Rome; Its Ruler and Its Institutions

Front Cover
D. & J. Sadlier & Company, 1860 - 471 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 330 - But thou, of temples old, or altars new, Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — Worthiest of God, the holy and the true. Since Zion's desolation, when that He Forsook his former city, what could be, Of earthly structures, in his honour piled, Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty, Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undeflled.
Page 331 - Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; And why? It is not lessen'd; but thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein appear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality; and thou Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, See thy God face to face, as thou dost now His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by his brow.
Page 335 - The cupola is glorious. Viewed in its design, its altitude, or even its decoration ; viewed either as a whole or as a part, it enchants the eye, it satisfies the taste, it expands the soul. The very air seems to eat up all that is harsh or colossal, and leaves us nothing but the sublime to feast on : • — a sublime peculiar as the genius of the immortal architect, and comprehensible only on the spot.
Page 294 - Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, been in favour of the Church of Rome. We cannot, therefore, feel confident that the progress of knowledge will necessarily be fatal to a system which has, to say the least, stood its ground in spite of the immense progress made by the human race in knowledge since the days of Queen Elizabeth.
Page 293 - We often hear it said that the world is constantly becoming more and more enlightened, and that this enlightening must be favourable to Protestantism, and unfavourable to Catholicism. We wish that we could think so. But we see great reason to doubt whether this be a well-founded expectation.
Page 338 - Such incessant alarms must annihilate the pleasures and interrupt the labours of a rural life; and the Campagna of Rome was speedily reduced to the state of a dreary wilderness, in which the land is barren, the waters are impure, and the air is infectious. Curiosity and ambition no longer attracted the nations to the capital of the world: but, if chance or necessity directed the steps of a wandering stranger, he contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of the city, and might be tempted to...
Page 463 - the deposition of—/ are the expressions used : that is, the dead are but left there for a time, till called for again, as a pledge, or precious thing, entrusted to faithful, but temporary keeping. The very name of cemetery suggests that it is only a place where many lie, as in a dormitory, slumbering for a while ; till dawn come, and the trumpet's sound awake them. Hence the grave is only called ' the place/ or, more technically, ' the small home/* of the dead in Christ.
Page 85 - News, written by a gentlemen whose communications to that journal excited the greatest attention at the time : — * " At this stage of the proceedings it was evident that the die was cast. From the back streets men emerged bearing aloft long ladders wherewith to scale the pontifical abode : carts and wagons were dragged up and ranged within musketshot of the windows to protect the assailants in their determined attack on the palace ; the cry was,
Page 294 - But we see great reason to doubt whether this be a well-founded expectation. We see that during the last two hundred and fifty years, the human mind has been in the highest degree active — that it has made great advances in every branch of natural philosophy — that it has produced innumerable inventions tending to promote the convenience of life — that medicine, surgery, chemistry, engineering, have been very greatly improved — that government, police, and law have been improved, though not...
Page 100 - The demand to dismiss the envoys of Russia, England, and Sweden, is positively refused : the father of the faithful is bound to remain at peace with all, without distinction of Catholics or heretics.

Bibliographic information