[18]
Dellius thou must die---------------------
Thou must quit thy land, thy home, and thy beloved wife.
[19] PLIN. _Hist. Natur._ L. iii. Tiberis ... quamlibet magnorum navium
ex Italo mari capax, rerum in toto orbe nascentium mercator
placidissimus, pluribus probe solus quam ceteri in omnibus terris amnes
accolitur aspiciturque villis. Nullique fluviorum minus licet, inclusis
utrinque lateribus: nec tamen ipse pugnat, quamquam creber ac subitis
incrementis, et nusquam magis aquis quam in ipsa urbe stagnantibus. Quin
imo vates intelligitur potius ac monitor auctu semper religiosus verius
quam sævus.
Chapter iii.
Raphael has said that modern Rome was almost entirely built with the
ruins of the ancient city, and it is certain that we cannot take a step
here without being struck by some relics of antiquity. We perceive the
_eternal walls_, to use the expression of Pliny, through the work of the
later centuries; the Roman edifices almost all bear a historical stamp;
in them may be remarked, if we may so express it, the physiognomy of
ages. From the Etruscans to our days, from that people, more ancient
than the Romans themselves, and who resembled the Egyptians by the
solidity of their works and the fantastical nature of their designs,
from that people to Chevalier Bernini, an artist whose style resembles
that of the Italian poets of the seventeenth century, we may observe the
human mind at Rome, in the different characters of the arts, the
edifices and the ruins. The middle ages, and the brilliant century of
the Medici, re-appear before our eyes in their works, and this study of
the past in objects present to our sight, penetrates us with the genius
of the times. It was believed that Rome had formerly a mysterious name
which was only known to a few adepts; it seems that it is yet necessary
to be initiated into the secret of this city. It is not simply an
assemblage of habitations, it is the history of the world, figured by
divers emblems and represented under various forms.
Corinne agreed with Lord Nelville that they should go and visit
together, the edifices of modern Rome, and reserve for another
opportunity the admirable collections of pictures and statues which it
contains. Perhaps, without accounting for it to herself, she desired to
put off till the most distant day possible, those objects which people
cannot dispense with seeing at Rome; for who has ever quitted it without
having contemplated the Apollo Belvedere and the pictures of Raphael?
This guarantee, weak as it was, that Oswald should not leave her,
pleased her imagination. Is there not an element of pride some one will
ask, in endeavouring to retain the object of our love by any other means
than the real sentiment itself? I really do not know; but the more we
love, the less we trust to the sentiment we inspire; and whatever may be
the cause which secures the presence of the object who is dear to us, we
always embrace it joyfully. There is often much vanity in a certain
species of boldness, and if charms, generally admired, like those of
Corinne, possess a real advantage, it is because they permit us to place
our pride to the account of the sentiment we feel rather than to that
which we inspire.
Corinne and Nelville began their observations by the most remarkable of
the numerous churches of Rome--they are all decorated with ancient
magnificence; but something gloomy and fantastical is mingled with that
beautiful marble and those festival ornaments which have been taken from
the Pagan temples. Pillars of porphyry and granite were so numerous in
Rome that they have lavishly distributed them, scarcely considering them
of any value. At St John Lateran, that church so famous for the
councils that have been held in it, are found such a quantity of marble
pillars that many of them have been covered with a cement of plaster to
make pilasters, so indifferent have they become to these riches from
their multitude.
Some of these pillars were in the tomb of Adrian, others at the Capitol;
these latter still bear on their capitals the figures of the geese which
saved the Roman people. Some of these pillars support Gothic, and others
Arabian ornaments. The urn of Agrippa conceals the ashes of a Pope; for
even the dead have yielded place to other dead, and the tombs have
almost as often changed their masters as the abodes of the living.
