The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-02-08

OF the Caesars.
1t is this fortuitous blending of many
and various features which gives Rome
such charms. This city has something
peculiar and something in common with
all the cities conquered by her arms or
eclipsed by her glory. The severity of
Sparta, the taste Of Athens, the pomp of
Memphis, and the grandeur of Babylon
and Nineveh, are all perpetuated in her
monuments OF stone. In word the east
is the thesis, the west its anti thesis-but
Rome is the synthesis of civilized archi-
lecture. Place people in sight of the
pyramids of Egypt and they will tell
you Here has passed powerful and
barbarous civilization" Place them in
sight of the Grecian statues and temples
and they will tell you {" Here has passed
graceful ephemeral and brilliant civili-
zation." Place them in sight of Roman
monument and they will tell you Here
has passed q great people" Place them
before cathedral and ask them to be-
hold the majesty united to such beauty,
the grandeur to such TASTE the grace to
such delicacy, the severe unity to such
variety, the measure to such boldness,
the heaviness in stone to such suavity in
outline, and the whole wonderful har-
mony between silence and light, shade
and color, and they will tell you Here
has passed the greatest people of past
history and the most comprehensive of
human civilizations tt at people must
have taken grandeur from the Oriental,
brilliancy from the Greek, strength from
the Roman, and beyond the strength, the
hril nd L,
valuable and inspiring than them all
the Immortality Of Christianity"
But it is impossible for one to indulge
In anal lysis standing on
The Height of the Pincio
at even-fall, and looking down upon the
city glorified by the last rays of the set
ting sun. Much has been written OF sun
set on the Roman Campagna, and on the
Bay of Naples, but neither of these, nor
both combined, awakened in us such emo
tions as the vision of the Eternal City
the while the sun was sinking below the
western hills, and our eyes wandered
without design or determinate object over
the spectacle which lay at our feet-the
eleven Egyptian obelisks, the three hun
dred oupolas-the myriads of columns
and statues-the seven hills from whence
have sprung senator's, consuls, and tri-
bunes-and the civil rights of the modern
as well as antique world-the mighty
mausoleum of Adrian, over which are ex-
tended the brazen wings of the seraphim
to the left, the walls on which
are engraved a thousand victories and
defeats, the Via Sacra where the con-
querors entered, the Forum where the
people gathered--the Coliseum, that
mountain sculptured by giant chisels,
the Quirinal, which contains the finest
statues saved from the wreck of Greece
the Capitol head and cerebrum of the
historic Christian world-and last and
most glorious of all, the dome of st. Peter,
over which the soul of Michael Angelo
seems to hover-pierced through and
through as by spear of fiery hght-and
stretching itself to the infinite, as if to say
that the eternity of Rome, which the
priest has degraded and almost DESTROYED,
the architect has rescued and saved by
the God given genius which conceived
that cupola, as the crown Of reason and
the summit of history
Attention cannot be for long concen-
trated on the universal We wanted re.
lief from the torrents of thoughts, excited
by the vision of so many marvels, and
the recollections of so much grandeur,
and we descended to find it in the
Piazza or Square of st. Peter.
The decorations of this piazza are most
efective-in the centre a great obelisk
the trophy of Roman victories in Egypt
at either side fountains casting upwards
their jets of sparkling water, while the
whole vast space is embraced by two
colossal rows of columns as if by semi
circular arms, and terminated by a splen-
did circlet of statuary. On the height
stands the Vatican, the palace on which
the first artists Of the world have ex-
hausted their genius, and on the left, at
the end of an impressive fight of steps
IS the Church of St. Peter-the master
work of modern Rome-the largest Chris
tian temple in the world. The front is
snowy, looking more like the facade of
palace than that of temple. The en-
frances to the church are FIVE doors, un-
der portico four hundred and forty
eight feet long and thrty-nine broad.
The extremities of the portico form two
vestibules, in one of which may be seen
the equestrian statue Of Constantine, in
the other that Of Charlemagne. It would |
be difficult to enter, without some senti-