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Peter's alone remained erect. All, however, have been skilfully restored, and placed on pedestals more or less appropriate. Each is covered with hieroglyphics, except three of the smaller ones. The shaft which stands in the Piazza del Popolo is probably the most ancient, and was first erected before the Temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis, certainly fifteen centuries before Christ, and some antiquarians claim for it a much greater age.

This monument seems a stranger in a strange land, and ever beckons us back into the past. A faithful messenger, it has borne down to us, out of the dim mists of early Egypt, the message which its sovereigns inscribed upon it. Through fire and flood and man's destruction, it has clung to it with tenacity, to lay it proudly at the feet of modern science. It is, as it were, an oasis in the broad desert of Egypt's history, a rocky island in her fathomless sea. Though dead, it yet speaks eloquently in the language of the past. Perchance, under its broad shadow Joseph, once "a shepherd lad of small regard to see to," yet now the chosen servant of God and the saviour of Egypt, wooed in quiet dignity the daughter of the priest of On. It heard the moans of the persecuted people of the Most High, and the inspired pleadings of Moses in their behalf. It looked down upon him as he walked in godlike meditation upon the banks of the Nile at eventide. It witnessed the triumphs of the great Sesostris, and listened to the exulting hymns and barbaric music of his priests, as they bore in long array the em

blems of their faith. Perhaps it gazed upon the armed host of the haughty king, that funeral procession, who followed him to his grave in the Red Sea, and returned not, but remained to form the costliest sacrifice ever offered at the tomb of earthly monarch. In later years, its lofty pinnacle presented itself to the eyes of Herodotus and Plato, Solon and Thales, as in the temples around it they studied the wisdom of Egypt.

For ages after the decay of their country these obelisks stood in lone grandeur and silent dignity, and their forms were reflected in the eternal waters of the Nile, like the milestones which marked the path of Egypt to eternity. Many of them were upreared in an age when philosophy was yet an infant on the lap of superstition, and the arts and sciences could not endure the light; when black clouds almost concealed the rising sun; when men struggled in the dim dawn of their awakening, and in the yearning of their mistaken minds, in the first faint consciousness of God-given powers, though uncertain how to direct them, built the obelisks and the pyramids, that coming ages might at least see that Egypt had once lived. Scattered here and there amidst the apathy of modern Rome, they appear to be its funeral monuments. Coming from a land where one man, vampire-like, drained the life-blood of millions, they quietly await the inev'itable fall of a modern despotism as blighting and ruinous as that which erected them.

CHAPTER XII.

ST. PETER'S.

Of all the forms in which the pride and power of the Roman Catholic Church have permanently presented themselves to the eyes of the world, the Basilica of St. Peter's is the most imposing. Its central dome, and the wide and lofty halls which cluster around it, and proudly wear it as their crown, seem a fitting emblem of the papacy itself, invested with the tiara, and drawing to one common centre the ecclesiastical power of many spacious lands. As a work of art, a grand architectural idea harmoniously carried out, this temple surpasses all other existing edifices. Though the original plan was but partly followed, though the front is bad, though the interior is injured and the effect of the aisles diminished by the piers which support the dome, yet enough of grandeur and beauty remains to justify the verdict of the world in its favor. It is still unrivalled in that abounding harmony and unity which expand the soul and enable it to comprehend its vastness. This cannot be done at a glance, however. One must slowly traverse the far-reaching aisles, must measure the span of the soaring arches, and walk around

the massive piers, ere he can embrace the fulness of the grand idea. This is owing partly to its admirable proportions, and the absence of any standard with which to compare their vastness, and partly to the colossal size and great number of the statues and other decorations. This profusion of ornament detracts greatly from its simplicity, which is so important an element both in architecture and in sculpture, and which elevates and enlarges so amply that which is already great. Excessive embellishment, on the contrary, interrupts the full flow of the outlines, and tends to greatly lessen their effect. It is a maxim in architecture, the truth of which has been often proved, that everything which we must consider in separate pieces, or which we cannot survey at once from the number of its constituent parts, loses thereby some portion of its greatness. This want of simplicity is a great defect in all the Italian churches; and were it not for the vast size of St. Peter's, the consequence of such abundant decoration would be still worse than it is.

How superior is the effect of the Gothic cathedrals erected in the Middle Ages to that of St. Peter's. In the most of these we perceive, on every side, abundant evidences of piety and religion, earnest, self-denying, pure. From the great glowing window, the contribution of some pious saint, through which we almost see the bright glories of heaven beyond, to the tomb, whose simple and expressive epitaph asks a prayer for the soul of the humble sinner who sleeps within, and which seems

to denote the portals of eternal happiness, all is pervaded with this spirit. The majority of these temples were built by God-fearing and devoted men, whose liberal contributions kept them in progress from age to age, and really advanced the cause of religion. They were not erected from motives of personal aggrandizement. The workmen felt their hearts in the work. They were free, active, intelligent men, and were not driven to their labor by the scourge of a tyrant of the church. The very ornaments which their copious talents scattered over the stone yet seem to shake with the vigorous blows of their chisels. The flowers and foliage yet appear to vibrate with the breath of these hardy sculptors, these sturdy students of the woods and fields, as they bent over their work, and with nervous strokes and graphic tools elaborated every varied beauty. The very monsters, grotesque and quaint, which their minds impressed on the rugged stone, yet flash back from their eyes the bright and animated glances of their makers. These were works of piety and love, which vivified and elevated the minds of those who made them. These Gothic churches were the true representatives of the religious spirit of the age. They were the connecting link between nature and religion. Never was Christianity more befittingly enshrined than in these sanctuaries.

How different is the effect of St. Peter's! For the erection of this, the exactions of fifty pontiffs, under pretence of saving souls, wrung from thousands of helpless sinners their hard-earned millions.

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