Near St John Lateran is the holy stair-case, transported, it is said,
from Jerusalem to Rome. It may only be ascended kneeling. Cæsar himself,
and Claudius also, mounted on their knees the stair-case which conducted
to the Temple of the Capitoline Jove. On one side of St John Lateran is
the font where it is said that Constantine was baptised.--In the middle
of the square is seen an obelisk, which is perhaps the most ancient
monument in the world--an obelisk cotemporary with the Trojan war!--an
obelisk which the barbarous Cambyses respected so much that in honour of
it he put a stop to the conflagration of a city!--an obelisk for which a
king pledged the life of his only son!--The Romans have, miraculously,
brought this pillar to Italy from the lowest part of Egypt.--They turned
the Nile from its course in order that it might seek it, and transport
it to the sea. This obelisk is still covered with hieroglyphics which
have preserved their secret during so many ages, and which to this day
defy the most learned researches. The Indians, the Egyptians, the
antiquity of antiquity, might perhaps be revealed to us by these
signs.--The wonderful charm of Rome is not only the real beauty of its
monuments; but the interest which it inspires by exciting thought; and
this kind of interest increases every day with each new study.
One of the most singular churches of Rome, is that of St Paul: its
exterior is like a badly built barn, and the interior is ornamented with
eighty pillars of so fine a marble and so exquisite a make, that one
would believe they belonged to an Athenian temple described by
Pausanias. Cicero said--_We are surrounded by the vestiges of
history_,--if he said so then, what shall we say now?
The pillars, the statues, the bas-reliefs of ancient Rome, are so
lavished in the churches of the modern city, that there is one (St
Agnes) where bas-reliefs, turned, serve for the steps of a stair-case,
without any one having taken the trouble to examine what they
represented. What an astonishing aspect would ancient Rome offer now, if
the marble pillars and the statues had been left in the same place where
they were found! The ancient city would still have remained standing
almost entire--but would the men of our day dare to walk in it?
The palaces of the great lords are extremely vast, of an architecture
often very fine, and always imposing: but the interior ornaments are
rarely tasteful; we do not find in them even an idea of those elegant
apartments which the finished enjoyments of social life have given rise
to elsewhere. These vast abodes of the Roman princes are empty and
silent; the lazy inhabitants of these superb palaces retire into a few
small chambers unperceived, and leave strangers to survey their
magnificent galleries where the finest pictures of the age of Leo X. are
collected together. The great Roman lords of the present day, are as
unacquainted with the pompous luxury of their ancestors, as these
ancestors themselves were with the austere virtues of the Roman
republic. The country houses convey still more the idea of this
solitude, of this indifference of the possessors in the midst of the
most admirable abodes in the world. People may walk in these immense
gardens without suspecting that they have a master. The grass grows in
the middle of the walks, and in these very walks are trees fantastically
cut according to the ancient taste that prevailed in France.--What a
singular whimsicality is this neglect of the necessary, and affectation
of the useless!--But one is often surprised at Rome, and in the greater
part of the other cities of Italy, at the taste of the Italians for
extravagant ornaments,--they who have incessantly before their eyes the
noble simplicity of the antique. They love what is brilliant, much
better than what is elegant and commodious. They have in every instance,
the advantages and the inconveniences of not living habitually in
society. Their luxury is rather that of the imagination, than the luxury
of actual enjoyment;--isolated as they are among themselves, they cannot
dread the spirit of ridicule, which seldom penetrates at Rome into
domestic secrecy; and often, in contrasting the interior with the
exterior of their palaces, one would say, that the greater part of the
Italian nobility arrange their dwellings more to dazzle the passers-by
than to receive their friends.
After having surveyed the churches and the palaces, Corinne conducted
Oswald to the villa Mellini, a solitary garden, without any other
ornament than its magnificent trees. From here is seen, at a distance,
the chain of the Appenines; the transparency of the air colours these
mountains and throws them forward in the perspective, giving them a most
picturesque appearance. Oswald and Corinne remained in this spot to
enjoy the charms of the sky and the tranquillity of nature. It is
impossible to form an idea of this singular tranquillity without having
lived in Southern countries. On a hot day there is not felt the lightest
breath of wind. The feeblest blade of grass is perfectly still, and the
animals themselves partake of the indolence which the fine weather
inspires: in the middle of the day, you neither hear the hum of flies,
the chirping of grasshoppers, nor the song of birds; no object fatigues
itself with useless and trifling agitation; all sleep till storm or the
passions awaken the vehemence of nature, who then rushes with
impetuosity from her profound repose.
