Delaware Republican, and farmers', manufacturers' and mechanics' advocate. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1841-1843, 1841-10-08

Shall reason here be banish'd from her throne
That once mysterious monarch OF the mind.
Oh! ofthe gay does this romlin alono'
We are entering, said !, the solemn
and sublime city Of the dead, where sleep
the cd and the young the beautiful and
the brave the graceful and the gifted.
Like Addison, when enter the burial
place of the departed, every feeling of am
bition dies within me. aud my heart is
humbled TO the dust, while my mind dwcls
upon the mutabiity Of man.
When last wandered, said the lady, in
these sacre, ard sublime solitudes, the
melancholy winds Of November were mour-
ming among the trees, the bioom and beauty
of Nature had departed, and the yellow
leaves of Autumn, one by one, were fall
ing around me.
And thus, exclaimed, do the green and
golden hopes and affections of the heart
perish, and the friends of our youth 90
down to the dust ! The grave covers all
human hopes and all human affections
The pompous and the poor; the mighty
and the mean the philosopher and the
fool, sleep side by side. ~ am looking"
said Dogenes to Alexander the Great. s'ior
the bones of your father, Philip of Mace
don, but ! cannot distinguish them from
the meanest of his suhiects.' Oh ! no
there is no distinction there there is no
nobility in the great republic of the dead.
Alas said the lady with a sigh, how
many wrecks and relics of human hope
and happiness are floating down the dark
tide of time
And what is time !? inquired. 1t is
but an idea of the mind, or the space be-
tween one action and another. The sun
rises, and the sun sets we eat, we work |
and we sleep. and the spaces between those
actions we call time. The hands of Won
der town clock, which speaks with such
solemn tone to our hearts, move and we
call that the march OF time. Our bodies,
with every thing around us, decay and
hence we say il is the effect of time. But,
lady, time is only an idea in the mind. 1t
is the same moment now and forever. In
sleep the night seems TO pass in moment;
because we have no actions To Judge by
To the dead, millions Of years are a mo-
ment, because there are not even dreams
in the grave. Could the voice of man be
heard round the globe, and were a man in
to cry out it is Just twelve
O'Clock mid day, man in London would
reply that it is five o'clock in the evening,
n man in Constanainople wnnlh declare il !
to be nine. and man in Pekin, China,
would pronounce it just midnight. ! they
would all be right, for the earth is CON
stanty turning in an eastward direction.
and the hour is later in proportion to the
distance eastward on the globe. The earth
turns on Its axis at the rate of fifteen de-
grees every hour. Consequently, could
man walk westward fifteen degrees every
hour, and start at midday, the sun would
always be over his head, and it would nj. Z,
ways be twelve O'Clock to him, for he
would walk westward lust as fast as the
earth turns eastward, and hence there
would be no elapse of time. '
That Is very singular, indeed, replied |
he lady. Then you think that our idea of t
lme consists in motion. action and decay ; /
Yes Were the walls Of city never t
o change; the people never to wther and 4
ieeay; the earth eease to turn round. and d
he hands Of the clock TO moye-were the |
'eoIle to sit still in the same place, and S
lot eat, work. or sleep. what idea could "
We have OF The clapsc of Time 1t is the L
ternal change /; ii is the constant decay. Il
'hch takes place around US, that we ind, I,
y. Decay is stamped on every thing hui il
IAN. Man, with all his works, is destined Of
The dust. Even the proud pyramids of re
Egypt, which have deied the storms of "
.nturies, shall yet crumble, and be crush. To
beneath the feet Of the Arab or the Ii
ithiop. wv in
Decay is, indeed, stamped upon every v,
wing thing, returned the lady. Ii is said "
philosophic physicians that we are every III
'ur undergoing that process, and that tile We
ny iood we take TO sustain life. is eradu. 81.
y destroying it. 1t is supposed that no, to
particle OF the flesh which now composes lei
r bodies will remain seven years hence,
t that a new body will be formed eradu, tn
y /; that the particles of matter will be yo
rown of by the secretions, and bv the
owlh OF the nails, hair, &c. But how do in,
retain the same expression, counte- m,
nee. shape, and even scars in
In the same manner, said |, that petri. oe
;tion' or the turning of wood to stone or
.es place. An inconccivably small par i'm
lie oil me wood rots and falls away, and sta
rtlon OF stony matter in the water falls s;o
o its place, retaining the same shape of
size. When particle Of flesh is ma
own oil, another particle fills up the
'ity', and has every appearance Of the ore
ginal. ~;
How wonderful are the works Of nature i,
claimed the lady. And how grand Clio.
US is that Being who created ali thipGs c,o