,
" There she goes! " there are
other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up
the glad shout . . .
" Here she comes! "