CHAPTER XIV. 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT TEMPLES, 
AND OTHER EXCAVATIONS ON THE ISLANDS OF 
SALSETTE AND ELEPHANTA. 
1774. 
What does not fade ? The tower that long had stood 
The crush of thunder, and the warring winds 
Shook by the slow but sure destroyer Time, 
Now hangs in doubtful ruins o’er its base j 
And flinty pyramids, and walls of brass. 
Descend : the Babylonian spires are sunk ; 
Achaia, Rome, and Egypt moulder down. 
Time shakes the stable tyranny of thrones. 
And tottering empires crush by their own weight ; 
This huge rotundity we tread grows old. 
And all those worlds that roll around the sun. 
The sun himself shall die, and ancient night 
Again involve the desolate abyss. 
Till the great Father through the lifeless gloom 
Extend his arm to light another world. 
And bid new planets roll by other laws. 
Armstrong. 
