Here Nature's contradiction behold,
The extremity of ages, young and old;
The two first books of Moses, Genesis
And Exodus bound up together 'tis;
May sitting in December's lap; the Spring
With Autumn joyn'd together in a ring,
Youth in the bud new started from the womb,
Shakes hands with age now dropping in the tomb;
The world's beginning and the end together,
The day and night, sunshine and rainy weather,
Nonage and dotage, generation
Met with corruption, and the creation
O'th' child the dissolution proves to be
O'th' father, who destroy'd himself whiles he
Begets a son, and like the Phoenix, from
His dust and ashes doth another come.