the midday sun
Riot and revolution swept over these memorials like a winter storm , and the thunder and lightning strokes of civil and foreign troops had desolated the works of art , genius and royalty . Nations rise and fall like individuals , and a thousand or ten thousand years of time are only a `` tick '' in the clock of destiny . Early on the morning of the seventh of May , 1598 , we went on board a light double-oared galley , swung into the sparkling waters of the Seine , and proceeded on our way to Rouen and Havre . The morning sun sparkling on the tall spires and towers , the songs of the watermen and gardeners , whirring ropes , flashing flags , blooming flowers , green parks , forest vistas , shining cottages , grand mansions and lofty castles , in the shimmering distance gave the suburbs of Paris a phase of enchantment that lifted the soul of the beholder into the fairy realm of dreamland ; and as our jolly crew rowed away with rhythmic sweep we lay under a purple awning , sheltered from the midday sun , gazing out on the works of Dame Nature with entranced amazement . William , in one of his periodical bursts of impromptu poetry , uttered these lines on _ CREATION . _ _ The smallest grain of ocean sand , Or continent of mountain land , With all the stars and suns we see Are emblems of eternity . _ _ God reigns in everything he made -- In man , in beast , in hill and glade ; In sum and substance of all birth ; Component parts of Heaven and Earth .