"Where is _Troy_ and _Mycen_, and _Thebes_ and _Delos_, and _Persepolis_ and _Agrigentum?_" --continued my father, taking up his book of post-cards, which he had laid down. --"What is become, brother _Toby_, of _Nineveh_ and _Babylon_, of _Cizicum_ and _Mitylen?_ The fairest towns that ever the sun rose upon, are now no more; the names only are left, and those (for many of them are wrong spelt) are falling themselves by piece-meals to decay, and in length of time will be forgotten, and involved with everything in a perpetual night: the world itself, brother _Toby_, must--must come to an end.

'Where is Troy and Mycenae, and Thebes and Delos?' continued my father. 'What is become of Nineveh and Babylon? The fairest towns that ever the sun rose upon, are now no more; the names only are left, and those in time will be forgotten, and lost in a perpetual night: the world itself, brother Toby, must come to an end.
