“It is a consolation of a kind – less so, perhaps, when one has come to love a place, and only three-score-and-ten years are allotted; and it may take many centuries for the pristine freshness to overcome the entrenched rust, and steel, and concrete.”
This may be unduly pessimistic, actually. I have seen pictures of Sullivan County, Pa., taken around 1900. The hills had been denuded of trees. Towns had proliferated, with mansions and theaters and mills. Go there now and the hills are once again thick with trees - and the towns, along with their mansions and theaters and mills, have left scarcely a trace, in some cases, no trace at all. In one instance, all that was left was a bit of foundation stone. Never underestimate nature.
This may be unduly pessimistic, actually. I have seen pictures of Sullivan County, Pa., taken around 1900. The hills had been denuded of trees. Towns had proliferated, with mansions and theaters and mills. Go there now and the hills are once again thick with trees - and the towns, along with their mansions and theaters and mills, have left scarcely a trace, in some cases, no trace at all. In one instance, all that was left was a bit of foundation stone. Never underestimate nature.
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