To a spectator on the spot, it is remarkable that the events of Roman

history, and Roman life itself, appear not so distant as the Gothic ages

which succeeded them. We stand in the Forum, or on the height of the

Capitol, and seem to see the Roman epoch close at hand. We forget that

a chasm extends between it and ourselves, in which lie all those dark,

rude, unlettered centuries, around the birth-time of Christianity, as

well as the age of chivalry and romance, the feudal system, and the

infancy of a better civilization than that of Rome. Or, if we remember

these mediaeval times, they look further off than the Augustan age. The

reason may be, that the old Roman literature survives, and creates for

us an intimacy with the classic ages, which we have no means of forming

with the subsequent ones.

The Italian climate, moreover, robs age of its reverence and makes it

look newer than it is. Not the Coliseum, nor the tombs of the Appian

Way, nor the oldest pillar in the Forum, nor any other Roman ruin, be

it as dilapidated as it may, ever give the impression of venerable

antiquity which we gather, along with the ivy, from the gray walls of an

English abbey or castle. And yet every brick or stone, which we pick up

among the former, had fallen ages before the foundation of the latter

was begun. This is owing to the kindliness with which Natures takes an

English ruin to her heart, covering it with ivy, as tenderly as Robin

Redbreast covered the dead babes with forest leaves. She strives to make

it a part of herself, gradually obliterating the handiwork of man, and

supplanting it with her own mosses and trailing verdure, till she has

won the whole structure back. But, in Italy, whenever man has once hewn

a stone, Nature forthwith relinquishes her right to it, and never lays

her finger on it again. Age after age finds it bare and naked, in the

barren sunshine, and leaves it so. Besides this natural disadvantage,

too, each succeeding century, in Rome, has done its best to ruin the

very ruins, so far as their picturesque effect is concerned, by stealing

away the marble and hewn stone, and leaving only yellow bricks, which

never can look venerable.

The party ascended the winding way that leads from the Forum to the

Piazza of the Campidoglio on the summit of the Capitoline Hill. They

stood awhile to contemplate the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus

Aurelius. The moonlight glistened upon traces of the gilding which

had once covered both rider and steed; these were almost gone, but the

aspect of dignity was still perfect, clothing the figure as it were with

an imperial robe of light. It is the most majestic representation of

the kingly character that ever the world has seen. A sight of the old

heathen emperor is enough to create an evanescent sentiment of loyalty

even in a democratic bosom, so august does he look, so fit to rule,

so worthy of man's profoundest homage and obedience, so inevitably

attractive of his love. He stretches forth his hand with an air of grand

beneficence and unlimited authority, as if uttering a decree from which

no appeal was permissible, but in which the obedient subject would

find his highest interests consulted; a command that was in itself a

benediction.




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