Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1896-08-15
ON THE DOME or ST PereR's.
Almost . paa0ramA Of the World Stretch
cd Before the Beholder.

cd Before the BehOlder.
The strangest, most eXtravagant,
most incomprehensible, most dis.
turbing sight of all is to be seen
from the upper gallery in the cupo.
In looking down to the church be.
low. Hanging in mitlair, with moth
ing under ones feet, one sees the
church projected in perspective
within II huge circle. 1t rs though
one saw it upside down and inside
out. Few non could bear to stand
there without that bit of iron rail
ing between them and the hideous
fall, and the inevitable slight dizzi-
ness which the strongest head feels
may make one doubt for moment
whether what is really the floor be-
low may not be in reality ceiling
above, and whether ones sense Of
gravitation he not inverted in an
extraordinary dream. At that dis
lance human beings look 10 bigger
than flies, and tho canopy of the
high altar might be an ordinary ta-
bic.
And thence, climbing up between
the doubl. domes, one may emerge
from the almost terrible perspective
to the open air and suddenly SOC all
Rome at ono'4 feet. and all the Ro.
man mountains stretched out to
south and asst, in perfect grace of
restful or line, shoulder to shout
der, like silatlowy women lying side
! by side and holding hands.
! Aud he broken symmetry of
streets and squares ranges below,
cut by the winding ribbon of the
yellow Tiber; to the right the low
Aventine, with the dark expresses
of the Protestant cemetery beyond,
and the PG.atine, crested with trees
and ruins; the Pincian on the left,
with it's high gardens, and the mass
of foliage OF the Villa Medici behind
it; the lofty tower Of the capitol in
the midst of the city, and the sun
clasping all to its heart of gold, the
just and The unjust, the new and the
old alike. past and present, youth,
ago aud decay generous rs only the
sun can be i'll this sordid and miser-
ly world, where bread is but anOth-
or name for blood and rood of
growing corn means u pound of hu-
man flesh. The sun is the only good
thing in nature that always gives
itself to man for nothing but the
mere trouble of sitting in the sun
shine, and Rome without sunlight is
very grim and gloomy town today.
1t is worth the effort of climbing
so high. -Four hundred feet in the
air you look down ON what rul.l
half the world by forco for ages and
on what rules tho other half today
by faith-tho greatest center of con.
quest and OF discord and of religi" 1
which the world has ever seen. A
thousand volumes have been writ,
about it by thousand wise mon. y
word tells what it has been-hcal
of the world Hither was drawn the
worlds blood by all tho roads that
lead to Rome, and honce it Was
forced out again along the mighty
arteries of the Caesars roads to +,
spilled in the Caesars battles-tC
redden tho world with the Roman
name. Blood, bl0otl. and more blood
that WAS the history OF old lsome
i tho blood of brothers, tie blood OF
foes, the blood of MARTYRS without
end. 1t flowed and cbbc., in varying
tide at the will OF the just and the
unjust, but there w*is always MOI /
to shed, an, tlcru were always morl
hands to shed it, And so it may TX
again hereafter, for the name OF
Rome has a heart stirring ring, ard
there has always Eeen as much blood
spilled for tho names Of things as
for the things themselves.-Mar
Crawford in Century.