410 ROMAN ROAD IN THE 
loses itself in the far distant horizon behind us. 
In the physical world things only before us we 
can see ; in the intellectual we note chiefly what 
is behind us; the one is all prospective, the other 
retrospective. But retrospective impressions are 
weak in proportion to the remoteness of time, in- 
asmuch as commonly every additional impression 
which the ever striking present presents us, tends 
to obliterate what has preceded, until numbers of 
impressions are defaced, and others so faint that 
it is difficult to trace the outline, and recollect 
what they once were. Time tries all things. It 
levels mountains as it rolls over the globe; it 
crumbles pyramids as it wipes off the dust from 
their surface, every year that its wings sweep over 
them. Neither works of nature nor of art escape 
it. They become at length defunct; and while 
it entombs their remains it spares not their histo- 
ries, but either leaves their memories unsculp- 
tured, or fritters away the ciphers o’er their 
graves, till they become illegible and perish. 
“ Sic transit gloria mundi.” 
It is said that there is no rule without an ex- 
ception, and that exception proves the rule. If, 
then, the saying be true, and what has just been 
read be the general rule, there will be an excep- 
