History in ruins, letters |
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adorned afford amongst ancient appear arches architects architecture arrangement artists Assyria beauty buildings built called capital carried Cathedral century character churches colours columns completed connection considered construction covered cross Decorated described Doric early effect Egypt Egyptian England enormous erected example face fact feet figures followed front give Gothic Grecian Greece Greek height houses important interesting Italy king knowledge known lead LETTER living London look manner mentioned mind monuments nature Norman notice origin ornament painted palaces perfect perhaps period pillars pointed present probably produced pyramids raised records referred remains remember Roman Rome roof ruins says sculptured seems seen serve side speak statues steps stones story structures style temple term tower various walls whole wonderful writers
Popular passages
Page 189 - You show us Rome was glorious, not profuse, And pompous buildings once were things of use; Yet shall, my lord, your just, your noble rules, Fill half the land with imitating fools ; Who random drawings from your sheets shall take; And of one beauty many blunders make...
Page 35 - Time sadly overcometh all things, and is now dominant, and sitteth upon a sphinx, and looketh unto Memphis and old Thebes, while his sister Oblivion reclineth semisomnous on a pyramid, gloriously triumphing, making puzzles of Titanian erections, and turning old glories into dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. The traveller as he paceth amazedly through those deserts asketh of her, who builded them ? and she mumbleth something, but what it is he heareth not.
Page 71 - And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, Land of lost gods and godlike men, art thou!
Page 103 - But when the rising moon begins to climb Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there ; When the stars twinkle through the loops of time, And the low night-breeze waves along the air The...
Page 21 - Behold yon huge And unhewn sphere of living adamant, Which, poised by magic, rests its central weight On yonder pointed rock : firm as it seems, Such is its strange and virtuous property, It moves obsequious to the gentlest touch Of him whose breast is pure ; but to a traitor, Though e'en a giant's prowess nerved his arm, It stands as fixed as Snowdon.
Page 156 - Streaming from off the sun like seraph's wings, Now yawns all desolate: now loud, now fainter, The gale sweeps through its fretwork, and oft sings The owl his anthem, where the silenced quire Lie with their hallelujahs quench'd like fire.
Page 47 - Memphis, was buried one hundred and thirty feet below the mound surface. Who knows but that the greater part of old Memphis, and of other glorious cities, lies almost unharmed under the sand? Who can say what armies of sphinxes, what sentinels of colossi, might start up on the banks of the river, or come forth from the hill sides of the interior, when the cloud of sand had been wafted away?
Page 30 - Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, 12 And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit...
Page 36 - Dupin says, that if it were required to know how long a time they would take to cut the stones and move them from the quarries to the pyramid, a very few days would...
Page 103 - It will not bear the brightness of the day, Which streams too much on all years, man, have reft away.
Bibliographic information
| Title | History in ruins, letters |
| Author | George Godwin |
| Published | 1853 |
| Original from | Oxford University |
| Digitized | 7 Sep 2006 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |