Clarksville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-30

sen, while ferocious barons have built frownng
fortresses on every hill, and devote themselves to
mutual war and plunder; aud, alas, too success
fully to the enslavement Of the towns and depra-
datons upon their commerce. Wars are unending;
city at war with city, Baron with Baron, Guelphs
and Ghibenes, Blanchi and Ner all at one an
others throats, and occasionally France and Spain
and Germany taking sides, and making devoted
Italy the bloed stained of their savage strife
We shall see trucuent old Popes cursing first one
side and then another, then rising to the occasion
and cursing all round; and always, in the end,
coming out the only winners in the turmoil.
| We are glad to close oas eyes again, and then
awake at the decadence of the Roman Empire
This vast organization of civil and military force
is at last pershng through the inherent vices of its
original constitution; it depended upon its army
for political existence, and now the once famous
legions have turned against 1t and against one
another, and having torn the state into fragments
by their internecne contest betake themselves to
swinish sensuality, AID Rome and Italy are left a
prey to other masters.
Stawart, broad chested warriors, with blue
eyes and fair complexion, and Of great stature,
have entered the city, and are staring in stupid
wonder, at the monuments Of that power and great
ness which Is no longer scourge and terror TO
them. They are on the point of general sack and
slaughter Of the PROSTATE city, when the sound Of
sacred harmony is heard-the portals of vast and
gloomy building spread open, and procession Of
robed priests with their Bishop at their head,
walks slowly forth chanting solemn litanies for
heavenly succour. They advance undsturbed
through the barbarian crowd who fall back, on
either side, in mute amazement, and instead Of
blood and rapine apply themselves TO rude mi-
tation of the devotiots they witness; the eharch
has dethroned the empire and is about to disarm
and tame its savage conquerors.
Again the mesmeric sleep. We are travelling
back further and further into the past at the rate
of about FIVE centuries at stage; we will become
clairvoyant again in Rome, under the domination
of Caus Julius Cesar Octavianus Augustus, first of
the long line of Roman Empe:ors.
The Temple of Janus is closed universal peace
is established for the first time in many centuries
for all the known world is reduced to submission,
and the civil factions which have been rending the
nation at home are all reduced to order and obed-
ence by the far-seeing craftsmanship and resolute
will of the able ruler who now wields the powers
for which they had been struggling under the new
title of Roman Emperor. At first sight we seem
to have state of things similar, only larger
scale, to the splendors of Papal Rome, before de-
scribed Here also, all that was then known of
art, and literature, and science is concentrated to
adorn the Eternal City; but it is on a vaster and
more enduring scale of solid magnifcence-form
and symmetry are more studied, and color less;
sculpture and architecture are more relied upon
than painting. The palaces of the new sovereign
and some of the wealthy mobiles are planned with
an amplitude and splendor beyond even the cost-
est mansions Of modern Europe. Hills are leveled
and valleys filled up to secure q site for their broad
foundations; and they include temples and thea
ters miles Of portcoes and acres of gardens within
their proud domains. The public baths and am
phitbeaters are the still more palatia structures in
which the people take their pleasure. In the for
mer we have halls and courts and porticoes, in
which philosophers lecture and poets recite their
works, and companies of mines and dancers ex-
hibit their pantomimic dramas, and, what is more
popular still, the gymnasia of the Roman youth
present those examples of noble form and graceful
motion which have furnished the models of the
worlds sculpture. In the amphitheaters captive
warriors from all nations the earth, practised in
the national arms of every human tribe, contend
with one another in the gladiatorial encounters,
where thousands are slain at single show, for the
pleasure of the ruthless popuace and, as if their
Unsuitable thirst of blood could not be so satisfied
India has to supply her tigers and elephants Ger
many her bears and wild boars and Africa her
lions to give zcst and variety to the carnival oil
death. In the temples of the gods not only is the
worship of the Grecan divinites, as Jupiter Apol-
10, Mars and Neptune celebrated with magnif-
cence unknown to Greece itself, but the ancient
mysteries of Egypt the barbaric rites of ASIA the
incantations of Thessaly the older rural deties OF
respective homes. But where is the Christian
Church-that mysterious power, which in after
times, as we have seen dethroned the empire ITSELF
and welded the powers which it had no longer the
vigor to grasp? No trace of it here. Fifty year;
later indeed, it might be recognized in the little
knots of pale and anxious worshippers who, in up
per chambers or in the Easements of basilicas OF
even in the serulchral vaults beneath the streets
assemble for the prayers and sacraments whose
celebration is death. Yes, there is the Christian
Church, containing already in its heart the ele
T ments of the Universal Kingdom. while the proud
empire, in which it is as yet scarcely noticed fact
at this eliminating period of its greatness cherished
the inherent vices of its system through which it
ultimate destruction was predestined
One more scene shall demand a moments glance
before we reach the termination of our journey
) Rome in the days of the Gracchi. We still look
5 round on monuments of immense national resour
!, ces but more is for use and less for ornament.-
What there is, is constructed scale of soldty
and strength, suggestive of men building for eter
, nifty; the very sewers which are tunnelled unde
! Romes eternal hills are constructed on scale So
enormous that the hills themselves seem rather
superstructure piled over these ponderous vaults
than the original masses through which they were
excavated. Fortifcatons impregEabe, protect every
; hill; the walls above undstinguishable from thu
escarped rock which forms their basement; vas
terraces, on foundation of rock-hewn arches, Sc
e cure the communication between hill and hill, anc
; aqueducts sustained on triple tiers of archie:
G bring water from distant streams; from the gates
issue those legions which are engaged in the con
I quest of the world and within the walls, tn
proudest and sternest aTistocracy contends in in
ternecine strife with the most turbulent democrac,
p the world ever saw. What they are all fighting
about will be better understood perhaps when w
!, have finished these lectures.
}. And now having once more closed our eyes 70
a long sleep of FIVE centuries, we awaken at on
S journeys end.
y You are standing upon the same spot from whic
II you beheld the greatness of Papal Imperial AM
o Republican Rome
: Look about you--what see you now? Wher
e now is Rome? We are looking upon rolin
C plain diversified by low steep hills with rocky de
L cvties; the valleys parcelled out in small hold
s ings, in which rude but industrious agriculture
C practiced by hardy, frugal race OF men tb
o hills still green with their native lick and arbuu
l. and traversed by few goat herds with thci
1t browsing ocks the slopes where slopes there arr
IT enriched with the ripening clusters of a fey
r,.s..A h. l.