PROGRESS OF RUIN. 273 



then it would be a ruin ; and then, again, and 

 not very long after, it would become dust, and 

 dust not to be known from the other dust of the 

 earth. The places of many cities, of which the 

 histories are fully recorded, are now matters of 

 uncertainty even to the most believing of anti- 

 quaries ; and in cases where they are determined, 

 it is not done by that which has been ruined, but 

 by that which has escaped from ruin. When we 

 speak about seeing " the ruins " of Rome, or of 

 any city or edifice, we speak about that which we 

 cannot see. What is left is what we perceive, 

 not what is ruined, and to find a former city in 

 the dust is about the same as to predict a future 

 one in the quarry. And even that which we find 

 tells us of nothing but itself; and when we come 

 to a brick or part of a broken altar, we are no 

 more warranted in coming to the conclusion that 

 " here there has been a city or a temple," than 

 that nearly extinct race of hunters for marvels 

 were warranted to conclude, upon coming to the 

 scoria of the old " beal fires " at the " vitrified 

 forts," that " here has been a volcano." But it 

 is with ancient cities as with their inhabitants ; 

 they cannot rise out of the dust and contradict 

 any thing that may be said about them, however 

 imaginary or incorrect that may be ; and thus the 

 antiquary, like the historian, gets credit for tell- 

 ing the truth, simply because nobody can contra- 

 dict him by an appeal to observation. 



Those remarks may at first view seem foreign to 

 the purpose of these pages ; but that is by no means 

 the case ; for it is highly probable, nay, it is cer- 

 tain, that, because the word, " History " has been 

 made part of the name of the description of nature, 



