Word: babylons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1873-1873
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...here naturally expect some explanation, - what is the tablet? when was it? where was it? why and how did nature write? etc., - but no explanation is given. The writer hurries on, discovers that day is followed by night, stands beside the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, inspects the "remnant of Babylon," has a word for the Mede, another for the Persian, gets himself surrounded by the "tottering walls of the Coliseum," "hears" them crumble, notes, in passing, the destruction of Carthage, and so on, down through Alaric, Greece, the Heruli, and the Caesars, until he is brought up sharp...
...idol fell from his lofty pedestal. I saw him descend to the telling of jokes, and to would-be imitation of a funny character. Alas! I went home that night with "Ilium fuit," "Ilium fuit," ringing in my ears, varied now and then with the more modern refrain of "Babylon is fallen." Years have passed since then, but the event still awakens painful echoes in my memory...