Chapter iii.
Raphael has said that modern Rome was almost entirely built with theruins of the ancient city, and it is certain that we cannot take a stephere without being struck by some relics of antiquity. We perceive the_eternal walls_, to use the expression of Pliny, through the work of thelater centuries; the Roman edifices almost all bear a historical stamp;in them may be remarked, if we may so express it, the physiognomy ofages. From the Etruscans to our days, from that people, more ancientthan the Romans themselves, and who resembled the Egyptians by thesolidity of their works and the fantastical nature of their designs,from that people to Chevalier Bernini, an artist whose style resemblesthat of the Italian poets of the seventeenth century, we may observe thehuman mind at Rome, in the different characters of the arts, theedifices and the ruins. The middle ages, and the brilliant century ofthe Medici, re-appear before our eyes in their works, and this study ofthe past in objects present to our sight, penetrates us with the geniusof the times. It was believed that Rome had formerly a mysterious namewhich was only known to a few adepts; it seems that it is yet necessaryto be initiated into the secret of this city. It is not simply anassemblage of habitations, it is the history of the world, figured bydivers emblems and represented under various forms.
Corinne agreed with Lord Nelville that they should go and visittogether, the edifices of modern Rome, and reserve for anotheropportunity the admirable collections of pictures and statues which itcontains. Perhaps, without accounting for it to herself, she desired toput off till the most distant day possible, those objects which peoplecannot dispense with seeing at Rome; for who has ever quitted it withouthaving contemplated the Apollo Belvedere and the pictures of Raphael?This guarantee, weak as it was, that Oswald should not leave her,pleased her imagination. Is there not an element of pride some one willask, in endeavouring to retain the object of our love by any other meansthan the real sentiment itself? I really do not know; but the more welove, the less we trust to the sentiment we inspire; and whatever may bethe cause which secures the presence of the object who is dear to us, wealways embrace it joyfully. There is often much vanity in a certainspecies of boldness, and if charms, generally admired, like those ofCorinne, possess a real advantage, it is because they permit us to placeour pride to the account of the sentiment we feel rather than to thatwhich we inspire.
Corinne and Nelville began their observations by the most remarkable ofthe numerous churches of Rome--they are all decorated with ancientmagnificence; but something gloomy and fantastical is mingled with thatbeautiful marble and those festival ornaments which have been taken fromthe Pagan temples. Pillars of porphyry and granite were so numerous inRome that they have lavishly distributed them, scarcely considering themof any value. At St John Lateran, that church so famous for thecouncils that have been held in it, are found such a quantity of marblepillars that many of them have been covered with a cement of plaster tomake pilasters, so indifferent have they become to these riches fromtheir multitude.
Some of these pillars were in the tomb of Adrian, others at the Capitol;these latter still bear on their capitals the figures of the geese whichsaved the Roman people. Some of these pillars support Gothic, and othersArabian ornaments. The urn of Agrippa conceals the ashes of a Pope; foreven the dead have yielded place to other dead, and the tombs havealmost as often changed their masters as the abodes of the living.
Near St John Lateran is the holy stair-case, transported, it is said,from Jerusalem to Rome. It may only be ascended kneeling. Caesar himself,and Claudius also, mounted on their knees the stair-case which conductedto the Temple of the Capitoline Jove. On one side of St John Lateran isthe font where it is said that Constantine was baptised.--In the middleof the square is seen an obelisk, which is perhaps the most ancientmonument in the world--an obelisk cotemporary with the Trojan war!--anobelisk which the barbarous Cambyses respected so much that in honour ofit he put a stop to the conflagration of a city!--an obelisk for which aking pledged the life of his only son!--The Romans have, miraculously,brought this pillar to Italy from the lowest part of Egypt.--They turnedthe Nile from its course in order that it might seek it, and transportit to the sea. This obelisk is still covered with hieroglyphics whichhave preserved their secret during so many ages, and which to this daydefy the most learned researches. The Indians, the Egyptians, theantiquity of antiquity, might perhaps be revealed to us by thesesigns.--The wonderful charm of Rome is not only the real beauty of itsmonuments; but the interest which it inspires by exciting thought; andthis kind of interest increases every day with each new study.
