Sketches of Travels in Sicily, Italy, and France: In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Friend in the United States

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Packard & Van Benthuysen, 1820 - France - 275 pages

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Page 153 - Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime — Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods, From Jove to Jesus — spared and blest by time; Looking tranquillity, while falls or nods Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods His way through thorns to ashes — glorious dome ! Shalt thou not last? Time's scythe and tyrants...
Page 252 - The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut Excell'd her power ; the gates wide open stood, That with extended wings a banner'd host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array ; So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Page 179 - Genii tutelares" of a place sacred to the improvement of the mind, and the care of the body. The two other temples were dedicated to the two protecting divinities of the Antonine family, Hercules and Bacchus. In the principal building were, in the first place, a grand circular vestibule, with four halls on each side, for cold, tepid, warm, and steam baths ; in the centre was an immense square, for exercise, when the weather was unfavourable to it in the open air ; beyond it, a great hall, where...
Page 165 - The mind with in its most unearthly mood, When each conception was a heavenly guest — A ray of immortality — and stood, Starlike, around, until they gather'd to a god...
Page 158 - Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; And why? It is not lessen'd; but thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein appear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality; and thou Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, See thy God face to face, as thou dost now His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by his brow.
Page 158 - But thou, of temples old, or altars new, Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — Worthiest of God, the holy and the true. Since Zion's desolation, when that He Forsook His former city, what could be, Of earthly structures, in His honour piled, Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty, Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undefiled.
Page 165 - Or view the Lord of the unerring bow, The God of life, and poesy, and light — The Sun in human limbs array'd, and brow All radiant from his triumph in the fight, The shaft hath just been shot — the arrow bright With an immortal's vengeance ; in his eye And nostril beautiful disdain, and might And majesty, flash their full lightnings by, Developing in that one glance the Deity.
Page 180 - The stucco and painting, though faintly indeed, are yet in many places perceptible. Pillars have been dug up, and some still remain amidst the ruins ; while the Farnesian bull, and the famous Hercules found in one of these halls, announce the multiplicity and beauty of the statues which once adorned the Thermae *of Caracalla.
Page 179 - ... basin for swimming. Round this edifice were walks shaded by rows of trees, particularly the plane ; and in its front extended a gymnasium for running, wrestling, &c. in fine weather. The whole was bounded by a vast portico opening into exedrae or spacious halls, where poets declaimed, and philosophers gave lectures.
Page 179 - Bacchus. In the principal building were , in the first place , a grand circular vestibule with four halls on each side , for cold , tepid , warm , and steam baths; in the centre was an immense square , for exercise when the weather was unfavourable...

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