tion was not yet finished. The northern tribes, long settled in the invaded provinces, had indeed become Christians, but still remained in many respects barbarians. Hasty and intemperate, they indulged the caprice or the vengeance of the moment, knew no law but that of the sword, and would submit to no decision but to that of arms. Here again we behold the genius of Rome interposing her authority as a shield between ferocity and weakness, appealing from the sword to reason, from private combat to public justice, from the will of the judge and the uncertain rules of custom, to the clear prescriptions of her own written code. This grand plan of civilization, though impeded, and delayed by the brutality, and the obstinacy, of the barbarous ages, was at length carried into execution, and the Roman law adopted by almost all the European states, as the general code of the civilized world. Rome therefore may still be said to rule nations, not indeed with the rod of power, but with the sceptre of justice, and still be supposed to exercise the commission so sublimely expressed by the Poet, of presiding over the world, and regulating the destinies of mankind.* Thus Rome has retained by her wisdom and benevolence, that ascendancy which she first acquired by her courage and magnanimity and by the pre-eminence which she has enjoyed in every period of her history, realized the fictitious declaration of her founder, Ita nuncia Romanis, Coelestes ita velle, ut mea Roma caput orbis terrarum sit.”† "Urbs urbium-tem * Tu regere imperio populos Romane memento + Tit. Liv. 1. 16. Virgil Æn. 6. plum æquitatis-portus omnium gentium," are titles fondly bestowed upon her in the days of her Imperial glory; and she may assume them without arrogance, even in her decline. Her matchless magnificence, so far superior to that of every other capital-the laws which have emanated from her as from their source-and the encouragement which she has at all times given to men of talents and virtue from every country, still give her an unquestionable right to these lofty appellations.* To conclude, in the whole Universe, there are only two cities interesting alike to every member of the great Christian commonwealth, to every citizen of the civilized world, whatever may be his tribe or nation-Rome and Jerusalem. The former calls up every classic recollection, the latter awakens every sentiment of devotion; the one brings before our eyes all the splendors of * "Nulli sit ingrata Roma," says Cassiodorus, in the sixth century, eloquentiæ facunda mater, illud virtutum omnium latissimum templum." "illa "Aliis alia patria est; Roma communis omnium literatorum et patria, et altrix, et evectrix," says the Cardinal of St. George to Erasmus, in the sixteenth century. "Quid loquor," "Quid loquor," says the latter, "de Româ, communi omnium gentium parente." The benefits derived from the Roman government are tolerably well expressed in the following lines of Rutilius: Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam Profuit injustis te dominante capi; Dumque offers victis proprii consortia juris Urbem fecisti quod prius Orbis erat. Lib. ii. "Numine Deûm electa," says Pliny, "quæ cœlum ipsum clarius faceret, sparsa congregaret imperia, ritusque molliret, et tot populorum discordes ferasque linguas, sermonis commercio contraheret ad colloquia, et humanitatem homini daret; breviterque una cunctarum gentium in toto orbe, patria fieret. III. cap. v. the present world; the other, all the glories of the world to come. By a singular dispensation of Providence, the names and influence of these two illustrious capitals are combined in the same grand dispensation; and as Jerusalem was ordained to receive, Rome was destined to propagate "the light that leads to heaven." The cross which Jerusalem erected on Mount Calvary, Rome fixed on the diadem of emperors, and the prophetic songs of Mount Sion, have resounded from the seven hills, to the extremities of the universe.-How natural then the emotion which the traveller feels, when he first beholds the distant domes of a city, of such figure in the History of the Universe, of such weight in the destinies of mankind, so familiar to the imagination of the child, so interesting to the feelings of the man! While occupied in these reflections, we passed Monte Mario, and beheld the city gradually opening to our view: turrets and cupolas succeeded each other, with long lines of palaces between, till the dome of the Vatican, lifting its majestic form far above the rest, fixed the eye, and closed the scene with becoming grandeur. We crossed the Tiber by the Ponte Molle, (Pons Milvius), and proceeding on the Via Flaminia through the suburb, entered the Porta del Popolo, admired the beautiful square that receives the traveller on his entrance, and drove to the Piazza d'Espagna. Alighting, we instantly hastened to St. Peter's, traversed its superb court, contemplated in silence its obelisk, its fountains, its colonnade, walked up its lengthening nave, and before its altar, offered up our grateful acknowledgments in "the noblest temple that human skill ever raised to the honor of the Creator." Next morning we renewed our visit to St. Peter's, and examined it more in detail: the preceding day it had been somewhat veiled by the dimness of the evening, it was now lighted up, by the splendors of the morning sun. The rich marbles that compose its pavement and line its walls, the paintings that adorn its cupolas, the bronze that enriches its altars and railings, the gilding that lines the pannels of its vault, the mosaics that rise one above the other in brilliant succession up its dome, shone forth in all their varied colors. Its nave, its aisles, its transepts, expanded their vistas, and hailed the spectator wheresoever he turned, with a long succession of splendid objects, and beautiful arrangement; in short, the whole of this most majestic fabric, opened itself at once to the sight, and filled the eye and the imagination with magnitude, proportion, riches, and grandeur. From St. Peter's we hastened to the Capitol, and ascending the tower, seated ourselves under the shade of its pinnacle, and fixed our eyes on the view, beneath and around us— That view was no other than ancient and modern Rome. Behind us, the modern town lay extended over the Campus Martius, and spreading along the banks of the Tiber, formed a curve round the base of the Capitol. Before us, scattered in vast black shapeless masses, over the seven hills, and through the intervening vallies, arose the ruins of the ancient city. They stood desolate, amidst solitude and silence, with groves of funereal cypress waving over them; the awful monuments, not of individuals, but of generations; not of men, but of empires. A distant view of Ægina and of Megara, of the Piræus and of Corinth, melted the soul of an ancient Roman, for a while suspended his private sorrows, and absorbed his sense of personal affliction, in a more expansive and generous compassion for the fate of cities and of states.* * What then must be the emotions of the traveller, who beholds, extended in disordered heaps before him, the disjointed "carcase of fallen Rome," once the abode of the gods, the grand receptacle of nations," the common asylum of mankind." The contemplation was indeed awful and impressive. Immediately under our eyes, and at the foot of the Capitol, lay the Forum, lined with solitary columns, and commencing and terminating in a triumphal arch. Beyond and just before us, rose the Palatine Mount, encumbered with the substructions of the Imperial Palace, and of the Temple of Apollo, and still farther on, ascended the Celian Mount, with the Temple of Faunus on its summit. On the right was the Aventine, spotted with heaps of stone, swelling amidst its lonely vineyards. To the left the Esquiline, with its scattered tombs and tottering aqueducts, and in the same line the Viminal and Quirinal, terminating in the once magnificent Baths of Diocletian. The Baths of Antoninus, the Temple of Minerva, and many a venerable fabric, bearing on its shattered form the traces of the iron hand of destruction, as well as the furrows of age, lay scattered up and down the vast field; while the superb "Ex Asiâ rediens, cum ab Eginâ Megaram versus navigarem, cœpi regiones circumcirca prospicere. Post me erat Ægina, ante Megara, dextrâ Piræus, sinistra Corinthus ; quæ oppida quodam tempore florentissima fuerunt, nunc prostrata ac diruta, antè oculos jacent. Cœpi egomet mecum sic cogitare. Hem! nos homunculi indignamur, si quis nostrûm interiit, aut occisus est, quorum vita brevior esse debet, cum uno loco tot oppidûm cadavera projecta jaceant?"-Cic. ad Fam. Lib. 1v. Ep. 5. |