New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-08-01
how, and tho burniiis lamps around TIE tomb Of st.
Peter like pvms in q ring,


Peter like gems in o ring.
The colossal EyaDeeIists just opposite, whose
beads sx feet long, seen not over htara' SIZE
The balcony below ne, over the capitals o inc co.,
umns, locks wide enough for man to pass As on Il
barrow shelf; but Go Ahead knows the dlnentiois'
rrd declares here We might have another circ', w"
race around the dome being feet or more IN
sid,b. All The pictures about and above US are
mosaies, rs We'll as those of the chapels and smaller
dsmes The size Of the building increases ut every
visit, and most OF all expands as we contemplate it
ir,m above. And then 1t seems So marvclpudy fin
ishsd for structure Of ts proportions, SO iayIsed
over with marbles, columns, mOsrics, sta tues,
bropzes gliding an carving in every near and more
remote part-sO magnificent 10 appearance, ar ye.
So me aeer and sham in comparison to ST. .iarks
but so rich and splendid after St Paurs of London
or oven the New st. Paul's Of Rome. Higher up
IN, 4, me-. we core out upon an exterior balcony
from which We take another view of Rome and It's
., yirons. as spread around Us. Go Ahead says we
are already as high as Monte MiriO-the top OF st.
Peters being 4g7 and the adjacent hill 40 feet above
the level of the sea- Some French soldiers pointed
ms the new parts of the city wall toward the St. Pan
cras Gate ON the Janlcuum, where they entered in
4s-and back under the pines Of the lila Dorico
WAS their camp. This view of Rome, and All It's
ASSOCIATIONS, recalled our first one Of it from Monte
Mario, close by, when thrill of SHRINKING lear ran
through us in thus standing face to face with the
Eternal City. The sky and circling bids make the
first great impression. The Sadness earlier capped
with snow, now baye blue and purple and rosy man
Ties drawn around them; the Alban Mount IS dim,
and the fiat stretch of Campagna aud me sea are
blended together in mist. At our lett Monte
Mario its Vineyards expresses, villas and one plne
nnaer us adjoining are the gardens OF the Pope;
their fountains, Iamparts, garrisons, box, shrubs,
flowers salads and vegetables then the long, double
file of the Vatican Museum stretching out like great
Ieyiathan from the Palace of the Popc's bulls; and
from the other another wall of fertilization, reaching
TO the great round fort ST. Angelo, at the end of the
Elan Bridge; and beyond these the city OF d0mes
and roc f and ruins among which we distinguish the
crater If the Coliseum. the tower of the Capitol,
the great fat mask of Ara Coli, over the Temple of
Jupiter; then, away on to the south, the IOmo OF
Cecilia Metela and the Applan Way, and the
Campapna, with lines Of aqueduct, specks OF
ruins creyices of valleys and dark patches of forest
all the country and city healed up wound OF
former ages-the Campagna desolate scar, scathed
of almost every monument and the town scab OF
modern roofs, through which ut intervals prOtrude
the bones of the past-just enough to verify the
identity of the Eternal City, 1t is an excursion of
no fatigue to ascend the DOME even to is hot dark
ball at the top whose entrance scarcely admits
modern hoop: but it is from the balcony below that
We have these outer views. st. Peters is in the
midst of the Circus of Caligua and Nero, whose
every handful Of dust is saturated with the blood
Of martyred Christians The obclsk in the Piazza
tbey brought from Heliopolis 800 years after, the
barbarans threw it down; for twelve more CEN
turtles it lay in ruins; aud 900 years ago it rose
before the present Christian church-the tomb OF
Peter. the fisherman. The Egyptians learned the
art of Immortality in these shafts, that with the
spokes of fortunes wheel turn up age after age to
mark some new epoch Of history. At our feet are
the fields of Cincinnatus: but, wiping my hand
and
history, / see Romulus descending from the
Palatine and gathering the other bills within
bis rean-then the virgin hOstesses of
Porsenpa swimming the Tiber, Tarquin having been
banished and his growing grain harvested into the
Tibcr. Later on, these Tarquin fields spread out
the Campus Martius; then pOrtcos, gardens, amphi-
the then barbarian desolaton; and from such
soil rose tie present web of streets in early Chris
tiap history, before Papal authority had CONSOLE
dated temporal power to street payements aud
orderly Topography
Like all Rome's prescn. monuments, ST. Peters
is mostly pAlaged from anterior structnres. It's
threshold is from the monument OF Scpl0 Afrlcanus
ON the Janiculum; its bapsmal font is the cover oil
AdraD's porphyry sarcOphagus; is pompous high
altar BaldoquiD, so SLOWLY wrought, Is a hundred
and eipbty-six thousand pounds of bronze stolen
from the pediment of the Pantheon, Jupiter thun.
Jerbolting the giants melted into ddlng angels and
smiling chcrubs; and near the pulpit OF ~. Peter,
arches and columns from the Temple of the Sun;
and in the tribunes, they say spiral column from
the SolomOns Temple ut Jerusalem. From the In
terror of the dome, we wonder again at the dminu.
tiyeness of objects below the great bronze altar and
CANOPY being an Insignificant article Of furniture on
the immense stretch of nave and TRANSCRIPTS
though in fact Go Ahead makes the Baldaqnin no
less high than the Palace Of the Tuileries. Decep-
ton and dissolution are all about US. Life in death
is the escutcbeOn of modern Rome. Times enemy
has left the hack of bis scythe on all her mOnu-
ments Every church ia the tomb of a martyr
every baptsmal font a heather sarcOphagus. The
ruins are haunted by ghosts whose dust and half
burned bones are the play Of our breath in the mu-
seums. Our footsteps are undermined ny cata'
combs-the graves of Christians. The COluinbarla
show their pots of ashes, which the guide Gifts
through his hands-these of Augustus Court, those
Of Pompeys-herc are the bones Ofthe Sclples, aud
their toiubs Every fountain and watering trough
was once dead mans bed or dead mans BATH
The fort of Rome is Adran's t0mb-its circus Au-
oust,s's mausoeum. The museums are full OF dead
mems nsges, bones and tOmbs. Tyranny reads its
doom in the blood-spots on POmpey's statue where
Cesar tell, and yet the people dream as little OF
tyranny MS of death. Both are matter OF course,
and arrest no special attention. I'VE must be OPP
oppressed. and we must die as our fathers have
"done before u.s." lie tO-day's countersgn. They
banished the Pope, and, when he came back, kissed
his tOs-nO more inconsistent than any Otner hu'
manity that prefers peace to principle.
--.-
ADurI PRsyEyrEp.-Messrs. o. NJ. lie Blanc and