fourth, to the Virgin and holy martyrs, and by Gregory the fourth to all the faints. The Corinthian brafs, despoiled from the portico of this temple, was converted into the canopy, Supported by its wreathed columns, at the papal altar of St. Peter's; and the church of St. Paul is decorated with marble pillars, drawn from the mausoleum of Adrian.

The fupporters of the Romish faith were pleased with the idea of converting the fanctuaries of falfhood and impiety to the purposes of reputed holiness; and, upon fimilar principles, they erected the Carthufian convent over the baths of Dioclefian,the church of St. Andrea della Valle, on the place where flood the theatre of Pompey, that of St. Marcello, on the fite of the temple of Ifis, fuppressed even by Tiberius for its infamy, and that of St. Agnes over fome public ftews, from the ftain of which the faint was miraculously preferved, as the elegant fculpture of Algardi teftifies.

It would have been well for the integrity and reputation of the fucceffors of St. Peter, if they had borrowed only the external materials of the heathen buildings, inftead of adopting at the fame time the pagan rites, and incorporating prophane ceremonies with the purity of the Chriftian worfhip. But unhappily the temples, dedicated to Chriftian faints, became often as much the fcenes of idolatry as thofe which had been devoted to fictitious deities. The ftatues of heroes were converted into thofe of martyrs, ftill to receive adoration and to prefide at confecrated altars. Thofe who entered the church, like thofe who entered the temple, fprinkled themselves with the luftral water, inhaled the perfumed incenfe, beheld the lighted taper, and hung up the

votive tablet.

The continuance of heathen practices has fometimes been noticeable

in other inftances. The veftal virgins revived again in the perfons of nuns-proceffions of the hoft but mimicked an ancient pattern-canonized faints fucceeded to tutelary gods, and licentious ceremonies, in honour of indecent emblems, are fill remembered. The circumstances and appendages of the heathen worship were fometimes adopted, and probably in confequence of the heathen reproaches, against the Chriftians, for wanting thofe things which mankind had been accuftomed to reverence as most solemn and acceptable to the divinity. They should feem, at least by their exact conformity, to refult from imitation on the part of the Romanists, and not, as the learned but fanciful Warburton imagined, from the general influence of fuperftition, producing the fame effects under both fyftems.

Cuftoms long established in religion muft have retained fome power over those who determined to relinquish their errors; and however primitive christianity might reprobate exifting fuperftitions, fome things were retained as harmless in accommodation to prejudice, and fome were infenfibly received by that fpirit of imitation through which manners gradually coalefce, wherever long intercourse prevails, as it is easy, in civil matters also, to trace fome lines of conformity between the character of ancient and modern Rome.

That the confequence of this adaptation in religious matters has been prejudicial to the reputation of papacy, and that the doctrine of the Romish church is, in confequence, in a great degree anti-chriftian, has been fhewn by many writers. The fpirit of its correfpondent inftitutions was often, perhaps, good, but that fpirit is now evaporated, and its vital intention decayed, while the church is loaded with an accumulation of barren and deftructive ceremonies.

One

One feature of purity, however, the Romish church has prefented amid all its corruptions; a fpirit of Chriftian benevolence to its members, car ried often to excefs; a fpirit, demonftrated in every poffible difplay of charity for the fuccour of every variety of diftrefs; and hence a striking character of distinction may be difcovered between heathen and papal Rome, in the numberless inftitutions which now exift for the relief of human mifery of every kind, and attaching to every age, from the cradle to the grave, and in the provifion for every want, mental or bodily, that can admit of affiftance or remedy.

At all times there has been fomething of grandeur in the Roman character in all ages it has difplayed features impofing, at leaft, though dangerous. In the periods of the republic, we cannot but admire, amid military paflions and a rage for conqueft, an uncommon generofity to the vanquished, an invincible fortitude, a difinterested patriotifm, private temperance, and integrity of domeftic manners. Amid the corruption that accompanied the increafe of empire, we are till dazzled by the difplay of genius and captivating literature; by a morality highly refined and fplendid, though debafed with inherent errors and mixed with vicious principles; by a vivid animation of eloquence and enchanting graces of poetry. If the virtues of the Romans have been attractive, their vices have been also great and extraordinary their corruption has been valt, their fuperftitions domineering and of extensive influence.

