The longest time that man may live,
The lapse of generations of his race,
The continent entire of time itself,
Bears not proportion to Eternity;
Huge as a fraction of a grain of dew
Co-measured with the broad, unbounded ocean!
There is the time of man--his proper time,
Looking at which this life is but a gust,
A puff of breath, that's scarcely felt ere gone!

The Maid of Mariendorpt: A Play in Five Acts (ed. 1838)