A winter journey to Rome and back, with an account of the opening of the œcumenical council1870 |
Common terms and phrases
amidst amongst ancient antiquities Appian arch Arch of Titus artistic basilica beautiful bishops Brera gallery bronze Cæsars Canova cardinals Catacombs celebrated centuries chamber chapel Christian church Coliseum colour columns Constantine Council crowd dark dirty doges dome ecclesiastics exquisite faith feet Florence fresco galleries gilded glittering glory gold gondola gorgeous graves high altar High Mass holy Il Gesù impressions inscriptions interest Italian Lateran light look Lord luggage magnificent marble marvellous Michel Angelo Milan Cathedral Mont Cenis monuments morning mosaics Museum Naples night pagan paintings palace passed Paul Veronese Peter's picture Pompeii Pontifical Pope priests Pudentiana relics Roman Rome roof round ruins sacred saint scene sculpture seemed Septimius Severus silver snow soldiers solemn Splügen Splügen Pass statue stone strange streets summit superb Swiss Guards table d'hôte temple thought Titian tomb tower treasures Vatican vault Venice Via Mala walls wonderful worship
Popular passages
Page 72 - I see before me the gladiator lie : He leans upon his hand ; his manly brow Consents to death, but conquers agony, And his drooped head sinks gradually low ; And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, Like the first of a thunder-shower ; and now The arena swims around him ; he is gone, Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.
Page 42 - twere anew, the gaps of centuries ; Leaving that beautiful which still was so, And making that which was not, till the place Became religion, and the heart ran o'er With silent worship of the great of old ! — The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns.
Page 89 - All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Page 15 - How beautiful this night ! The balmiest sigh Which vernal Zephyrs breathe in Evening's ear Were discord to the speaking quietude That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which Love has spread To curtain her sleeping world.
Page 66 - There is a stern round tower of other days, ^ Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone, Such as an army's baffled strength delays, Standing with half its battlements alone, And with two thousand years of ivy grown, The garland of eternity, where wave The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown ; — What was this tower of strength ? within its cave What treasure lay so lock'd, so hid ? — A woman's grave.
Page 41 - Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome; The trees which grew along the broken arches Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars Shone through the rents of ruin ; from afar The watch-dog bayed beyond the Tiber : and, More near, from out the Caesars...
Page 85 - O dry your eyes ! For I was taught in Paradise To ease my breast of melodies — Shed no tear. Overhead ! look overhead ! 'Mong the blossoms white and red — Look up, look up. I flutter now On this fresh pomegranate bough.
Page 72 - He heard it, but he heeded not ; his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away: He reck'd not of the life he lost, nor prize ; But where his rude hut by the Danube lay, There were his young barbarians all at play, There was their Dacian mother — he, their sire, Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday.
Page 42 - A grove which springs through levell'd battlements, And twines its roots with the imperial hearths, Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth ; But the gladiators...
Page 41 - Caesars' palace came The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly, Of distant sentinels the fitful song Begun and died upon the gentle wind. Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach Appeared to skirt the horizon ; yet they stood Within a bow-shot.