Poured out in thanks to heaven. Once again We look; and lo, the sea is white with sails Treasures untold; the vale, the promontories, The Imperial City! They have now subdued All nations. But where they who led them forth; Who, when at length released by victory, Living on little with a cheerful mind, The Decii, the Fabricii? Where the spade, Their hours are numbered. But their days, Hark, a yell, a shriek, A barbarous out-cry, loud and louder yet, All, that the Earth should from her womb bring forth New nations to destroy them? From the depth And on the road, where once we might have met THE ROMAN PONTIFFS. HOSE ancient men, what were they, who achieved A sway beyond the greatest conquerors; kings, And, through the world, subduing, chaining down The free, immortal spirit? Were they not Mighty magicians ? Theirs a wondrous spell. Where true and false were with infernal art Close-interwoven; where together met Mingled whate'er enchants and fascinates, came, Their shadows, stretching far and wide, were known; And Two, that looked beyond the visible sphere, Who in an awful vision of the night Saw the Four Kingdoms. Distant as they were, Those holy men, well might they faint with fear !3 CAIUS CESTIUS. HEN I am inclined to be serious, I love to wander up and down before the tomb of Caius Cestius. The Pro W testant burial-ground is there; and most of the little monuments are erected to the I Whoever has entered the church of St. Peter's or the Pauline chapel, during the Exposition of the Holy Sacrament there, will not soon forget the blaze of the altar or the dark circle of worshippers kneeling in silence before it. 2 An allusion to the saying of Archimedes," Give me a place to stand upon, and I will move the earth." 3 An allusion to the prophecies concerning Antichrist. See the interpretations of Mede, Newton, Clarke, &c.; not to mention those of Dante and Petrarch. young; young men of promise, cut off when on their travels, full of enthusiasm, full of enjoyment; brides, in the bloom of their beauty, on their first journey; or children borne from home in search of health. This stone was placed by his fellow. travellers, young as himself, who will return to the house of his parents without him; that, by a husband or a father, now in his native country. His heart is buried in that grave. It is a quiet and sheltered nook, covered in the winter with violets; and the Pyramid, that overshadows it, gives it a classical and singularly solemn air. You feel an interest there, a sympathy you were not prepared for. You are yourself in a foreign land; and they are for the most part your countrymen. They call upon you in your mother-tongue-in English-in words unknown to a native, known only to yourself: and the tomb of Cestius, that old majestic pile, has this also in common with them. It is itself a stranger, among strangers. It has stood there till the language spoken round about it has changed; and the shepherd, born at the foot, can read its inscription no longer. 康 THE NUN. IS over; and her lovely cheek is now Wan, often wet with tears, and (ere at length Even on her bier. 'Tis over; and the rite, Her vesture gorgeous, and her starry head- Narrow and dark, nought through the gloom discerned, Nought save the crucifix, the rosary, And the grey habit lying by to shroud When on her knees she fell, It was at such a moment, when contemplating the young and the beautiful, that Tasso conceived his sonnets, beginning "Vergine pia,' and "Vergine bella." Those to whom he addressed them have long been forgotten; though they were as much perhaps to be loved, and as much also to be pitied. |