DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5179#0022
INTRODUCTION.
TT is wonderful to consider, as we walk through
-*- this vast metropolis of the present day, that
cities of antiquity as large as London have once
existed and disappeared, leaving not a trace
behind; it is wonderful to reflect that as many-
multitudes of persons as Ave now see moving
constantly about, each occupied in the busy affairs
of life, once existed there, and have passed away,
without children or successors to record their
history. It is peculiarly solemn and striking, in
travelling in these regions, to journey sometimes
for days together without meeting with a modern
town, and this in plains and valleys which we
know to have been once densely populated; to
wander over the remains of cities, sometimes so
perfect that their inhabitants seem only to have
left them yesterday; to find these cities often so
TT is wonderful to consider, as we walk through
-*- this vast metropolis of the present day, that
cities of antiquity as large as London have once
existed and disappeared, leaving not a trace
behind; it is wonderful to reflect that as many-
multitudes of persons as Ave now see moving
constantly about, each occupied in the busy affairs
of life, once existed there, and have passed away,
without children or successors to record their
history. It is peculiarly solemn and striking, in
travelling in these regions, to journey sometimes
for days together without meeting with a modern
town, and this in plains and valleys which we
know to have been once densely populated; to
wander over the remains of cities, sometimes so
perfect that their inhabitants seem only to have
left them yesterday; to find these cities often so