EARLY CHRONOLOGY
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lowly the daylight left our listening faces.Professor Brown, with level baritone,Discoursed into the dusk.Five thousand yearsHe guided us through scientific spacesOf excavated History, till the loneRoads of research grew blurred, and in our earsTime was the rumoured tongues of vanished races,And Thought a chartless Age of Ice and Stone. The story ended. Then the darkened airFlowered as he lit his pipe; an aureole glowedEnwreathed with smoke; the moment's match-light showedHis rosy face, broad brow, and smooth grey hair,Backed by the crowded book-shelves.In his wakeAn archæologist began to makeAssumptions about aqueducts; (he quotedProfessor Sandstorm's book;) and soon they floatedThrough desiccated forests; mangled myths;And argued easily round megaliths.* * * * * * *Beyond the college garden something glinted:A copper moon climbed clear above the trees.Some Lydian coin? ... Professor Brown agreesThat copper coins _were_ in that culture minted.But, as her whitening way aloft she took,I thought she had a pre-dynastic look.
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