196 NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. 



Hunting in the evening is no recent disco- 

 covery ; for we find, in the reigns of Charles and 

 James the Second, the time of meeting to hunt 

 the buck commenced at four o'clock in the after- 

 noon ; and the custom then was for the sportsmen 

 to take a hght repast at two o'clock, and have 

 their dinner at the most fashionable hour of the 



present day. 



It has been said, perhaps with more truth 

 than we are generally inclined to believe in 

 this enlightened era, that " there is nothing new 

 under the sun." We plume ourselves on being 

 in advance of every age or generation of mankind 

 which has preceded us in scientific knowledge ; 

 and no doubt the steam-engine and telegraphic 

 wire are something to boast of; but we are yet in 

 the dark as to the power applied in raising the 

 Pyramids of Egypt, the enormous blocks of stone 

 used in Solomon's Temple, and the Druidical 

 remains at Stonehenge. To what limits human 

 knowledge is permitted to extend we know not, 

 but boundaries there are to man's inventive facul- 

 ties, as well as to the waves of the sea — *' Hitherto 

 shalt thou go, and no further." In some things 

 the ancients surpassed us, in others we have sur- 

 passed them. Nemo est ah omni parte beatus may 

 be applied to nations as well as to individuals. 



