DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61277#0031
REFLECTIONS,
11
veloped in lava; scarcely a vestige remaining to
gratify the eye of the traveller.
‘ So flits the pageant of life’s troubled dream,
So float man’s works down time’s oblivious stream.’
44 Surely these mouldering relics of departed
grandeur may strikingly impress us with that con-
viction, which, ages ago, whispered to the wisest
of the sons of men, 4 all on earth is vanity.’ ”
I was at this moment vividly reminded of Lord
Lyttelton’s letter to Mr. Pope, in which he
alludes to the change that took place in Italy
shortly after its era of greatness and glory, though
delicacy towards the feelings of my friend forbade
me to mention them :
“ Unhappy Italy I whose altered state
Has felt the worst severity of fate :
Not that barbarian hands her fasces broke,
And bowed her haughty head beneath their yoke;
Not that her palaces to earth are thrown,
Her cities desert, and her fields unsown ;
But that her ancient spirit is decayed,
That sacred wisdom from her bounds is fled,
That there the source of science flows no more,
Whence its rich streams supplied the world before.”
After a short pause, Signor C. L. desired me
to turn to the right, and to finish the examination
we had so far made, in a contrary direction.
44 That mass, which conceals a portion of the
north-west from our view, is the mountain of the
11
veloped in lava; scarcely a vestige remaining to
gratify the eye of the traveller.
‘ So flits the pageant of life’s troubled dream,
So float man’s works down time’s oblivious stream.’
44 Surely these mouldering relics of departed
grandeur may strikingly impress us with that con-
viction, which, ages ago, whispered to the wisest
of the sons of men, 4 all on earth is vanity.’ ”
I was at this moment vividly reminded of Lord
Lyttelton’s letter to Mr. Pope, in which he
alludes to the change that took place in Italy
shortly after its era of greatness and glory, though
delicacy towards the feelings of my friend forbade
me to mention them :
“ Unhappy Italy I whose altered state
Has felt the worst severity of fate :
Not that barbarian hands her fasces broke,
And bowed her haughty head beneath their yoke;
Not that her palaces to earth are thrown,
Her cities desert, and her fields unsown ;
But that her ancient spirit is decayed,
That sacred wisdom from her bounds is fled,
That there the source of science flows no more,
Whence its rich streams supplied the world before.”
After a short pause, Signor C. L. desired me
to turn to the right, and to finish the examination
we had so far made, in a contrary direction.
44 That mass, which conceals a portion of the
north-west from our view, is the mountain of the