Preserving the Past

“Watch an old building with care; guard it as best you may, 

and at any cost, from any influence of dilapidation. 

Count its stones as you would jewels of a crown; 

set watches about it as if at the gates of a besieged city; 

bind it together with irons when it loosens; 

stay it with timbers when it declines. 

Do this tenderly, and reverently, and continually, 

and many a generation will still be born and pass away beneath its shadow.”

John Ruskin