Salisbury.
_Inscription from Roma Subterranea._--If you deem the translation of
this inscription, quoted in Lord Lindsay's fanciful but admirable
_Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, worth a place among your
Notes, it is very heartily at your service.
"Sisto viator
Tot ibi trophÊa, quot ossa
Quot martyres, tot triumphi.
Antra quÊ subis, multa quÊ cernis marmora,
Vel dum silent,
Palam RomÊ gloriam loquuntur.
Audi quid Echo resonet
SubterraneÊ RomÊ!
Obscura licet Urbis Cœmetria
Totius patens Orbis Theatrium!
Supplex Loci Sanetitatem venerare,
Et post hac sub luto aurum
Coelum sub coeno
Sub Rom‚ Romam quÊrito!"
_Roma Subterranea_, 1651, tom. i. p. 625.
(Inscription abridged.)
Stay, wayfarer--behold
In ev'ry mould'ring bone a trophy here.
In all these hosts of martyrs,
So many triumphs.
These vaults--these countless tombs,
E'en in their very silence
Proclaim aloud Rome's glory:
The echo'd fame
Of subterranean Rome
Rings on the ear.
The city's sepulchres, albeit hidden,
Present a spectacle
To the wide world patent.
In lowly rev'rence hail this hallow'd spot,
And henceforth learn
Gold beneath dross
Heav'n below earth,
Rome under Rome to find!