The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-07-13
The City of Rome.


Rome, at this season. May is almost entirely
deserted by strangers, and have had its galleries
and churches, and palaces and ruins, almost en-
tirely to myself The heat has not yet become in
any degree oppressive, although all travellers and
artists have abandoned it on account of the usually
depressing influences of the climate at this season.
The snow upon the distant mountains has preserved
an elastic GOODNESS in the air, which have seldom
felt anywhere, and which has enabled me to spend
the whole of these long days in an incessant enjoy
ment of all the beauty Rome affords and it is the
grandest beauty in the world. The traveller in
Europe meets witha constant succession OF stirring
objects and events; it is a great curiOsity-shOps
containing stores Of social natural, and artistic
wonders. But nowhere does he feel at home, rest
ing in the arms of that capacity which has been so
often called grandeur, to the extent he does in Rome.
Grandeur is q poor word to express the idea one
would convey Of the eternal city and it has been
appealed to often byweak mortals in their efforts
to tell their thoughts, that its force has grown less
and less. The works of mems hands here are so
sublime that they impress you with sense Of mans
lltteness, as do the mighty works of nature, and
you look about to find, peradVenture, the giants
who bought and sold, who planted and builded, in
this home of might The present race move like
pigmies among the Works which their fathers of
many generations have accomplished. The shong
features of emper0rs and statesmen Of women capa-
bic of ruling the amaz0ns, of boys who made the
glory of the Augustan age as they developed their
strength the massive muscles of colossal gladiators
and horses, stand out before you in immortaliZmg
MARBLE while you treadth great stone floors Of the
forum in which they Numbered, and the amphithea-
tres In which their sports like the hard toll of
modern army. In their theatres, capable of con-
tanning the population of a citV-in their palaces.
covering onehaf of the seven hillsin their baths,
whose arches are like the arch of heaven-in their
aqueducts, stretching like immense bridges across
the country-in their temples and trumphal pillars
you see how they lived; and 10 the tower-like
tombs you see how they died
Every where there Is the mlngling OF mans bru-
tai force and his refinement. In the delicate and
magnificent architecture of the colosseum, the
inches from which the gladiatOrs looked through
their bars upon their dying companions, and in
which they waited their turn, and the dark subteT-
ranean passages nsWhich the wild beasts were tor
mented to madness, still have their dreadful gloom.
The poetry of their religious rites still fingers around
the graceful columns of their temples and the hOr-
of their sacrifices remain in bdSSi reejUi of their
trumphal arches. The mounds Of earth which time
has heaped up around these remains, have served
for ages storehouses of art and the utensils Of
llte; and upon these stOrehouses, the grave of the
ancient city, stands modern Rome.
Between the immensely of ancient and modern
Rome the Basilica Of st. Peter forms the link Upon
the gardens of Nero stands the church built in BOG
by Constantine, and upon this church whose chapels
sull remain stands the present building begun by
Nicholas YIN 1850. Michael Angelo, the last rep
resentaive Of the native magnificeuce of art and
architecture on this soil, left the impress of his great
soul in and around this church, which seems TO be
the embodiment Of Roman grandeur engrafted upon
the architecture of the christian. In the early days
of the church, the union between its broad univer-
sal doctrines and the power of the Roman character
was in the order Of nature. And in St Peters, a
christian church, we find this greatness clothed in
f0rnl-a greatness which Won cannot describe, but
which you can feel, as you do the magnitude ofthe
universe This church, in architecture and in art,
the Christ of Michael Angelo, with the Transfigu-
ration of Raphael, and bis MadOnnas, point to the
splendid reception these men gave the religion Of
sChrist and the glorious understanding of if which
they endeavored to express, rs Greek and Roman
art stroIe after the gods of the poets and, while we
appreciate the beauty of the latter must deplore
the prostitution of the former into shrines and tan
Chile objects Of worship. When the work itself,
and not the soul of the artist and his lofty asplra
tons is worshipped, the subimity Of the beauty
becomes distressing to him who would see man
progress.-C Correspondence Boston Posi-.
/
| NAVAL INTELLIGENCE Lieut.. Jas. w. Cooke
| ordered to the Pensacola Yard.
! Surgeon J. Nj. Foltz to the Navy Yard at Wash
lngton' to relieve Surgeon Clymer, detached pre-
paratory for sea, service.
Passed Mid d. D. Barrett ordered to the James
town, now on the coast of Africa, to relieve Master
"5l ~ 'ohsslos, VINO has permlsslonto return
I'd Asst Engineer VIM F. Marcior, ordered TO
proceed to the Pacific squadron in the storeship
soon TO sail from New York on speciaI service.
A correspondence has recently taken place be-
tween Capt. James NJ. McIntosh. Of tbe steamer
Michigan, on Lake Erie, and Capt. Whitaker. Of
the steamer A. d. Patchin, occasioned bv services
renderedto the Patchin while on the rocks AT Ra-
cine Point, by the U. S. steamer Michigan.
I