R-alpha: system() NOT ok

Why does parse not work below and why does assigning it crash R?

Paul
________
$ R
R : Copyright 1997, Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka
Version 0.50 Alpha-3 (August 8, 1997)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type "license()" for details.

system("date \'+%Y %m %d %H %M %S\'", intern=T)

[1] "1997 10 17 11 43 21"

parse(text = system("date \'+%Y %m %d %H %M %S\'", intern=T),white =

T)
1997 10 17 11 43 43
      ^
expression()

d <- parse(text = system("date \'+%Y %m %d %H %M %S\'",

intern=T),white = T)
1997 10 17 11 44 22
      ^

$

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