in carriages, or with dancing and music in the open fields, and regale themselves on sweetmeats, grapes, fruits, and wine. There is no fee demanded for admittance to any of the museums, picture galleries, or palaces.

ENGRAVINGS.

Lovers of engravings may select from a great variety at the Caleografia Camerale, Via della Stamperia, near the Fontana di Trevi, and from other print sellers. Cameos and mosaics are to be found principally in the Via Condotti. Old paintings may be purchased from brokers in different parts of the city. There is a public reading room in the Piazza di Spagna, of which Piale is the proprietor, and where all the principal journals of Europe and America may be found. The subscription required is one scudo a month, or five scudi a year. Spithover has a similar establishment in the same Piazza. There are English club rooms also in the city.

PERMISSION TO SAY MASS.

Priests, to obtain permission to say mass, are required to appear at the vicariate, and there present the testimonial letters of their ordinary, when they will obtain a "pagella", or certificate, authorizing them to say mass for one month; when, on the expiration of the month, they apply for a renewal of the privilege, it is usually granted for three months, and after that time for a year, or two years. Priests going to say mass in any of the various churches of Rome should be careful to bear the certificate on their persons, as they are liable to have it demanded, and if not produced, the sacristan will probably object to their celebrating, and no other document will be recognized as sufficiently authoritative to command the privilege.

On every day in the year, either in the Vatican or in some one of the various other churches of Rome, there is a papal "capella", the solemn celebration of some saint's festival, the quarant'-ore, first or second vespers, or some other religious function, many of which are attended with grand ceremonies and exquisite music, and to each of which the visitor will find a guide in a little city almanac or "diario", which he may purchase for a penny in any bookseller's shop in Rome. A special order is required for permission to visit the Vatican library, to ascend the dome of St. Peter's, or to visit the crypt, or subterranean church, the chapel of the confessional, and the shrines of the Apostles. Permission may be had at the Sagrestia.

Ancient Rome.

HE interest which Rome presents the visitor is varied and inexhaustible. The interest which the visitor derives from Rome is qualified by, and

proportionate to, his temperament and capacity.

The fountain is unfailing; and each person draws entertainment, information, and edification, according to the measure of the vessel which he brings. Rome is a comprehensive volume, but to read it, and appreciate it, requires education and enthusiasm; without either, Rome becomes a sealed fountain. To the illiterate, the tasteless, and the apathetic, nothing above the mere natural order, or material, palpable things, proves interesting, and they view the vast ruins of ancient Rome merely as mounds of mouldering bricks, incapable of eliciting one spark of enthusiasm, one gleam of classic,

AN ILLUMINATED PAGE.

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historic, or heroic reminiscences to thaw their gelid souls, or light up a flame to warm them to the genial heat of literature, sentimentality, and intellectuality. Hence, to some, Rome proves wearisome, insipid, and listless, and those exclaim, as did Cassius in "Julius Cæsar"

"What trash is Rome,

What rubbish and what offal !"

But for the refined mind, for the classical scholar, for the man of education, taste, and erudition, Rome is a limitless field, where he can luxuriate in every department of literature, and in the highest order of intellectual enjoyments, and learn the most exalted lessons of morality and philosophy-the transitory character of all that is grounded on the glory of this world, and the stability of all that is established on the foundation of religion and virtue. The lapse of ages may have dimmed the once brilliant page which recorded the glories of ancient Rome, that mistress, whose sceptre wielded the destinies of the world; but though faint the characters now, they are not totally obliterated, but still are legible. The city is an extensive scroll, every street a line, every column a colon, and every monument a period, constituting the eloquent language which still proclaims her former greatness; and the sheet is profusely illustrated by the still extant remains of her antiquities. There the records of ages, and the memorable events of succeeding centuries, are simultaneously presented to our view.

Here the veil of ages is drawn aside, and displays to view the progressive stages of civilization, and the earliest organization of that power, which eventually grew to such gigantic proportions, and acquired such strength as to seize the dominion of the world in its grasp. To treat of

all those antiquities of Rome would be rashly to undertake a herculean task, which would occupy not merely this chapter, but many voluminous tomes. To allude to some only, may subject me to the charge of superficiality. The reader must remember, that to treat of those antiquities is not the purport of this volume. I shall, however, in this chapter, allude to a few, as examples of the delightful enjoyments, and grandeur of the conceptions which they are calculated to elicit in the minds of the intelligent and intellectual; and if I introduce some quotations, it is merely as an effort to seek for majesty of language, vividly to express, and worthily to clothe, the profundity and sublimity of those mental creations. The interests, the entertainment, the erudition, the refinement, accomplishments, and edification, all congregating and culminating, and presented in one comprehensive view to the intelligent and inquiring visitor to Rome, are sufficient to satiate every noble faculty of the soul. Here time seems to have stood still, that the visitor may view ages, and thousands of years, and successive dynasties, and relics of " temples, baths, and halls", and arches, palaces, and structures dedicated to all false gods, every successive improvement in science and art, the dominion of the pagan and the Pope, the decline and fall, and exaltation of Rome, and the stately basilicas of the true God, elevating the glorious ensign of Christ's cross, and the reign of holy religion,— here the visitor can view all at one glance! from the days of Romulus and Remus to those of the Cæsars, Constantine, and Pius IX.! Here the antiquarian, the historian, the philosopher, the man of science, the soldier, the statesman, the poet, sculptor, painter, and architect, the man of faith, of religion, and piety, finds a field in ruin, museum, and shrine, to strengthen his faith, enliven his piety, and

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cultivate his genius. Rome is as it were a boundless lake, whose calm surface is polished over with a glassy surface, which reflects to the eye of the visitor, turn where he will, a pencil of dazzling rays, from the beaming orb of religion and genius:

"And as in waters the reflected beam,

Still where we turn, glides with us up the stream;
And while in truth the whole expanse is bright,
Yields to each eye its own fond path of light;
So over Rome the rays of genius fall,

Give each his track, because illuming all".

See, yonder is the Capitol, the earliest seat of Rome, "the throne and grave of empires". There are her walls, which enclosed her millions of inhabitants,-those impregnable walls which so often stemmed the inundating tide of assailing enemies, and, by rolling back the swelling wave, overwhelmed their charging battalions; and through them are pierced those gates, through which millions of returning cohorts entered in triumph, and floated over their bastions the banners of victories won in distant climes-off there where the sun goes down behind the western hills! Then they marched under that triumphal arch, still standing in the Via Triumphalis, and commemorating the signal victory of Constantine over Maxentius; and again under that of Septimius Severus, which stands near the Capitol, and was erected in his honour after his victory over the Persians, so far back in the annals of time as the year 205 before the coming of Christ! Between the two, in the Via Sacra, stands the deeply interesting and exquisitely proportioned arch erected to Titus after his conquest of Jerusalem, when he transported to Rome the spoils of the temple, the silver trumpets, the golden table, and the seven-branched candlestick,