struction when man no longer labours for the
conservation of his works. The fox burrows amongst ruins, bats and birds
nestle in the cavities in walls, the snake and the lizard likewise make
them their habitation. Insects act upon a smaller scale, but by their
united energies sometimes produce great effect; the ant, by establishing
her colony and forming her magazines, often saps the foundations of the
strongest buildings, and the most insignificant creatures triumph, as it
were, over the grandest works of man. Add to these sure and slow
operations the devastations of war, the effects of the destructive zeal
of bigotry, the predatory fury of barbarians seeking for concealed wealth
under the foundations of buildings, and tearing from them every metallic
substance, and it is rather to be wondered that any of the works of the
great nations of antiquity are still in existence.

_Phil_.--Your view of the causes of devastation really is a melancholy
one. Nor do I see any remedy; the most important causes will always
operate. Yet, supposing the constant existence of a highly civilised
people, the ravages of time might be repaired, and by defending the
finest works of art from the external atmosphere, their changes would be
scarcely perceptible.

_Eub_.--I doubt much whether it is for the interests of a people that its
public works should be of a durable kind. One of the great causes of the
decline of the Roman Empire was that the people of the Republic and of
the first empire left nothing for their posterity to do; aqueducts,
temples, forums, everything was supplied, and there were no objects to
awaken activity, no necessity to stimulate their inventive faculties, and
hardly any wants to call forth their industry.

_The Unknown_.--At least, you must allow the importance of preserving
objects of the fine arts. Almost everything we have worthy of admiration
is owing to what has been preserved from the Greek school, and the
nations who have not possessed these works or models have made little or
no progress towards perfection. Nor does it seem that a mere imitation
of Nature is sufficient to produce the beautiful or perfect; but the
climate, the manners, customs, and dress of the people, its genius and
taste, all co-operate. Such principles of conservation as Philalethes
has referred to are obvious. No works of excellence ought to be exposed
to the atmosphere, and it is a great object to preserve them in
apartments of