38 PLAIN OF MARATHON. 
CH \J? 
I, ' found ill the Plain of Marathon; where, amidst 
' — "^""^ the wreck of generations, and the graves of 
antient heroes, we elevate our thoughts towards 
Him "in whose sight a thousand years are but 
as yesterday,-" where the stillness of Nature, 
harmonizing with the calm solitude of that 
illustrious region which was once a scene of the 
most agitated passions, enables us, by the past, 
to determine of the future. In those moments, 
indeed, we may be said to live for ages; — a 
single instant, by the multiplied impressions it 
conveys, seems to anticipate for us a sense of 
that Eternity, "when time shall be no more;" 
when the fitful dream of human existence, with 
all its turbulent illusions, shall be dispelled; 
and the last sun having set in the last night of 
the world, a brighter dawn than ever gladdened 
the universe shall renovate the dominions of 
darkness and of death. 
