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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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edifice . It is , however , a monument of the decline of the arts and of good taste , as its only good has reliefs are borrowed from the Arch of Titus , without any considerations of propriety or trutjh , whereas its own reliefs are the most jbaltry things imaginable ,
both in the style and execution . The Colosseo * however , or Amphitheatre , is infinitely the grandest specimen of all antiquity . It is an oval , and might have still been very perfect , had not the Pope been so entirely destitute of
taste as to have made a quarry of it for the building of his palace . Not far from it commences Via Appia , which communicated with Capita , and went for many many miles in a direct line . It is lined for some distance with
the fragments of the ancient sepulchres ; that of Scipio was discovered Under ground , only forty years ago , with the Sarcophagi , inscriptions , names , &c . ; whereas , that of Metella , the wife of Crassus , upou the same road , has never ceased to challenge the admiration of posterity .
The most perfect , however , of all the memorials of ancient Rome is the Rotunda of the Pantheon , which remains little impaired either internally or externally , though very different in its decorations now from the time
of its erection . The aqueducts are surprising works , and are seen extending for miles in many directions across the dreary plains of the Campagua . But it is inconsistent with the brevity of epistolary correspondence to enumerate all the various
monuments of antiquity . It is true , that the identity and character of some are but imperfectly defined and ascertained , and that others are the works of the very worst , times of Rome .
Still , however , there is enough to interest the classical traveller , in the certainty of the more material points , < # nd in the speculative probability of others of minor merit .
The boast of the modern town is the justly celebrated Cathedral of St . Peter . Its extension has , perhaps , too much the appearance of a palace , but the beauty , comfort , cleanliness and
sublimity of its entrance baffle every power of description . Its immense dimensions , its exquisite marbles , its costly and magnificent Mosaics , its splendid monuments and its union of £ o many chaste and elegant decora-
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tions , endear it to every lover of ± -pr& prrety and taste . The Vatican attached ! to it is the repository of the finest museums of statuary and paintings in the world ; though every palace here commands the attention of the traveller , by * ome specimens of the perfection of the arts . The streets are
generally narrow , and oftentimes very offensive . We have a suite of rooms looking into the Palace d * Espagne 9 the most open and pleasing part of the whole town . But as we are now in the metropolis of Catholic Europe , we avail
ourselves of every opportunity to attend the ceremonies of papal worship . On Christmas day we saw the Pope attend the sacrament , at the Church of St . Maria Maggicre . He was conveyed up the centre aisle or nave , between two files of military , in a
chair of state , with fans of five ostrich feathers on each side of bim » and with all the pomp and pageantry of Eastern magnificence . He seemed , indeed , to share a divided worship with the Deity ; and though the Catholics in > general are very earnest in their
devotions , not a soul on that occasion , either ecclesiastic or layman , seemed interested in the service , except the aged Pope himself , who appeared under the influence of a very fervent and unaffected piety . Indeed , he is a most excellent old man , and every circumstance of his life seems
calculated to adorn the gospel of his Master . He is much beloved both by natives and foreigners . Another day we were summoned to the Church of SL Sylvester , where a virgin was about to take the veil . She appeared at the
altar in a bridal dress , with her fatheit and mother , and after a public profession of her feith and w ishes , she was conveyed by the officiating cardinal , to the Convent attached to the church , and presently re-appeared at a grated window behind the altar in the same
attrre . The abbess and other sisters were in attendance . Who , in the presence of & numerous congregation , cut off her hair , stripped her of her finery , and equipped her in all the dismal characteristics of her order . Thus did we see this deluded girl , at an age of not more than twenty-two , consign herself to voluntary aikl
berpctual confinement i Lur / v-Monday Night * There are infofcy
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$ 7 $ Letter from Borne .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 372, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/28/
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