Rome in the Nineteenth Century: Containing a Complete Account of the Ruins of the Ancient City, the Remains of the Middle Ages, and the Monuments of Modern Times, with Remarks on the Fine Arts, on the State of Society, and on the Religious Ceremonies, Manners, and Customs, of the Modern Romans, in a Series of Letters Written During a Residence at Rome, in the Years 1817 and 1818, Volumen1

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James Ballantyne, 1822 - 459 páginas

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Página 163 - For softness she and sweet attractive grace: He for God only, she for God in him. His fair large front and eye sublime declared Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks Round from his parted forelock manly hung Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad...
Página xiv - Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow • warmer among...
Página 52 - There must be nothing like it in the heavens above nor in the earth beneath nor in the waters under the earth ; and in many cases there is not.
Página 213 - His peroration is worth recalling; he said: "it was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble.
Página xiii - We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses — whatever makes the past, the distant, and the future predominate over the present — advances us in the dignity...
Página iii - Alas ! my friends ! Why mourn you thus ? let not a private loss Afflict your hearts. Tis Rome requires our tears. The mistress of the world, the seat of empire, The nurse of heroes, the delight of gods, That humbled the proud tyrants of the earth, And set the nations free, Rome is no more.
Página 232 - THOU stranger, which for Rome in Rome here seekest, And nought of Rome in Rome perceiv'st at all, These same old walls, old arches, which thou seest, Old palaces, is that which Rome men call. Behold what wreck, what ruin, and what waste, And how that she, which with her mighty power Tamed all the world, hath tamed herself at last ; The prey of Time, which all things doth devour.
Página 98 - Over this wild waste, no rural dwelling, nor scattered hamlets, nor fields, nor gardens, such as usually mark the approach to a populous city, were to be seen. All was ruin ; fallen monuments of Roman days, — grey towers of Gothic times, — abandoned habitations of modern years, — alone met the eye. No trace of man appeared, except in the lonely tomb, which told us he had been. Rome herself was all that we beheld. She stood alone in the wilderness, as in the world, surrounded by a desert of...
Página 6 - Wrestlers, the flexibility of the entwined limbs, the force of the muscles, and the life and action of the figures, are wonderful ; but the heads are totally destitute of meaning, and don't look as if they belonged to the bodies;* their fixed immoveable countenances have no marks even of that corporeal exertion, much less of that eager animation and passion which men struggling with each other in the heat of contest, and at the moment in which the victor triumphs over the vanquished, would naturally...
Página 144 - Its ceilings richly painted in fresco, — its pictured pavements of ancient mosaic, — its magnificent gates of bronze, — its polished columns of ancient porphyry, the splendid spoils of the ruins of Imperial Rome, — its endless accumulation of Grecian marbles, Egyptian granites, and Oriental Alabasters, the very names of which are unknown in Transalpine lands, — its bewildering extent, and prodigality of magnificence, — but, above all, its amazing treasures of sculpture, — have so confused...

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