DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61277#0132
104
REFLECTIONS.
asunder—masters and mistresses, children and
servants, had perished in one common tomfr
Reader! Picture to yourself the scene, and
imagine it not confined to one house only, but
exhibited, with more or less aggravation, in every
habitation throughout a whole city ! Humanity
shudders at the bare idea; such reflections must,
one would think, soften into pity the coldest
bosom—but I will refrain. The long space of
seventeen centuries has elapsed since that awful
era, and during that period what innumerable
multitudes have passed along the fleeting pilgri-
mage of time, and entered into eternity ! What
revolutions have taken place in kingdoms and in
nations ! What changes in men and manners !
But they all tend to prove the evanescent nature
of sublunary possessions.
“ The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inhabit, shall dissolve ;
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind.” X
While I thus resigned myself to mournful re-
flections, and fancied that I read the emphatic
words “ It shall perish” engraven upon every
object on which I cast my eye; while, lost in
thought, I contemplated in silence this theatre of
destruction; the birds were singing their morn-
REFLECTIONS.
asunder—masters and mistresses, children and
servants, had perished in one common tomfr
Reader! Picture to yourself the scene, and
imagine it not confined to one house only, but
exhibited, with more or less aggravation, in every
habitation throughout a whole city ! Humanity
shudders at the bare idea; such reflections must,
one would think, soften into pity the coldest
bosom—but I will refrain. The long space of
seventeen centuries has elapsed since that awful
era, and during that period what innumerable
multitudes have passed along the fleeting pilgri-
mage of time, and entered into eternity ! What
revolutions have taken place in kingdoms and in
nations ! What changes in men and manners !
But they all tend to prove the evanescent nature
of sublunary possessions.
“ The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inhabit, shall dissolve ;
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind.” X
While I thus resigned myself to mournful re-
flections, and fancied that I read the emphatic
words “ It shall perish” engraven upon every
object on which I cast my eye; while, lost in
thought, I contemplated in silence this theatre of
destruction; the birds were singing their morn-