RUINS. 89 



Yet the absence of the ruins of antiquity may have 

 a tendency to render our people more alive to impres- 

 sions from those of a more humble description and of 

 recent origin which abound in all places. When stroll- 

 ing over the scenes of our own land, who has not often 

 stopped to ponder over the ruins of some old dwelling- 

 house, and to bring before the mind the possible his- 

 tory of its inmates ? Here we perceive the completion 

 of a domestic romance. A series of adventures 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 wliich 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 oc- 

 cupation 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 pro- 

 duced 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 bygone ages. A ruin 

 is delightful as the scene of some old tradition, a speci- 

 men of ancient art and magnificence, 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 



