Whatever the case it is nice to know that decay is a steady state.
Travis
Doug Henwood wrote:
> A follow-up to the thread on decline. When do you suppose this was
> written (no googling!)?:
>
>> The world has now grown old, and does not abide in that strength in
>> which
>> it formerly stood. This we would know, even if the sacred Scriptures
>> had
>> not told us of it, because the world itself announces its approaching
>> end
>> by its failing powers. In the winter there is not so much rain for
>> nourishing the seeds, and in the summer the sun gives not so much
>> heat for
>> ripening the harvest. In springtime the young corn is not so joyful,
>> and
>> the autumn fruit is sparser. Less and less marble is quarried out of
>> the
>> mountains, which are exhausted by their disembowelments, and the
>> veins of
>> gold and silver are dwindling day by day. The husbandman is failing in
>> the fields, the sailor at sea, the soldier in the camp. Honesty is no
>> longer to be found in the market-place, nor justice in the
>> law-courts, nor
>> good craftsmanship in art, nor discipline in morals. Think you that
>> anything which is old can preserve the same powers that it possessed in
>> the prime vigour of its youth? Whatever is tending towards its decay
>> and
>> going to meet its end must needs weaken. Hence the setting sun sends
>> out
>> rays that hardly warm or cheer, the waning moon is a pale crescent, the
>> old tree that once was green and hung with fruit grows gnarled and
>> barren, and every spring in time runs dry. This is the sentence that
>> has
>> been passed on the earth, this is God's decree: that everything which
>> has
>> had a beginning shall have an end, that everything which has flourished
>> shall fall, that strong things shall become weak, and great things shall
>> become small, and that when they have weakened and dwindled they
>> shall be
>> no more. So no one should wonder nowadays that everything begins to
>> fail,
>> since the whole world is failing, and is about to die.
>
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