Time in its irresistible and ceaseless flow carries along on its flood all createdthings, and drowns them in the depths of obscurity, no matter if they be quite unworthy of mention, or most noteworthy and important, and thus, as the tragedian says, ‘he brings from the darkness all things to the birth and all things born envelopes in the night.’ But the tale of history forms a very strong bulwark against the stream of time, and to some extent checks its irresistible flow, and, of all things done in it, as many as history has taken over, it secures and binds together, and does not allow them to slip away in to the abyss of oblivion.
The River Kelvin, flowing. On Thursday 19 February 2015.
Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, trans. Elizabeth Dawes
