Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-09-15
Th. A.esnt or Sd. r.ter,..
BY NRs. nlmirr nEEcnER srovr.

We have just returned from the ascent
OF st. Peters We had been waiting two
weeks for just the right morning, and to.
day, at seven o'clock, seeing the old yellow
roofs all glow with the unmstakabie
brightness of a clear sun, we etook our mea-
snres accordingly, as the ascent must be
made before eleven o'clock in the day.
No morning could be more perfect than
this. Aud as we drove in thepillared court
OF ST. Peters, its fountains seemed like
satin clouds rising in the air. This court
is the most harmonious thing in the world.
It's widespread arms seem outstretched as
it to embrace all mankind and every time
one sees it, it gains on one by secret, ir-
resistible power. 1t is more perfect Of its
kind than even the church itself,
The way into the dome is mp gradual
winding slope, which brings you upon the
roof---n most magnificent promenade plat
form. These church-roofs of StrasbOnrg,
Milan, and Rome remind one Of the old
story of the nanging-gardens of Babylon,
whence one looked down on Kingdoms
spread out Ikea map below But we did
not stay long, but climbed the winding
stairway that brought us into the gallery
within the dome Here first, l think, /
felt acquainted with Michael Angelo. Be
fore, had seen him, as one sees from the
outside vain, brusque, odd fellow--who
seems toyou always diTerging into extra.
vagances, and trauscending your power of
sympathy You see the creature is of a
superior order--lhat he has something iD
him that he is struggling to get out and
make effective, but you get no rapport with
him. 1t was not till l found myself tremb-
ling and shiyeling with a feeling as if the
iron railing on which stood was like a
cobweb, and myself and all our party like
summer flies thereon--while the great dome
above and the blue, dizzy dreamy distance
below seemed to become vast and solemn
power, which shook one with a sense of
awe, such as one feels at Niagara or Mount
Blanc. 1t was armament of architecture,
bending its vast acrimonious arch above,
studded thick with golden stars, with solemn
forms of angel, saint, evangelist, and
martyrs. Far, far below, we could trace
dmly the mosaic of the splendid floors,
and see the priests go sweeping their solemn
robes over the floor, and from one of the
chapels the sound of chanting sweled
solemnly upward - sung 50 distant and
dreamy, as if it were the sighugs aud
breatbingS Of some mighty soul that dwelt
in and vitalized this exalted temple. -
Strange. we thought, that man could have
power TO conceive aud execute what makes
man so insignificant One feels fading
away aud losing consciousness in this sense
Of vastncss, and still one is fascinated with
the grand loveliness of the whole.
This, then, and such as this, was what
the artist would do; and because his soul
was always expanding TO such breadths and
such nights is it that his fragmentary works
scattered here and there have such an air
of extravaganza. They are acrolites fallen
into our daily sphere out of some higher
region of conception, and we have nothing
by which to measure or judge them-they
need world of their own to dwell in-and
seen in it, they might come to their true
proportions. We cannot come from driy.
ing on the Pncio, and pricing jewelry at
CaStelani, in an easy summer morning at
titude of mind, to turn our eyeglasses ur
at the roof of the SiStine Chapel. OF the
crowd who do, the majority, if they spoke
their minds, would say it was a horrid OLD
goblin thing, full of savage images, moi
worth the trouble of deciphering. .
TO see and to feel it Alright, one shonld
first get the measure of st. Peter's-ger
ones soul widened to its breadth and hight
one should come alone, without gay
party to divert ones thought, and walk ur
and down and through the aiSles below-in
distances so great that the chanting in the
chapel sounds faint and far off, like "a voice
crying in the wilderness" Then ascending
to the dome, you should feel yourself poised
as it were, in great sky, floating like q
disembodicd spirit over the profound depth:
below, end, moving slowly round, watch
the changing perspective of the long-drawu
aises-where chant and sacrifice seem faI
off and dstaut, as do the sighs of human
hearts in vast eternity Then GO up out
side, and see yourself lifted up in the sun
shine of warm morning, with the histor,
of two thousand years spread out at you
feet. The immense bui ding You stand OF
seems scarce temple reared by hands, bu
rather akin to those great airy mountain
solitudes where one sits on battlements o
Gods own building, and looks forth on
world at ones feet. One sees there III
wide sweep of seu,lke Campagna-almos
treeless-varied in stripes AID dashes b,
the shadows of SAILING clouds above-on
sees ,ne mountains that girdle the plain
silyery with SHOWS, shimmerhg through tn
purple and rosy films that vail their side
and then the plains over which marche,
the legions of old Rome, when ran her road
to the ends Of the earth-when stretche
her auueducts such as one still sees stand
ing in graceful ruins. .-- .n Do.
Then the ruined palaces Of the Caesar,
with their shapeless, dumb, mountainou
of brick cliffs and Roman cement; and las
ly, the Coliseum-mOst vast of all--upel
ing the eyes of its many round urches Va
cantly at the blue sky, and standing a sier
world of deSolation within itself an
there, Just below, one hears the murmur
waterfalls in the gardens of the Vaticar
and looks down on its oblong galleries an
courts, and remembers that there are el
shrined all that remains of the art aud Ia!
ury and splendor of Rome, bound fast 4
the chariot wheels of new civilization
The Coliseum and ST. Peters, with its Vi
tican brood of buildings, stand coutra.face
the types and memorials of two eras.
Donnd those nalacea of the Co.sare