Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-06-12

pounds.
The following letter, our readers will OBJ
serve, is not one of our regular series of
" Letters from Europe but is from an
other valued correspondent.
Correspondence Of the Free Press.
A Letter from Rome.
Roms.-Thc Coliseum.
ROME, April 20, 1857.
Mn EDIroR Sitting upon fragment Of a
broken column, at one side Of the Forum, close
under the shadow of the Capitol have been re-
calling those days when, under your instructions,
| made my first acquaintance with the true. great
ness and glory of Rome. 1t was while reading
in Livy the story of her ever memorable struggle
with IIannibal-of tho unflinching resolution
with which she bore up under the frightful losses
of Treba and Trasimenus, and the destruction
at Cannae, grateful even to the Consul that did
not despair of the Republic. From that day to
this, Rome has been a charmed name, a name
never heard without sending thrill through my
blood and when couple with it its most beftt-
ing adectives, and with due trlling Of the "r's"
and deep full-toned pronunciation of the VOW
els, exclaim" grand, imperial Rome" 1t is like
listening to the holder notes of martial music. No
other words can be compared with them. Tho
nearest approach, though in many respects quite
unlike, is the effect produced by reading aloud the
" Battle of Ivry "by Macauay. But tho Incl
dents of a single battle field, heroic as may have
been the bearing of individual men, and stipend
Gus the result, to the fortunes of nation, are
not to be taken into account with the associations
awakened at tho thought of Rome-thc city of
Romulus and the proud Etruscan princes the
fatherland of Brutus, Camillus, and the Gracchi
the home of Lucretia, Cornclia, and Portia ; tho
country Of Cicero, Virgil and Horace where the
mighty Julius laid the foundations of the might
lest empire ever known Rome, grand in
the steady realization of hor conscious destiny as
the mistress of the nations to which the counsels
of her Senate and the valor of her armies were
alike devoted ; " imperial " in the wide reach Of
her sway, when the nod of her Caesars was felt in
the remotest limits of civilization, and the edicts
of Roman Emperor were the law of the world.
But profounder thoughts are awakened as one re-
members that this is that Rome that swallowed vi
all past cultures and civilizations that she might
become the mother Of new, the critical point in
the worlds history regards the historic
of ancient and modern nations, and still more
the central point In regard to the new principles
which henceforth to guide the development
of Humanity. 1t is in this point of view that
Rome is most interesting to the Christian mind,
as raised up in the anticipation of the coming of
Christ, to furnish a medium for the diffusion of
, ba by Of Ian
guage and the intercommunications of a world
wide dominion, and to preserve to after times
whatever of past culture might be most servicea-
BILE to a Christian civilization. 1t is this that
gives the deepest interest to the remains Of the
Forum, the fragments of temples, and the treas
ures of art stored on the Capitol and in tho Va
tcan. 1t is this that may well give an interest
to her history, to that pcrsevering energy, and
that insuperable will that never quailed even un-
der the most terrible reverses, and almost makes
us forgive her supreme selshness, trampling alike
on friend and foe in her relentless march to empire
as regardless of the rights and liberties of other
nations as Jealous of her own. She has lett traces
of her sovereignty in every land visited by her
Eagles the massive ruins of her public roads,
aqucducts temples, and amphitheatres, bid fair to
outast very large share of the structures ofmod-
ern times. But grand and imperial as was her
sway, these very ruins suffice to show that her
civilization was not suited to the best interests
of the race, and that she was only needed as an
instrument in the hands of Divine Providence for
the furtherance of higher order of culture.
one of the most remarkable of these ruins is the
Coliseum. Its very immensely is in keeping with
the greatness Of the Empire. But while we ad-
miro its immense proportions, let us not think of
the thirty thousand Jewish captives that toied in
its erection under Roman taskmasters Let u, not
think of the object for which it was erected-of
the low and debasing amusements here ndulged-
of wild beasts dragged hithcr from den and jun
gle of the fartherest East that their contests
might furnish hours pleasure to the lordly
masters of the world. Imposing must have
| been the scene presented by hundred thousand
spectators, comprising the wealth, beauty and
fashion Of Rome. who would wish to hear the
shout that rung around the a gladiator
| fell" butchered to make Roman holiday or
that more dreadful cry sometimes heard near the
close of these exhibitions" Christianos ad leones,
virgnes ad lenones," when Christian men and
women were given over to the maddened beasts OF
tue FOREST, anu Snrlstldn mallens 10 tne passions
of moro brutal men
To say nothing Of the corruptions brought to
light in the excavations at Pompeii, and now con-
cealed in the Museum at Naples, of the sad
confessions of some of the moro gifted writers. the
Dying Gladiator and the Coliseums, express but
too plainly the character of the social life OF
Rome, when, having outlived the virtues Of her
earlier period, she had become intoxicated with
the possession of unlimited wealth and power and
prey to the cOrruptions they induce. Whatever
may be our love admiration for grand i'm.
perial Rome, despite the glory shed over her his
tory by the historians and poets, despite obi
cations to her language and her laws, and the en-
thusasm one may feel in reading the story Of her
struggle to power, neither you nor could wish
to see her dominion or her civilization restored
good once in their time and place, but never
again. KAPPA.