(Rome)
Rome! How interesting the place! How suggestive the word! What a train of associations it awakens! The records of the past are unrolled; great characters in history stand before you; and events that filled the world with their grandeur and significance seem to be transpiring again. Who has not desired to see Rome! What student of classical literature, what lover of eloquence and poetry, what admirer of art, and mental power in its various exhibitions, has not longed to visit Rome, and wander amid the ruins of its former greatness and glory – to look upon the Seven Hills where the city of the Caesars was enthroned – to walk beneath the massive arches where they led their triumphant processions – to muse amid the broken columns of the Forum, where Cicero and other orators swayed assembled throngs – to linger under the shadow of the Coliseum and think of the exciting scenes it once witnessed – and to trace the footsteps of the great Apostles to the Gentiles, who prisoner though he was, wielded an influence under God that was felt through the city, and pervaded even the Imperial Palace!
Who has not had a curiosity at least to look upon the sources of that mighty religious organism and power, that here so long exercised a tremendous influence on human destiny, and still retain so much of their old energy, superstition and sway? The dream of years has at length been realized, and what only was known by the hearing of the ear, is now familiarized by the seeing of the eye. On the 28th of November, I