The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-04-07
CENTRAL PRES YTERIAN
Old Rome.

Mr.. Sinclair Townsend, of New York, in a
letter to Putnam's Magazine for February,
thus describes old Rome and Rome of to days
"Ruins to-day mark the seat of old Rome
wonderful power; and such ruins Rea
about them, talk of them much as one may
they must be seen to be comprehended
indeed, seeing is hardly enough; they mus
be studied, and studied and gazed upon tim I
after time, till, as in experiments in chemis !
try, or discoveries in astronomy, light break
upon the gazer, and their immensely is rea !
lied, comprehended, appreciated.
Here is the Coliseum. Many of our New
York dwelling-houses are twenty feet wide,
and average, perhaps, forty feet in depth.
Three hundred such houses, with alleys be-
tween, could stand on the ground covered
by the ruins of the great amphitheatre.-
Place three of your four-story houses on top
of each other, and the roof of the topmost
one would not e higher from the ground
than is the top of the outer wall of this pile,
that has been laughing at Time for eighteen
centuries. Close packing and hard squeez-
ing will put about four thousand people into
the great hall of the Cooper Institute, if all
the aisles and lobbies are filled. More than
twenty times four thousand persons could
be seated in the Coliseum. Great care is
taken to preserve it as it is; for an old SUI
perstition proclaims the downfall of Rome
with the downfall of the Coliseum. Our
| first visit to it was on a bright day; and as
we roamed about its six acres of walls and
arches, the birds were singing merrily in the
warm sunshine, seeming to bid us of the
New World welcome. Our next visit was
by moonlight; and as we passed along the
corridors, and under the firm old arches,
torch in hand, the owls, whose premises
were thus rudely invaded, hoarsely screeched
their orders for our departure; and as the
pale light of the moon shone on the crumb-
ling seats, it seemed as if the shadowy forms
of those who once filled them were again in
their places And as we emerged beyond
the outer wall, the far off hooting of the an
cry owls sounded like the dying groans OF
a gladiator, who had fought his last battle
in the old arena.
The forum, with its broken columns, the
Pantheon. obelisks, Cesarean palaces, baths,
Pagan temples, the tomb-lined Appian Way,
are all wonderful. So are the Catacombs,
and the remains of the old Aqueducts; and
very remarkable are the great detached
masses of cemented brick work seen outside
the walls of the city, standing all alone,
hundreds of yards from any building or arch
or structure of any kind, looking as if they
had been broken from some great temple
wall, or other huge building, larger and
greater than any now known, resembling, as
they loom up from the smooth plain, enor-
nous solid towers, glass-wreathed and bush
crowned.
Old Rome, the city of the children of the
she VOLTS Stockings, contains more of those
children's work than / can describe-more
even than l have time to see.
Let Old Rome Sleep What of the Rome
of to day? 81
Churches; churches once Pagan temples
churches never entered by Pagan foot;
churches rough and ugly without, beautiful
and gorgeous within; churches for show,
churches for worship; churches that count
their ages by centuries; churches of this
century, and of each century downtown
the steps of Time, almost to the first steps
taken by Christianity of old Times endless
staircase; churches Of the pigmy age, and
churches of the time of giants; churches
under ground, and churches so far above
ground that their great domes kiss the clouds,
and greet the rising sun long before sleepy
devotees know of his coming; churches cold,
dark and gloomy; churches warm, light and
cheerful; churches guarded by dead apostles
and saints in marble, and churches watched
by living cripples and beggars in rags; church.
es from whose walls early Christians were
driven by their Pagan builders; churches
within whose walls later Christians cannot
worship; churches here, there and everywhere
OF these, and such as these, is the Rome Of
to-day"