Polynesian., 1859-04-02
No. 4S.
lPrOm the Sierra Citizen.l
The Story of Nations.


As there are extraordinary instances of lon,ov-
ity In single manifestations of physical life, SO al
so have, at times, existed bodies political desnot
lsm and democracy, theocracy and atheism. the
church, and the casque and helmt, the ruffian in
rags as well as the heredtarily titled, each. for
day, has borne an allotted part in the great plan
OF the Omnlscient, has ruled and been subject
OF rule-lived, hOurished, died, been forgotten.
Ihe wave OF progression, the ebb of retropression
have carried with them the results of human mo-
Iltlcal experience the wisdom of the world has
thousands OF times in the history of man. been
garnered as the grain of the field and from its de-
ductIons frames of government been erected. des
tined by the artihcers to last for eternity. but
where are they! where, even, is their story I?
Oenlus wrote IN sand, and the ocean of time for
ever obllterated all traces Of the record.
The wisest organizations of peoples. whether
OF Israel or Of Bramah, of the Spartan or of the
Hun, are dead. Governments and political insti-
tutlons, originating IN and formed upon thorough
examinations Of the histories and experiences of
nations for thousands of previous years have been
Tor thousands of years, subjects only of story
nothing now remains of them but few uncertain
lines OF lntermlngled fact and fable of the proba
bic and impossible. Ages before the history of
modern civilization began, the worm had DESTROYED
the last remnant OF the mouldering archives of
Thebes-Gh Ghebes, that beyond doubt, TO this day.
had It's thousand glories, while the dust of the
desert lay heaped upon the traditions of the Ptoe-
mics and we may now look into the cold, clear
heavens, among the stars, with much certainty
of deriving information of the past as 10 the in
scrPtlons upon the pyramids. Assyria, with its
PanOplied glory, arose. fourished and died Per-
sla, IN It's soft and silky voluptousness, paraded
the magnIhCence of its imbecity, till like the
moth, 1t fared its wings against the flames of
Greece; Greece-gorous beautiful, soulful
Greece-was, but is not or, If it may be said to
be resuscitated, presents but the sickening and
ghasty features of the galvanized corpse /; Baby
Ion, Tyre, Troy, Syracuse, Carthage, Rome, Mac
edon-all of them, with their countless progenitors
and contemporaries, long centuries ago, felt the
fingers Of death at their vitalS, and Welding to
inevitable fate, were borne into the vast tomb of
nations. The empire of the Moslem, after terri
flying the world with its subjugating arm, at the
age of Methusaleh, paralyzed and feeble, is slow
ly gasping out its latest existence; Poland and
Hungary-homes of the high-souIed and chivalric
where are they? splendid in their career, Qlo-
rious in their heroic struggle for national fe cu-
mlnating to magnhcence IN their fall, the season
OF mourning over their destruction is fast rushing
down the course Of time. And of the present
Of the mighty and the arrogant, of those who
would conquer, parcel out among themselves, and
rule the whole habitable earth, whose laundering
engines Of destruction shake mountains to their
centres and reverberating through plain and val
ley, sweep away the homes of the peaceful and
poweress as with the fame of the destroying an
gel-can we say of them, there is to be no end?
They, also, have their day, and revel in the won
tonness of pride and power, but, like the strong
man, will eventually sink into age, decrepitude
and dissolution already, among them are plainly
perceptible, diseased and jaded dynasties, trem-
bling IN limb, frightened by every shadow, star
tied by every sound, living in terror, guarded by
hundreds of thousands of bayonets, but tottering
to their fall-for on their brows are gathering
death damps and the knell of their departure must
soon be tolled