From this September afternoon, and
from between these now cultivated shores, those times seemed more
remote than the dark ages. On beholding an old picture of
Concord, as it appeared but seventy-five years ago, with a fair
open prospect and a light on trees and river, as if it were broad
noon, I find that I had not thought the sun shone in those days,
or that men lived in broad daylight then. Still less do we
imagine the sun shining on hill and valley during Philip's war,
on the war-path of Church or Philip, or later of Lovewell or
Paugus, with serene summer weather, but they must have lived and
fought in a dim twilight or night.
The age of the world is great enough for our imaginations, even
according to the Mosaic account, without borrowing any years from
the geologist. From Adam and Eve at one leap sheer down to the
deluge, and then through the ancient monarchies, through Babylon
and Thebes, Brahma and Abraham, to Greece and the Argonauts;
whence we might start again with Orpheus and the Trojan war, the
Pyramids and the Olympic games, and Homer and Athens, for our
stages; and after a breathing space at the building of Rome,
continue our journey down through Odin and Christ to--America.
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