The day of which I speak was brilliant, and the 
full glow of the sun-light fell on the white columns 
of the newer building, whilst it chanced that the ruin 
lay in shadow : the one so fresh, so perfect, so 
bright ;—the other so defaced, so ruinous, so darkened; 
— the contrast was complété, and, for one melancholy 
moment, fancy might hâve deemed she saw a type of 
the triumph of false religion over the true ! 
Oh ! for a painter’s pencil or a poet’s pen to trace 
but the outline of that fair and desolate church ; 
roofless, save where the tanglèd masses of Ivy hid 
the blue heavens from the view. Its Windows and 
door-ways blank, save where supplied with a lattice- 
work of leaves, which wreathed 
“ the slender shafts of shapely stone” 
by which the arches were supported. 
“ And far o’er roof and architrave 
The Ivy’s ringlets bend and wave.” 
The situations which the Ivy loves hâve made it 
considered as symbolical of Friendship. But to me 
it seems the emblem of Death ; for does it not 
triumph over ail the works of men ? They endure for 
a season, perchance for a long season they retain 
b 3 
