Show the earths old age A writer inthe in the eclectic review e ventures n tur ea to sketch a few of the consequences which might 7 ie be supposed to result were the great forces of nature the agencies which give activity to the phenomena of our globe subject to the law of decline and decay after treating of decline of the physical universe and sketching b the conjectural changes in mankind he passes to the intellect which it is supposed has kept 1 pace ce with the body in its decay we copy the e following suggestive sug ti ive lve passage the ile intellect as well has kept pace with the body in its decay suffering not oni only 7 from the cramped physique with which it is ia now BOW associated but also from the adverse ex exe exi conditions under which men exist and withering too under the decline of arts and social comforts it has become so dwarfish in ir its development that little of its civilized brilliancy still survives no more platos mil mii tons Bun newtons New tons Davi davisel Da viges ses Hum boldts are born no great beoka are composed compose comp oseg osei not a single discovery is effected in the course of a year the I louses houses of parliament are occupied by small statesmen whose sublime st efforts are not equal to the eloquence of an african palaver royal academies and national operas have become extinct institutions in the pulpits sermons are heard beard which would not have done credit to a six year old schoolboy when the race was in its prime the writings and the inventions of former ages are becoming quite unintelligible youths youtha at school get as far as vui vulan vulgar vular ar fractions in arithmetic or the pans asi norum in geometry and then pull up under the impression that their education is complete to master a single language fully is deemed a buil suil sufficient occupation for a whole life and when poor fallen humanity casts its eye upon some relic of bygone grandeur a ruined railway a crumbling cat cathedral hearal a dilapidated picture a moul moui derin g volume which tells of the great feats the race a has performed it might well parody evv swifts 1 ats ce melancholy exclamation upon opening the tale of a tub as the shadows of lunacy were fallin falling around him what a genius I 1 must have had ad when I 1 wrote that work |