The Arkansas advocate., 1830-07-21
MISCELLANY.
From tke Saturdau Euesaing Posi
TIE RIIINS OF TIME.

q From tfte oa5HrdGy EUea2ig Post
 THE RUINS OF TIME.
 N The car ofvlctory, the plume, the wreath, 2 Defend not from the bolt of fate the brave; No note the clarion of renown can breathe s Y alarm the long night of the lonely grave, Or check the headIong haste oftime's over-
 Wheimlhg wave. DR. BEAFTIE. @ Once more hath the earth eomple- ted her circuit rould the burning aud
 brilliant luminary of Heaven. The . wheels of time stillroll on and bury every < moment in the dust, the wrecks offormer # revolutions. The monuments of art l and genius, the temples of ambition, ! pride and vanity. every moment spring up and are buried to the earth in the. path ofmaa, and serve toremind him of the mutabiliy of all human greatness and all human grandeur. To him how pregnant with instructionareth the wrecks ofruins, ,andreYolutions oftinle. Theyare the oracles of ages-they speak like a trumpet from the tomb. neqa!. |; Iii yolceof thunder to the heart--avoice more impressive than the tongue ofsTul. Y, more symphonious than tie harp of H9mers more picturesque thanthepencil of Appeiles. feel in my soul the grand eur ofmy exalted theme. Isee the yener- able shade eftime as he stands for a mo- raent on the pedestal of years; his white locks streaming in the winds of winter; hisaged hands pointing to the ruins of empires and his trembling form bends over the tombs of oriental genius where the lamp of glory still burns, and the light ofimmortality streams.
 Roll back the billowy tide of timei unroli the mouldering record of ages! What scenes are presented to the star tied imagination of man. He beholds his own destiny, and the doom of his no- blest achievements. He builds the COG lossal temple of his renowu---he dedi- eatcs to other ages-it stands CT a rock. and bathes its high battlements in the blue clouds of Heaven; but. behold. triumphanttime hurls itwithaliits gran deur to the dust. Soit is with man him. self, whose hot and hurried existence pre- cipitates the hour his own dissolution. And so it is with the empires of the eartli--they rise, flourish, and pass a. way, as if they had never been. Where now is ancient Egypt, the land of sci ence and sacred recollections? Where are her thousands of cities, her Thebes. her Memphis, her oracle of Ammon? The red arm of the Goth and the Van. aal hath leveIled them with the dust: the serpent now inhabits the temple where the worshiper once knelt the knee ofaaeration-the oracle hath been silent for ages, and the priestess long since fled from her falling shrine. And where are the cloud-capt pyramids of Egypt, the wonder of the world? Alas. they still stand as mournful monuments of human ambition. But where are the kings who planned, and the millions of miserable slaves who erected themq Gone down to the grave; the rank weed waves over tic sepulchre Of their moul- dering bones. And such shall be the fate of those pyramids who have stood for ages as the beacon of misguided ambition; the wave of time shall wave over them and bury them forever in the general mausoleum of ages.
 And hath all the glory and grandeur of the world thus yielded to the yictori ous tooth of time? Go seek an answer amid the wrecks of Palmyra, Balbeo and Jerusalem. Behold the city o God hath fallen-through her totterins temples and ruined battlements the shade-born beetle wheels his drear, fight, and the roaring lion of the des sert hath made his lair in the sepulchrt sfthe Saviour. The nassingg traveller il vain searches for the splendid temple Q
 Solomon; its crumbling colurAns are be
 meath his feet; its sublime imagery i
 pictured edinthe landscape ofimagination but the glory of the world hath departes