Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-09-06
TFSuns the Southern Literary Aessengsrfor august
IMPRESSIONS OF TRAVEL,


IrALY. IS53-54-No city, no spot indeed on tn
surface of the earth, if it be not the tomb OF on
Saviour can stir the heart like Rome. man ma.
prefer to live in Paris at his own h0me Tor year
and years; but for that deep moving OF the 1eengs
that crowding thick and fast of the memories OF tn
past; that overwhelming press OF emotion Whicn
excited at every step, and which actually oeWnde
the beholder by their number, their magnitude, ant
their Importance there is no spot at all conpaTabl
to Rome. | do not hesitate to affirm that thre
weeks there are worth more than any other perioC
of the same duration of life time Each object Ii
worthy pilgrimage and compensates for all tn
toll of long journeys by and land. The LOCALITY
ITSELF the sacred precincts with not stone standing
so throngs with the souvenirs of the mighty past,
so potent in invoking the spirit and the recoiiecuor
of other days and of great people, that without
the Pantheon, without the Coliseum or the Forum
there were enough, not merely TO satisfy, oue e
overwhem the spectator lie that has enjoyed the
privilege of standing upon the soil and amid the
half buried relics of the Lone Mother OF Dead Fan
nires, should never be allowed to let fall from his
lips word of complaint in after life. He has already
exhausted all the impressions which objects of this
nature can produce. He has had his triumph anu
he need again go elsewhere in quest that deli
cous excitement which is evoked by the associations
which the history Of other ages and nations gives
rise to- There he revels in antiquity the finest spe-
cmens which lay upon the surface OF the globe are
there collected for him within those halowed walls,
and in one moment he can imbibe the concentrated
aroma of two thousand years of time-twenty CEN
turtles during the lapse of which magnificent EN-
pirc and a marvellous people sprang into lie, hour
ished and faded away. In this time too, no other
nation ever expanded so large-made such astonlsh-
ing progreSs-or left such traces OF their grandeur
or their civilization | stand to-day in the Capitol,
in the centre of this old power which stretched It's
arms out to the embrace of half the known earth,
and from which, as from the great heart, it sent out
life and nourshment to the remOtes distances Into
this little area the banks of muddy river, sur
rounded all sides by fiat and sterile PLAIN, pass
ed the great arteries of trade and poured all the
wealth of hundred empires; and from 1t issued
the spirit and influence which commanded and en-
forced tribute, and gave dominion over mere numb
ers brute force. Here resided the mind ana the
science directing the wealth which subjected and
guided every thing exterior to it. The moral and
physical supplied by knowledge and education and
concentrated here made up in reality the elements
from which Rome drew her resources and these IN
her hand gave easy mastery over unframed and less
cultivated antagonists. With these she spread and
fired electric chain which comprised the known
earth in its circuit and which ramifyng in every
direction the most distant dependency-the peasant
Of the Caucasus well as the savage OF Great Brit
ain-felt its life giving impulse; disturbance at the
Capitol shocked the entire fabric, and its flores cea
sed hrob and culver only they lost themselves
in those far off regions to which the foot Of the Ro
man had not yet penetrated.
But amid these ruins and during this period
rich in instruction so fertile in great events which
left ineffaciabe footprints and which continue
now to impress and modify the character of the ma
tons of to-day with less power than they
ted upon those cotemporapeous with them, there eX-
listed something more than art and arms Then and
here Sprang also into life and matured that Ian
guage, and literature which, born of Grecian
ther, was nourished this fresh and virgin soil and
in this genial Cline. With such harbingers 20 its
birth-amongst people acting great events-fed by
a Mythology imaginative and romantic in the ex
tremc-is it wonderful that in poetry and Eloqucnce,
in breathing Statuary and in harmonious forms, they
scarce find an equal, and none surpass them? That
the classics which the genius OF this people here
chisseled and the structures they reared have only
been approached by that which imitation ten centu
ries later of their disinterred relics gave rise to-
And now, when eighteen hundred years have rolled
by, the eye must still be directed towards Rome and
the feet must pass the Campagna in quest of
the master pieces either of ancient modern times
There lives there still then, there gins
Premely the same potent influence which confcrs |
powers to create things excellent above all others of
their kind. Rome has that spell of enchantment
which raises often her humblest deniZen to the
conception Of her greatness and to the appreciation
of her wondrous marvels Whether It be the |
DRY of her heroic acts the constant momcntos of her
deeds, the deep blue of her sky, the |
splendor of her sunsets the soft influence of her de-
licous climate finds in her limits and breathes
in the atmosphere which surrounds her, an nspira-
ton not elsewhere felt; and ST. Peters, the " Last
Raphael, Michael Angelo, the Painters |
and Architects and the three great Epics of modern
times prove that in Italy alone reside those Duen-
ces which nourish their authors equally now as she
less line of worthless whether i'll poetry and song in
philosophy, eloqucncc, in any of those high facul
ties which constitute the greatness of people.
She herself has fallen under the arm of her oppres-
sors but still her lamp burneth-the live coal still
veth on her altar, and the fires of her genius are
not quenched. Invading armies for ages may enter
upon and ravage her fair territories, and their gree
ly chieftains, from Frederick Barbarossa rife her
treasurers; but they cannot entirely despoil her,
There is impressed upon her soil and there will
live within her borders that which cannot de-
prive her of and when the of her own sons
shall be incompetent to sustain her, the magic of the
name of Italy will be a spell to draw to her nour-
shment, those who seek there all that feeds the
sentiment and stimulates the ambition, those from
distant chimes and other lands, in whose breasts kin
dies the enthusiasm of her glorious deeds and who
warm at the recital of her wrongs.
No! the sacred fame of Italian liberty kept alive
in hearts of too pure sentiment and of too holy
nature to permit of its extinction, is not quenched
The tcenaen of Italy are the vesta band who guard
it !; and when solong and such undying hatred of
their foreign protectors (Austran nvaders) pervades
their breasts, so long will their be fountains ever
fresh and sources ever perennial to keep alive the
feeling. The spirit of the of Italy guarantees
forever that which is wanting in the energy, the
resolution or the capacity of her Father, son
md brother, learn freedoms lesson in the burning
shame ofsister or mother-and those who claim their
protection and their manhood, cry aloud for ven
yeance.
Men not men in this warm Italian cline and
with this hot blood of the South, whom such areu-
nents will not make heroic, and give resistless
power in the unequal contest, when that contest
comes!
What is that fat, oblong rectangular space stand
ng before me there is which is forced to descend
BY steps from the general level of the earth with
which centuries have covered it. Its damp pave
nent Is Mosaic, and from it start few broken pill
ars and marble columns two of them with archi-
cfo