The temper of the Romans ever afpiring, fill often exhibits its force in the degenerate race of the prefent day, in which we may notice a commanding prefence, an expreffive

countenance, an impofing air, a genius and a vigour which need but encouragement and direction to break through the fetters which reftrict their exertion. If we would advert to the magnificence of the ancient city, as difcernible in monuments ftill extant, we must confider, with astonishment, the grand, though half-dilapidated fabric of Coliflæum; the extent and accommodations of the Imperial baths, fpread out like provinces with walks, porticos, and museums, enriched with every variety of decoration; the temples of the city and its obelisks, its triumphal arches and well-compacted roads, carried over rivers and mountains to the extremities of the remoteft provinces; its aqueducts, its catacombs, its tombs, and its palaces +.

The remaining monuments, erected in the flourishing times of the republic, are inconfiderable when compared with thofe of its declining state. The Tiber ftill divides the city, though not with the xalapov poor, the clear ftream' of which Dionyfius fpeaks; but how have the artificial works of men perished!

Difce hinc quid poffit Fortuna, immota

labafcunt

Et quæ perpetuo funt fluitura manent.” fays the ingenious conceit of an Italian poet 1.

Mark Fortune's power; fix'd monuments decay, And things which ever fluctuate ever stay.

Of the Sublician or Æmilian bridge only fome piers are now left; of the capitol, the fite alone is known; its immobile Saxum has difappeared; of the temple, where Numa Pompilius had his intercourfe with Egeria, and derived fanctions for his falutary laws, nothing remains but a dripping grotto.

Janus Vitalis."

with a broken ftatue; of the great work of the Cloaca Maxima but one arch of a fewer is to be feen.

When an acquaintance with the works of Greece and other countries produced a tafte for the arts, the emulation of the candidates for popular favour, and the rivalihip and munificence of imperial patronage, filled the city with buildings of useful or oftentatious character. The quarries of Egypt were imported, and the marbles of Alia were worked up to Grecan defigns. Unfortunately it happened, that the temples erected in the earlier periods, and the edifices built near them in later times, were fo crowded together, that they must have loft half their effect.

Rome was long bounded by its feven hills, and railed up its works on a confined scale. When its dominion increased, a predilection for the feat of empire ftill remained; and the arts, though generally introduced, were cramped in their exertions. The neceffity of fortifying a city, of which the inhabitants were engaged in continual wars with the neighbouring powers, required that the freets fhould be narrow, as more eafy to be defended, and as occupying a lefs fpace. Established plans are not readily altered; and the central part of Rome, for many ages, must have been restricted to its original dimenfions, which were extremely confined, as we may judge from the ancient plan of Rome difcovered on a pavement in the church of St. Cofmo and St. Demian; from the dimenfions of the ancient forum; and from the breadth of the Via Sacra, a principal ftreet of Rome, in which its religious procefiions were difplayed, and in which Horace and other speculative loiterers trolled. Rome did not dilate into its open spaces till eftablifhed profperity excited confidence in the fecurity of the capital.

Enough, however, of Rome remains, to enable us to trace the progrefs of its architecture from its perfection, in the time of Augustus, to its decay in the time of Conftantine.

In viewing the remains of the marble city of the former emperor, we must join with St. Auflin in the wish to have feen Rome in its fplendour. In beholding the arch of the latter emperor loaded with the ornaments of a happier period, we must regret the decay of the arts.

It is one thing, however, to contemplate Rome as an admirer of the fine arts, and another to view it as a philofopher. In the former character we must be gratified at every trace of excellence, in the latter we must lament that patronage of the arts which diverted the attention of the free-born fubjects of Rome from fchemes fubverlive of liberty, which gradually adminiftered to the corruption of the people, and relaxed the ftern virtues that had established their prosperity.