One of the most singular churches of Rome, is that of St Paul: itsexterior is like a badly built barn, and the interior is ornamented witheighty pillars of so fine a marble and so exquisite a make, that onewould believe they belonged to an Athenian temple described byPausanias. Cicero said--_We are surrounded by the vestiges ofhistory_,--if he said so then, what shall we say now?
The pillars, the statues, the bas-reliefs of ancient Rome, are solavished in the churches of the modern city, that there is one (StAgnes) where bas-reliefs, turned, serve for the steps of a stair-case,without any one having taken the trouble to examine what theyrepresented. What an astonishing aspect would ancient Rome offer now, ifthe marble pillars and the statues had been left in the same place wherethey were found! The ancient city would still have remained standingalmost entire--but would the men of our day dare to walk in it?
The palaces of the great lords are extremely vast, of an architectureoften very fine, and always imposing: but the interior ornaments arerarely tasteful; we do not find in them even an idea of those elegantapartments which the finished enjoyments of social life have given riseto elsewhere. These vast abodes of the Roman princes are empty andsilent; the lazy inhabitants of these superb palaces retire into a fewsmall chambers unperceived, and leave strangers to survey theirmagnificent galleries where the finest pictures of the age of Leo X. arecollected together. The great Roman lords of the present day, are asunacquainted with the pompous luxury of their ancestors, as theseancestors themselves were with the austere virtues of the Romanrepublic. The country houses convey still more the idea of thissolitude, of this indifference of the possessors in the midst of themost admirable abodes in the world. People may walk in these immensegardens without suspecting that they have a master. The grass grows inthe middle of the walks, and in these very walks are trees fantasticallycut according to the ancient taste that prevailed in France.--What asingular whimsicality is this neglect of the necessary, and affectationof the useless!--But one is often surprised at Rome, and in the greaterpart of the other cities of Italy, at the taste of the Italians forextravagant ornaments,--they who have incessantly before their eyes thenoble simplicity of the antique. They love what is brilliant, muchbetter than what is elegant and commodious. They have in every instance,the advantages and the inconveniences of not living habitually insociety. Their luxury is rather that of the imagination, than the luxuryof actual enjoyment;--isolated as they are among themselves, they cannotdread the spirit of ridicule, which seldom penetrates at Rome intodomestic secrecy; and often, in contrasting the interior with theexterior of their palaces, one would say, that the greater part of theItalian nobility arrange their dwellings more to dazzle the passers-bythan to receive their friends.
After having surveyed the churches and the palaces, Corinne conductedOswald to the villa Mellini, a solitary garden, without any otherornament than its magnificent trees. From here is seen, at a distance,the chain of the Appenines; the transparency of the air colours thesemountains and throws them forward in the perspective, giving them a mostpicturesque appearance. Oswald and Corinne remained in this spot toenjoy the charms of the sky and the tranquillity of nature. It isimpossible to form an idea of this singular tranquillity without havinglived in Southern countries. On a hot day there is not felt the lightestbreath of wind. The feeblest blade of grass is perfectly still, and theanimals themselves partake of the indolence which the fine weatherinspires: in the middle of
the day, you neither hear the hum of flies,the chirping of grasshoppers, nor the song of birds; no object fatiguesitself with useless and trifling agitation; all sleep till storm or thepassions awaken the vehemence of nature, who then rushes withimpetuosity from her profound repose.
