"The Past", Thomas Cole 1838"I floated along under the spell of enchantment, as if I had been transported an heroic age, and breathed an atmosphere of chivalry.
Soon after, I went to see a panorama of the Mississippi, and as I worked my way up the river in the light of to-day and saw the steamboats wooding up, counted the rising cities, gazed on the fresh ruins of Nauvoo, beheld the Indians moving west across the stream, and, as before I had looked up the Moselle, now looked up the Ohio and the Missouri and heard the legends of Dubuque and of Wenona’s Cliff,- still thinking more of the future than of the past or present,- I saw that this was a Rhine stream of a different kind; that the foundations of castles were yet to be laid, and the famous bridges were yet to be thrown over the river; and I felt that this was the heroic age itself, though we know it not."
Henry David Thoreau
"The Present", Thomas Cole 1838
I love this quote from Thoreau, because it still holds true for today. It's easy to romanticize the past, but don't forget, we're still living in the past! Someday people may look back and sigh for the "good old days" back in the 2010's.
This quote also reminds me of these gorgeous paintings, The Past and Present by the American artist Thomas Cole. I'm very familiar with them, because I used to be a security guard at the museum where they are displayed (I know I know, can you imagine me as a security guard??). I spent many hours in front of them, studying each tiny detail. They depict a castle in Medieval times, and the same castle in ruins "today" (1838). I love the use of light especially, in the Past the light is from the sun in the middle of the day; in the Present the setting sun throws long shadows from the castle. Doesn't the "Present" look just as, if not more, romantic than the past?
Do you think we live in a romantic, heroic age? Or do you think those days are long past? Do you find romance and heroism in grand gestures and movements, or in seemingly mundane details?
I'm curious what you think!