The pleasure received on beholding the ruins of ancient Rome, of whatever nature they may be, must be derived principally from the reflections which they fuggeft; generally speaking, the ruins have little beauty in their prefent appearance. An architect, indeed, may ftudy the broken entablatures of the temple of Jupiter Stator as a grammar; a fculptor may fpend weeks in ftudying the Torio; and a painter may contemplate, as picturefque objects, the vaulted arches of the temple of Peace; but the general traveller muft derive his amulements from recalling the hillory, connected with the objects which he fees, and from following up the thoughts which they fuggeft; and the ruins of Rome mult always prove interefting in proportion to our acquaintance with their history and our habits of reflection.

The common fpe&tator, who glances over the veftiges of Rome merely as objects of light, is foon wearied; but the intelligent traveller, who dwells with improving meditation on the changes which the city has fultained, and on the moral caufes that have effected them, feels confiderable fatifiction in thi wonderful place, and finds every object pregnant with in

ftruction.

ftruction. The Coliflæum, ftriking as a beautiful ruin, does not fufficiently arreft our attention, unless we recollect not only the favage purpofes to which it was generally applied, but that the altars, raised within its circumference, are confecrated to faints martyred there for a religion now triumphant. The temple of Peace becomes more interefting, if we recollect that in it were lodged the spoils brought from Jerufalem; that it was afterward burnt, like the temple of which it received the treasures, and that its riches flowed in a molten stream through the treets of Rome. The arch of Titus will exhibit proofs of the accomplishment of the Hebrew prophecies, to him who confiders the fculptured reprefentations of the facrificial veffels, the tables of the fhewbread and of the law, and of the candlestick with the feven branches *. Our piety will be awakened to inftructive reflections, on remembering that Titus entered through this arch to close the gates of the temple of Peace, in aufpicious teftimony of an established concord emblematical of that Peace which Christianity, abolishing the Jewish polity, fhould finally produce. The infcription on the arch of Conftantine becomes really curious to the reader, who, in the expreffion of the emperor's having faved the republic by an impulfe of the divinity and the greatnefs of his own mind t' discovers an allufion to the dream which hiftorians reprefent to have preceded the victory over Maxentius: and in traverfing the vast tract which was covered by the palace of Nero, it is fatisfactory to recollect, with Orofius, that a building, polluted by crimes, and from which Chriflianity was cruelly perfecuted, was marked out as a monument of deftruction by divine vengeance.

The edifices of the papal times, like the ambitious projects of the papal power, have been scarce inferior to thofe of pagan Rome; and the confiderations which they fuggeft are often as important and interefting as thofe which arife from reflection on the heathen works. The fountains, and palaces, the convents, and churches, completed by the popes, have almost rivalled the labours of antiquity. The vatican is faid to contain eleven thousand rooms, and with its gardens to occupy a fpace equal to that covered by the city of Turin. Twenty millions fterling had been expended on St. Peter's in the time of Fontana, and who that has feen it regrets the coft?

The painters and sculptors of Leo the tenth, were scarce inferior to those of the emperors, and they employed their talents on much higher fubjects ; for, instead of imitating the fierce and turbulent paffions which characterised the heroes of antiquity, the modern artists were animated to the highest emulation by the fublime emotions of religion. Sixtus the fifth embellished Rome, if not as much as Auguftus, at leaft, according to Voltaire, as much as Henry the fourth did Paris, though the national historian informs us, with the vanity of a Frenchman, that this was the leaft boast of Henry though the greatest of Sixtus ‡.

The church, it is true, has had its periods of tafte in the arts, and its periods of decay. Its temples, where the graceful dome is fufpended, where the breathing ftatue and the living picture are fhewn, are too often encumbered with rich materials and elaborate ornaments; its virgins dreffed out in trumpery, and its altars covered with tinfel, are exposed where we might admire the defigns of Bramante, Raphael, and Michael An

on arcades.

gelo.