NOVEMBER. 505 



tnres has been there commenced, continued and brought to 

 an end. Imagination is free to indulge itself in making up 

 the history of the human beings who have lived and .died 

 there, and of the romantic adventures which have there been 

 enacted. We do not always endeavor to read this history : 

 but there is a shadowy conception of something connected 

 with the old crumbling walls that would be striking and 

 romantic. To this pleasing occupation of the fancy may 

 undoubtedly be ascribed a portion of the interest always 

 excited by a view of a ruined or deserted house. A still 

 deeper effect is produced by the sight of a mouldering temple, 

 or a ruined castle, which are associated with deeds and events 

 of greater magnitude. 



I am disposed to attribute the pleasure arising from the 

 contemplation of ruins to a truly noble affection of the human 

 soul, to a veneration of the past, and to a longing to recover 

 the story of by-gone ages. A ruin is delightful as the scene 

 of some old tradition, a specimen of ancient art and magnifi- 

 cence, and as evidence of the truth of history. Nothing, 

 indeed, serves to place so vividly before the mind the picture 

 of any historic event as the ivied and dilapidated walls of the 

 building in which it occurred. There is likewise an emotion 

 of cheerful melancholy which is awakened by viewing a pile 

 of ruins, an old house or an old church, venerable with the 

 mosses of time and decay. There are other objects, scenes 

 and situations that produce similar effects upon the mind, 

 such as a sight of the ocean when agitated by a tempest, 

 from a place of security. A beacon and a light-house belong 

 to the same class of objects ; and above all, a monument by 

 the sea-shore, erected to commemorate some remarkable ship- 

 wreck, awakens a train of melancholy reflections nearly allied 

 to the sentiment of ruins. But it is not every scene of ruins 

 that is capable of yielding pleasure to the beholder. There 

 is nothing agreeable in a view of the embers of a wide con- 

 flagration, except the gratification of the curiosity. Such a 

 spectacle brings to the mind only the idea of destruction and 

 misfortune, which is painful, and there is nothing connected 

 with it to awaken any counteracting sentiment. On the 



VOL. XXI. NO. XI. 64 



