THE RUINS,
OR, MEDITATION ON THE REVOLUTIONS OF EMPIRES
Home | Prev
| Next
| Contents
THE REVERIE.
Here, said I, once flourished an opulent city; here was the seat of
a powerful empire. Yes! these places now so wild and desolate,
were once animated by a living multitude; a busy crowd thronged in
these streets, now so solitary. Within these walls, where now
reigns the silence of death, the noise of the arts, and the shouts
of joy and festivity incessantly resounded; these piles of marble
were regular palaces; these fallen columns adorned the majesty of
temples; these ruined galleries surrounded public places. Here
assembled a numerous people for the sacred duties of their
religion, and the anxious cares of their subsistence; here
industry, parent of enjoyments, collected the riches of all climes,
and the purple of Tyre was exchanged for the precious thread of
Serica;* the soft tissues of Cassimere for the sumptuous tapestry
of Lydia; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of
Arabia; the gold of Ophir for the tin of Thule.
- The precious thread of Serica.--That is, the silk originally
derived from the mountainous country where the great wall
terminates, and which appears to have been the cradle of the
Chinese empire. The tissues of Cassimere.--The shawls which
Ezekiel seems to have described under the appellation of Choud-
choud. The gold of Ophir.-- This country, which was one of the
twelve Arab cantons, and which has so much and so unsuccessfully
been sought for by the antiquarians, has left, however, some trace
of itself in Ofor, in the province of Oman, upon the Persian Gulf,
neighboring on one side to the Sabeans, who are celebrated by
Strabo for their abundance of gold, and on the other to Aula or
Hevila, where the pearl fishery was carried on. See the 27th
chapter of Ezekiel, which gives a very curious and extensive
picture of the commerce of Asia at that period.
And now behold what remains of this powerful city: a miserable
skeleton! What of its vast domination: a doubtful and obscure
remembrance! To the noisy concourse which thronged under these
porticoes, succeeds the solitude of death. The silence of the
grave is substituted for the busy hum of public places; the
affluence of a commercial city is changed into wretched poverty;
the palaces of kings have become a den of wild beasts; flocks
repose in the area of temples, and savage reptiles inhabit the
sanctuary of the gods. Ah! how has so much glory been eclipsed?
how have so many labors been annihilated? Do thus perish then the
works of men--thus vanish empires and nations?
And the history of former times revived in my mind; I remembered
those ancient ages when many illustrious nations inhabited these
countries; I figured to myself the Assyrian on the banks of the
Tygris, the Chaldean on the banks of the Euphrates, the Persian
reigning from the Indus to the Mediterranean. I enumerated the
kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria, the
warlike states of the Philistines, and the commercial republics of
Phoenicia. This Syria, said I, now so depopulated, then contained
a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with towns, villages,
and hamlets.* In all parts were seen cultivated fields, frequented
roads, and crowded habitations. Ah! whither have flown those ages
of life and abundance?--whither vanished those brilliant creations
of human industry? Where are those ramparts of Nineveh, those
walls of Babylon, those palaces of Persepolis, those temples of
Balbec and of Jerusalem? Where are those fleets of Tyre, those
dock-yards of Arad, those work-shops of Sidon, and that multitude
of sailors, of pilots, of merchants, and of soldiers? Where those
husbandmen, harvests, flocks, and all the creation of living beings
in which the face of the earth rejoiced? Alas! I have passed over
this desolate land! I have visited the palaces, once the scene of
so much splendor, and I beheld nothing but solitude and desolation.
I sought the ancient inhabitants and their works, and found nothing
but a trace, like the foot-prints of a traveller over the sand.
The temples are fallen, the palaces overthrown, the ports filled
up, the cities destroyed; and the earth, stripped of inhabitants,
has become a place of sepulchres. Great God! whence proceed such
fatal revolutions? What causes have so changed the fortunes of
these countries? Wherefore are so many cities destroyed? Why has
not this ancient population been reproduced and perpetuated?
- According to Josephus and Strabo, there were in Syria twelve
millions of souls, and the traces that remain of culture and
habitation confirm the calculation.
Thus absorbed in meditation, a crowd of new reflections continually
poured in upon my mind. Every thing, continued I, bewilders my
judgment, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty. When
these countries enjoyed what constitutes the glory and happiness of
man, they were inhabited by infidel nations: It was the Phoenician,
offering human sacrifices to Moloch, who gathered into his stores
the riches of all climates; it was the Chaldean, prostrate before
his serpent-god,* who subjugated opulent cities, laid waste the
palaces of kings, and despoiled the temples of the gods; it was the
Persian, worshipper of fire, who received the tribute of a hundred
nations; they were the inhabitants of this very city, adorers of
the sun and stars, who erected so many monuments of prosperity and
luxury. Numerous herds, fertile fields, abundant harvests--
whatsoever should be the reward of piety--was in the hands of these
idolaters. And now, when a people of saints and believers occupy
these fields, all is become sterility and solitude. The earth,
under these holy hands, produces only thorns and briers. Man
soweth in anguish, and reapeth tears and cares. War, famine,
pestilence, assail him by turns. And yet, are not these the
children of the prophets? The Mussulman, Christian, Jew, are they
not the elect children of God, loaded with favors and miracles?
Why, then, do these privileged races no longer enjoy the same
advantages? Why are these fields, sanctified by the blood of
martyrs, deprived of their ancient fertility? Why have those
blessings been banished hence, and transferred for so many ages to
other nations and different climes?
At these words, revolving in my mind the vicissitudes which have
transmitted the sceptre of the world to people so different in
religion and manners from those in ancient Asia to the most recent
of Europe, this name of a natal land revived in me the sentiment of
my country; and turning my eyes towards France, I began to reflect
on the situation in which I had left her.*
- In the year 1782, at the close of the American war.
I recalled her fields so richly cultivated, her roads so admirably
constructed, her cities inhabited by a countless people, her fleets
spread over every sea, her ports filled with the produce of both
the Indies: and then comparing the activity of her commerce, the
extent of her navigation, the magnificence of her buildings, the
arts and industry of her inhabitants, with what Egypt and Syria had
once possessed, I was gratified to find in modern Europe the
departed splendor of Asia; but the charm of my reverie was soon
dissolved by a last term of comparison. Reflecting that such had
once been the activity of the places I was then contemplating, who
knows, said I, but such may one day be the abandonment of our
countries? Who knows if on the banks of the Seine, the Thames, the
Zuyder-Zee, where now, in the tumult of so many enjoyments, the
heart and the eye suffice not for the multitude of sensations,--who
knows if some traveller, like myself, shall not one day sit on
their silent ruins, and weep in solitude over the ashes of their
inhabitants, and the memory of their former greatness.
At these words, my eyes filled with tears: and covering my head
with the fold of my mantle, I sank into gloomy meditations on all
human affairs. Ah! hapless man, said I in my grief, a blind
fatality sports with thy destiny!* A fatal necessity rules with
the hand of chance the lot of mortals! But no: it is the justice
of heaven fulfilling its decrees!--a God of mystery exercising his
incomprehensible judgments! Doubtless he has pronounced a secret
anathema against this land: blasting with maledictions the present,
for the sins of past generations. Oh! who shall dare to fathom the
depths of the Omnipotent?
- Fatality is the universal and rooted prejudice of the East. "It
was written," is there the answer to every thing. Hence result an
unconcern and apathy, the most powerful impediments to instruction
and civilization.
And sunk in profound melancholy, I remained motionless.
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|