for the site of Babylon, with its walls and gates, its hanging gardens
and terraces! Contemplate the ghost of the enlightened Athens, stalking
through the ruins of her Parthenon, her Athenaeum, or Acropolis. Examine
the shadow of power which now remains to the mighty Rome, the empress of
the world. Even so will it be with England; ere ten centuries have
rolled away, her sun-like splendour will illume a western world. Our
stately palaces and venerable cathedrals, our public edifices and
manufactories, our paintings and sculpture, will be fruitful subjects of
conjecture and controversy to the then learned. And a fragment of a
pillar from St. Paul's, or a mutilated statue from Westminster, will be
as valuable to them as a column from the Temple of Belus, or a broken
cornice from the Temple of Theseus, is now to us!

D.A.H.

* * * * *


THE ROBIN.

(_For the Mirror_.)


Hark to the robin--whistling clear--
The requiem of the dying year--
Amidst the garden bower.
He quits his native forest shade,
Ere ruin stern hath there display'd
Its desolating power.