There are in the gardens of Rome, a great number of trees clad in
perennial green, which heighten the illusion produced by the mildness of
the climate during winter. Pines, of a particular elegance, large,
tufted towards the top, and interwoven with one another, form a kind of
plain in the air, whose effect is charming when we mount sufficiently
high to perceive it. The lower trees are placed beneath the shelter of
this verdant vault. Two palm trees only are found in Rome which are both
planted in the gardens of the monks; one of them, placed upon an
eminence, serves as a landmark, and a particular pleasure must always be
felt in perceiving and retracing in the various perspectives of Rome,
this deputy of Africa, this type of a Southern climate more burning
still than that of Italy, and which awakens so many new ideas and
sensations.
"Do you not find," said Corinne, contemplating with Oswald the country
surrounding them; "that nature in Italy disposes us more to reverie than
any where else?--It might be said, that she is here more in affinity
with man, and that the Creator uses her as a medium of interpretation
between his creature and himself." "Undoubtedly," replied Oswald, "I
think so; but who knows whether it may not be the deep feelings of
tenderness which you excite in my heart, that render me sensible to all
I see?--You reveal to me the emotions and thoughts, which external
objects can give birth to. I existed but in my heart; you have awakened
my imagination. But this magic of the universe, which you teach me to
know, will never present me with any thing more lovely than your look,
more moving than your voice." "May the sentiment I now inspire you with,
last as long as my life," said Corinne, "or at least, may my life never
survive the power of inspiring it!"
Oswald and Corinne terminated their tour of Rome by the Borghese villa.
Of all the Roman gardens and palaces, here the splendours of nature and
the arts, are assembled with the greatest taste and brilliancy. Here are
seen trees of every kind, and magnificent fountains; an incredible
number of statues, vases, and antique sarcophagi, mingled with the
freshness of the youthful nature of the South. The ancient mythology
here seems revived; the naiades are placed on the borders of rivers, the
nymphs in woods worthy of them, the tombs beneath Elysian shades, and
the statue of Esculapius in the middle of an isle, while that of Venus
appears to rise out of the waters: Ovid and Virgil might walk in this
enchanting spot, and still believe themselves in the Augustan age. The
masterpieces of sculpture which the palace contains, give it a
magnificence ever new. At a distance, through the trees, is perceived
the city of Rome and St Peter's, the Campagna, and those long arches,
the wrecks of aqueducts, which conveyed the springs from the mountains
into ancient Rome. Everything is there that can excite thought, delight
the imagination, and foster reverie. The most pure sensations are
confounded with the pleasures of the soul, and give an idea of perfect
happiness; but when we ask why this charming abode is not inhabited?
they answer you that the malaria (_la cattiva aria_) will not permit any
one to live here during summer.
This malaria, in a manner, lays siege to Rome; it advances every year
some steps farther, and they are obliged to abandon the most charming
habitations to its empire: undoubtedly, the absence of trees in the
country about the city, is one of the causes of it; and it is perhaps,
on that account, that the ancient Romans consecrated the woods to
goddesses, in order to make them respected by the people. At present,
forests without number have been cut down;--can there indeed exist, in
our days, any place so sanctified, that the avidity of man will spare it
from the work of devastation? The malaria is the scourge of the
inhabitants of Rome, and threatens the city with an entire depopulation;
but perhaps it increases the effect produced by the superb gardens which
are seen within the walls of Rome. The malign influence is not felt by
any external sign; you breathe an air which seems pure, and is very
agreeable; the earth is smiling and fertile; a delicious coolness
refreshes you in the evening after the burning heat of the day; and all
this is death!
"I love," said Oswald to Corinne, "this mysterious, invisible danger,
this danger under the form of the sweetest impressions. If death be
only, what I believe it to be, a summons to a happier existence, why
should not the perfume of flowers, the umbrage of fine trees, and the
refreshing breath of the evening breeze, be the bearers of that summons?
Undoubtedly, governments ought to watch in every way over the
preservation of human life; but there are secrets in nature which the
imagination alone can penetrate; and I easily conceive that neither the
inhabitants nor the strangers who visit it, are disgusted with Rome, by
the species of peril to which they are exposed there during the most
beautiful seasons of the year."
Book vi.