There are in the gardens of Rome, a great number of trees clad inperennial green, which heighten the illusion produced by the mildness ofthe climate during winter. Pines, of a particular elegance, large,tufted towards the top, and interwoven with one another, form a kind ofplain in the air, whose effect is charming when we mount sufficientlyhigh to perceive it. The lower trees are placed beneath the shelter ofthis verdant vault. Two palm trees only are found in Rome which are bothplanted in the gardens of the monks; one of them, placed upon aneminence, serves as a landmark, and a particular pleasure must always befelt in perceiving and retracing in the various perspectives of Rome,this deputy of Africa, this type of a Southern climate more burningstill than that of Italy, and which awakens so many new ideas andsensations.
"Do you not find," said Corinne, contemplating with Oswald the countrysurrounding them; "that nature in Italy disposes us more to reverie thanany where else?--It might be said, that she is here more in affinitywith man, and that the Creator uses her as a medium of interpretationbetween his creature and himself." "Undoubtedly," replied Oswald, "Ithink so; but who knows whether it may not be the deep feelings oftenderness which you excite in my heart, that render me sensible to allI see?--You reveal to me the emotions and thoughts, which externalobjects can give birth to. I existed but in my heart; you have awakenedmy imagination. But this magic of the universe, which you teach me toknow, will never present me with any thing more lovely than your look,more moving than your voice." "May the sentiment I now inspire you with,last as long as my life," said Corinne, "or at least, may my life neversurvive the power of inspiring it!"
Oswald and Corinne terminated their tour of Rome by the Borghese villa.Of all the Roman gardens and palaces, here the splendours of nature andthe arts, are assembled with the greatest taste and brilliancy. Here areseen trees of every kind, and magnificent fountains; an incrediblenumber of statues, vases, and antique sarcophagi, mingled with thefreshness of the youthful nature of the South. The ancient mythologyhere seems revived; the naiades are placed on the borders of rivers, thenymphs in woods worthy of them, the tombs beneath Elysian shades, andthe statue of Esculapius in the middle of an isle, while that of Venusappears to rise out of the waters: Ovid and Virgil might walk in thisenchanting spot, and still believe themselves in the Augustan age. Themasterpieces of sculpture which the palace contains, give it amagnificence ever new. At a distance, through the trees, is perceivedthe city of Rome and St Peter's, the Campagna, and those long arches,the wrecks of aqueducts, which conveyed the springs from the mountainsinto ancient Rome. Everything is there that can excite thought, delightthe imagination, and foster reverie. The most pure sensations areconfounded with the pleasures of the soul, and give an idea of perfecthappiness; but when we ask why this charming abode is not inhabited?they answer you that the malaria (_la cattiva aria_) will not permit anyone to live here during summer.
This malaria, in a manner, lays siege to Rome; it advances every yearsome steps farther, and they are obliged to abandon the most charminghabitations to its empire: undoubtedly, the absence of trees in thecountry about the city, is one of the causes of it; and it is perhaps,on that account, that the ancient Romans consecrated the woods togoddesses, in order to make them respected by the people. At present,forests without number have been cut down;--can there indeed exist, inour days, any place so sanctified, that the avidity of man will spare itfrom the work of devastation? The malaria is the scourge of theinhabitants of Rome, and threatens the city with an entire depopulation;but perhaps it increases the effect produced by the superb gardens whichare seen within the walls of Rome. The malign influence is not felt byany external sign; you breathe an air which seems pure, and is veryagreeable; the earth is smiling and fertile; a delicious coolnessrefreshes you in the evening after the burning heat of the day; and allthis is death!
"I love," said Oswald to Corinne, "this mysterious, invisible danger,this danger under the form of the sweetest impressions. If death beonly, what I believe it to be, a summons to a happier existence, whyshould not the perfume of flowers, the umbrage of fine trees, and therefreshing breath of the evening breeze, be the bearers of that summons?Undoubtedly, governments ought to watch in every way over thepreservation of human life; but there are secrets in nature which theimagination alone can penetrate; and I easily conceive that neither theinhabitants nor the strangers who visit it, are disgusted with Rome, bythe species of peril to which they are exposed there during the mostbeautiful seasons of the year."
Book vi.
THE MANNERS AND CHARACTER OF THE ITALIANS.