A Symbol of Platonic Love in a Portrait Bust by Donatello

believe no man is so strangely wicked as to desire to see destroyed by a conflagration or an earthquake, though he should be removed himself to the greatest distance from the danger. But suppose such a fatal accident to have happened, what numbers from all parts would crowd to behold the ruins, and amongst them many who would have been content never to have seen London in its glory ?"1 Both Burke and Soane were high-minded men. Therefore, it did not occur to them that the same device which they associated with tragic grandeur, can be efficiently used in a spirit of wit. When the American poetess, Edna Millay, sought for a poignant expression of jealousy, she chose to address her lover as "if he should lie a-dying."2 She merely furthered the tradition of wooing set by Koko:3 There's a fascination frantic In a ruin that's romantic ; Do you think you are sufficiently decayed ?