RUINS. 43 



inspire a pleasing sentiment. While contemplating a 

 scene of ruins, the mind may have glimpses of truths 

 which are not revealed to us in the lessons of philoso 

 phy, and which excite indefinite hopes amidst apparent 

 desolation. It is our power of deriving pleasure from 

 these inexplicable sources that gives a pile of ruins half 

 its charms. This mingled sentiment of hope and mel 

 ancholy combines with almost all our ideas of beauty. 

 On this account a deserted house interests the mind 

 more than a splendid villa in its perfect condition ; and 

 a plain, overspread with classic ruins, more than a pros 

 pect of green meadows and highly ornamented gardens. 

 It would be idle to assert that the human soul would 

 take satisfaction in contemplating an object that is sug 

 gestive of its own dissolution. This love of ruins 

 ought rather to be considered as so much evidence com 

 ing from them in favor of the infinite duration of the 

 universe. They are evidence of the great age of the 

 earth, and proof of its destination to exist during count 

 less ages of the future. I wonder that our theologians 

 have never deduced from this love of ruins, which is so 

 universal, an argument for the immortality of the soul. 

 It is evident that we do not instinctively regard them 

 as proofs of mortality : but while we see in them the 

 subjection of material forms to those changes which 

 belong to every thing that is mortal, we look upon our 

 own souls as lifted above any'liability to these changes. 

 Did we innately perceive in them proof that the mind 

 that constructed these wonderful works of art, perished 

 with them, we should turn away from them with a deep 

 despondency, and endeavor to hide them from our sight. 

 By a similar course of reasoning we may account for 

 the pleasure which is experienced by musing among the 

 tombs. 



