The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1844-01-22
From The pLiladsIuhia ChronicI,

THE FALL OF EMrIREs-GoD is IN HsroRY.-Tht
ruins Of kingdoms The relics of mighty empires
that were The overthrow decay OF the master
works OF man IS, of all objects that enter FthG
mind the most affecting The high wrought perfec
tons Of beauty and art seem born but To perish and
decay and felt to be inherent law of their
being. But such is the nature of man, that even
while gazing upon the relics Of unknown nations
which have survived all history, he forges his own
perishabe nation IN the spectacle Of enduring great
ness.
! We know OF no spectacle so uell calculated 10
teach man humiliation, and convince Of the utter
lragilty Of the proudest monuments of art the
lies which remind us OF vast populations that have
passed from the earth, and empires that have crum-
bled into ruins. We read upon their Of the past
the fate of the present We feel if all the cities OF
men built foundations beneath which the
earthquake slept; aud that abide in the midst of
the same doom which has already swallowed so much
OF the records Of mortal msgnifcence. Under such
emotions We look on all human power foundation
less and view the proudes nations of the present as
covered only with the mass Of their desolation.
The Assyrian Empire was once alike the terror
and onder Of the world, and Babylon was perhaps
never surpassed IN power and gorgeous magnifocnce
But where Is there even relic Of Babylon now save
on the faithful pages Of Holy Writ The very place
OF It's existence matter OF rtainty and dispute
Alas! that the measures of time should be doomed To
oblivion and that those who first divided the year
into months, and invented the zodiac itself should
partakc so sparingy OF INN itallty TO be- in the
lapse OF few centuries confounded with the natural
phenomena Of mountain and valley.
who can certainly show us the site Of the Tower
that was "reared against heaven" Who were the
bu lders OF the Pyramids that have excited 80 much
Of the sstonishment of modern nationsi
Where ~ Rome, the irresistible monarch of the
east the terror Of the world Where are the proud
ed'hces OF her glory, the fame of which has reached
even 10 our time, In classic vvidnessi Alas she
IN sin. AMI -
swept has unsparing scythc over her gories and
shorn tins prince of cities Of its towering dsdes
"ller lonely columns stand sublime,
Flinging their shadows from on high
Like dials, VIII oh the wizard 1inu
Has raised TO count his ages by"
Throughout the range Of our western wilds, down
into Mexico, lucstan, Bolivia, &C. travellers ha We
been able to discover the most indspu able evidences
OF extinct races Of men, highly skilled in learning
and The arts, oil whom we have no earthly record
save the remains Of the wonderful works which time
has spared for contsmp lstion On the very SPOT
where forests rise 10 upbroken grandeur and seem to
have been explored only by their natural inhabitants
generation after generation has Stood has lived has
wsrred, gro old and passed away and not only
their names, but their nation, their language has per-
shed, aud ut oblivion has closed over their once
populous abodes Who shall unrsveI to us the mag.
mice i RUNS of Mexico, Yucatan and Bolivia, over
which hangs the suoimest mystery, and which seem
to have been antiquities in The days Of Pharaoh Who
were The builders OF those gorgeous temples, obcshs
and palaces, now the runs OF powerful and hphly
cultivated people, whose national existence was pro.
badly before that Of Tbebes or Rome, Carthage or
Athens Alas there Is none to tell the tale all ~
conjecture, and our be- Information concerning IN, m
Is derived only fron uncertain analogy.
How forcbly do these wonderful revolutions which
overturn the master works Of man, and utterly dis
solve his boosted knowledge, remind that God 1, in
hsm oil Wherever the eye ia turned, TO whatever
quarter OF the world the attention is directed there
ne the remains Of more powerful more advanced
and more hguIy skilled nations than ourselves IN,
almost obl''srsted records Of III. mighty past. How
seemingly well founded was the deluson, and indeed
how current even DOW, that the discovery of C. h,n
bus first opened the way for cultivated peopi. in
this new world" And yet how great reason !.
there for d conclusion, that while tie country Of
Ferdinand end Isabella was yet stranger to IN. cul
ivs.sd srt', America teemsd with power and gran