Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-07-14

~ ~ Nh'Nh hlEEluB uli uh'N'b
ruins, and wheeling their barrows in a slow
line toward the Coliseum, seems a sort of
spectral procession--so lfelessly they work,
so slowly they move, their ragged old cloaks
still thrown over their shoulder in ghostly
suggestion of the old Roman toga. Ruins
OF men-shadows of Romans--dark'eye
hollow-cheeked, picking aimlessly at the
grave OF old Rome, powerless and unre-
hectlng--fve cents day their wages, and
their work according. There they pick
feebly over spots where the old hardhanded
pIebeians Of Rome made good their cause
in many hard election, bringing in their
tribunes of the people in the face of all
that pntrician rank and power could do.
Surely these are ghosts of Romans in a
ghostly forum. .......
The coloring that invests the whole land
scape of Rome is Of that wondrous bright
ness, that golden richness of tone, which
almost reconciIes one to the want Of fresh
ness and green, and of that vivaoous mo-
tion which pervades an English or Ameri-
can landscape.
The peculiar orange colored lichen which
elings to buildings here gives golden tone
to every roof, and the air sbimmers at every
hour of the day with futtering prismatic
lights and warm shadows. Even the black
obeliSk of the cypress and the umbrella
shaped stone pine have their opalescent
changings of purple, lilac, and gold, as
morning or evening foods them with light.
One does not wonder that artists fall in
love with old Rome-the mistress of en-
chantments-aud that they say to her, in
dirt, in rags, in filth, in ignominy, "Thon
art my mistress. | would not change thee
for the cIeanlieSt and sweetest good house
wife in the world" One only warts to
drop humanity out of their calculation, to
live merely in the artistic and picturesque,
to feel thus themselves One feels the en-
cbantment working-the weird old sybil
tells upon you
But let us come down from our airy
perch on the Capitol, and descend bodily
into the Forum below. Fifteen feet below
the level of modern Rome it lies-a wreck
Of columns and temples-the pavement of
the old Sacred Way going through it, un-
der the triumphal arch of SeptimuS Sever
us. Here one may see the old foundations
lHlN w NbC lliIC vi ItDuOlIEdu INOulOy oOlllC
three thousand years ago. In sunny
spring day. when the wind above is blow
ing the dust in your eyes, as | am sorry to
say March winds always do whether in
Rome or Andover, it is quite sheltered
place to walk in, this crumblng old Forum.
You are admitted through rude door at
the side kept by a jantor, who expects
two pauls for his pains, and then it is all
before you You can scramble about among
the old ruins, finding here a shattered bit
of inscription, there an overturned capital
of Corinthian CONTEMPLATING up here
and there bits of porphyry, serpentne,
oriental granite, roSSo antico, and African
marble. Birds chitter and sing and dive
and soar among the tops of the old pillars.
You climb up old stairways leading to moth
ing, and find your way under vaulted arch
es, where the damp walls are green and
waving with tremulous maiden-hair Anti.
quarians quarrel over this Forum, and ex.
ercse their ingenuity in rebuilding it this
way or that. 10 me the matter is Of small
account-whether this temple was of Jupi.
ter or of Saturn-whether it extended ten
feet this way or that--whether this bit ol
pavement is of this or that era--is all one
to me. | have no objection to him who
settles it if any one knows, | am glad OF
it-but the enjoyment to me is far greater
to let it all rest in vague generality
Here and hereabouts was the Forum. Here
without dispute we see the general ground
over which this old energetic, poetic, yet
practical race lived and moved when they
weve Il history aud made laws and institu
tions which have shaped even our present
selves-without which we could not have
been what we are Take out of our Ian.
guage every Latin workout of our pre-
sent stock of thought every one born from
the institutions of Rome = and what @
curious remainder there would be
The Romans were tilitarians-mater
ialists-much like the Anglo-Saxon, and
vet they were poets. 1t is the animate
rial and poetic part of them that has sharp
ened the edge by which they have driven
their history firm into human sympathy anC
consciousness. What makes Roman his
tory so full of interest to a child What
but the multitude of romances of pathos
and feeling, and heroic sacrifice, that gen
it like stars Quintus Curtins sprngina
horse and all with one bound into the abyss
when he or his country must perish Vir
ginius stabhing his best beloved for honor.
sake Mutius Scaevola burning off hi.
right hand in the fire /; Regulus, the slave
of honor, returning to torture and to deatl
for truth spoken to his Country. Stories
sucb as these it is that breathe and burr
vet such as these enehant these old stones
and make this waving maiden-hair, that
clothes the deserted arches, seem milk,
that which waves unstored under the damI
shade of an Andover forest. 1t is thi,
vague spirit that haunts this place, make,
it SO lovely to be here, and to wander abou
peaceaby among the ruins but this al
takes fight before the measuring tools .
the antiquarian. ....
protest, too, against all modern hsto
ries of Rome that intermeddle with tn
dear old historic legends. Because Ger
man professor has nothing to do but bull,
ND a new historic theory, shall We give ul
Romulls and Remus and the she-wolf, mos
revered of quadrupeds ? If these thing
were not true, they ought to have been
and Que must hold on to them. For m
part clasp my Rolin to my heart anC
saw as the Duke OF Wellington did, whe
certain officer pretended that his resigna