156 



stands now as firm and as erect as it stood 

 in the world's youth, 



" When the fresh stars had just begun 



Their race of glory, and young time 

 Told his first birth days by the sun ; " 



and the stream which rolls at its foot, as it 

 did then, still holds its ceaseless course 



"Labitur, et labetur, in omne volubilis aevum." 



Within the period which authentic history 

 comprises, how many of the monuments, 

 triumphal arches, and palaces, which their 

 founders idly imagined should endure for 

 ever, have passed away, leaving no more 

 trace of their existence than the light sea- 

 bird leaves when he dips his wing in ocean. 

 Nay, the very site of once mighty cities is no 

 more to be found than if they had never 

 been; and the crumbling remains of others 

 just appear above the desart, like the memo- 

 rials of the mighty dead who raised them in 

 their pride, and which at once bear record of 

 human power and of human instability. 



