STUDY XII. 35 



lulled, as I have mentioned, neverthelefs, tbat 

 part of the arch which refted upon it, hung un- 

 lupported in the air, as if the pieces of the vault- 

 ing had been olued to each other. Another idea 

 îikewife ftruck me, namely, that the demolifhing 

 parfon might, perhaps, have been a defcendant from 

 the ancient Cimbri, as we modern French trace up 

 onr defcent to the ancient Nations of the North, 

 which invaded Italy. Thus, the demoUiion ex- 

 cepted, of which I by no means approve, from 

 the refpe<ft I bear to antiquity, 1 mufed upon 

 the viciffitudes of all human affairs, which put the 

 vi(5lors in the place of the vanquifhed, and the 

 vanquished in that of the viétors. I fettled the 

 matter thus, therefore, in my own mind, that as 

 Marins had avenged the honour of the Romans, 

 and levelled the glory of the Cimbri, one of the 

 defcendants of the Cimbri had, in his turn, levelled 

 that OÏ }>Iarius ; while the young people of the vi- 

 cinity, who might come, perhaps, on their days of 

 feftivity, to dance under the fliade of this trium- 

 phal arch, fpent not a fingle thought about either 

 the perfon who conftrufted, or the perfon who de- 

 moliihed it. 



The ruins, in which Nature combats with hu- 

 man Art, infpire a gentle m.elancholy. In thefe 

 fhe difcovers to us the vanity of our labours, and 

 the perpetuity of her own. As (he is always build- 



D 2 ins 



