It is manifest that the attempt is being made to restore the worship of the old Chronos, to whom the ancients had erected temples. Let us look the idol in the face. Time appears at first to our imagination as the great destroyer. He is armed with a scythe, and passes gaunt and bald over the ruins of all that has lived. When he lifts up his great voice and cries—
Mighty nations famed in story
Into darkness I have hurled,—
Gone their myriads and their glory
(Lo! ye follow) from the world:
My dark shade for ever covers
Stars I quenched as on they rolled:—
the beautiful, and frightened girl in the song is not singular as she exclaims in her terror:
Ah! we're young, and we are lovers,
Spare us, Reaper gaunt and old![128]