“Men think that because everybody remembers a memorable event soon after it is done, it will never be forgotten; and so it ends up not being registered and cast into oblivion.
I have always done my best to rescue and preserve antiquities, which would otherwise have been utterly lost and forgotten, even though it has been my strange fate never to enjoy one entire month, or six weeks, of leisure for contemplation.
I have rescued what I could of the past from the teeth of time.
Matters of antiquity are like the light after sunset – clear at first – but by and by crepusculum – the twilight – comes – then total darkness.”