II. 75. THE ENTRANCE TO ST. PETER'S. S you approach St. Peter's you are at once struck with its beautiful pĭăzză,1 in every way worthy of the majestic pile to which it conducts you. It is adorned with a portico four columns deep, which opens out semi-circularly on either side before the façade of the church, and gives it a breadth proportioned to its depth. This colonnade forms a great covered gallery, surmounted by a balustrade,3 on which are placed one hundred and thirty-six statues of martyrs, founders of religious orders, and at intervals the arms of the sovereign pontiff under whom it was erected. 2. Alexander VII. laid the first stone of this portico on the 25th of August, 1661. It was built on the plan and under the inspection of Běrnïnï. In the middle of the piazza is an obelisk, of one block of granite, seventy-four feet high, and which, with the pedestal it rests upon and the cross by which it is surmounted, rises to one hundred and twenty-four feet from the ground. This obelisk is one of those attributed to Pheron, the son of Sesostris, who, according to Herodotus, had consecrated two obelisks in the Temple of the Sun. The emperor Calig'ula7 brought it from Al'exan'dria to Rome. The ship employed for this purpose was, according to Pliny, the most extraordinary that ever moved upon the waters, and was itself a real wonder. 1 Pĭ ǎzʼza, a portico or covered walk, supported by arches or columns; a square open place surrounded by buildings. 2 Facade (fa sād'), front; front view of a building. 3 Băl'us trāde, a row of small columns surmounted by a rail. 4 Ob'e lisk, a tall, four-sided pillar, tapering as it rises, and cut off at the top in the form of a flat pyramid; any pillar, especially one set up in an open square or court. 5 Se sŏs'tris, an Egyptian monarch, also called Rame'sēs, who reigned about 1400 B.C. 8 6 He rŏd'o tus, a Greek historian, born in Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, about 484 B.C.; died, probably in Italy, about 420 B.C. He is called the father of history. Caius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus Caligula, third emperor of Rome, born at Antiam, Aug. 31, A.D. 12; put to death at Rome, Jan. 24, A.D. 41. 8 Plin'y, a Roman author, born A.D. 23; died in 79, from the effects of that great eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. 3. This obelisk was still standing in the circus of Nero when Pope Nicholas V. conceived the idea of transporting it to the piazza of St. Peter's; but death prevented him from executing this project. Paul III. wished Michael Angelo Buonarotti1 to undertake the task; but he declined, fearing that he should not be able to overcome the difficulties with which it was attended. Thirty years later Sixtus V. ascended the pontifical throne. Endowed with a firm and enterprising charactersuch as was required for the government of the Church, then assailed by furious tempests-this Pontiff was, perhaps, not sorry to show the world that he was not to be retarded by obstacles deemed insurmountable by his predecessors. 4. His first câre was to make efforts to adorn the piazza of St. Peter's with this monument. With this view, he invited to Rome many architects and machinists. They assembled from all Italy, and some even came from Greece. More than five hundred plans were presented, and a committee was named to examine them. After a long investigation, this committee adopted the plan of Domenico Fontana, reserving, however, the execution of it to two more agèd, and therefore more experienced architects. The Pope thought this an injustice; and rightly judging that the inventor of such a plan was most capable of executing it, he ordered him to undertake it, and vested 2 him with extraordinary power. 5. The greatest difficulty arose from the size of the obelisk, which, according to the calculations of Fontana, weighed nine hundred and sixty-three thousand five hundred and thirtyseven Roman pounds. On the 15th of April, 1586, it was raised two pälms (seventeen and a hälf inches) from its pedestal; on the 7th of May it was lowered to the ground, and notwithstanding the short distance, four months were occupied in transporting it to the place where it was to be erected. Finally, on the 10th of September, by the aid of forty-four machines, moved by eight hundred men and one hundred and fifty horses, it was gradually raised, and placed perpendicularly on enor 1 Michael Angelo Buonarotti, a celebrated Italian artist, born in Tuscany, March 6, 1474; died in Rome, Feb. 17, 1563. He excelled in all the arts, being at once poet, painter, sculptor, and architect. 2 Věst'ed, put in possession; en dowed. mous bars of iron, which sustained it on its resting-place. This was the work of five hours. 6. Immediately the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells announced a result so glōrious for the architect and so satisfactory to the Pontiff. It is, however, related that Fontana was mistaken in his calculation as to the length of the ropes; and that the obelisk would not have been raised, had not a sailor from San Remo, named Busca, perceiving the defect, cried out, in defiance of the prohibition to speak under pain of death, "Wet the ropes !" and by this means apprised the architect of the defect, and pointed out its remedy. 7. It is added that, to reward this brave man, he and his descendants were granted the privilege of furnishing pälms on Palm Sunday to the Roman churches. "Perhaps," remarks the writer from whom this anecdote is borrowed, "this is one of the thousand tales by which mediocrity 1 consoles itself for the success of superior talents." This fact, however, is represented in the frescoes 2 of the Vatican library. On the twentyseventh of the same month the obelisk was blessed after a solemn procession, and on its summit was placed the sign of our redemption, as is the case with the other obelisks of Rome. The expenses incurred amounted to forty thousand dollars. III. 76. ST. PETER'S CHURCH AT ROME. UT lo! the dome!-the våst and wondrous dome, BUT To which Diana's marvel was a cell Christ's mighty shrine above His martyr's tomb! 1 Mē di ŏc'ri ty, a middling degree of excellence; that which is ordinary and commonplace. 2 Fres' cões, paintings executed on walls. magnificent temple was erected in her honor at Ephesus, a city of Asia Minor, which was called one of the seven wonders of the world. Allusion is made to it also in the 8 DI a'na, a heathen goddess. A fourth verse of this stanza. 1 I have beheld Sophia's 1 bright roofs swell Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have surveyed Standèst alone, with nothing like to thee; Power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisled 3. Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; BYRON. T SECTION XXI. I. 77. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD, HE věry steadfastness of the Almighty's liberality, flowing like a mighty ocean through the infinite våst of the 1 So phĩa, the great mosque in Constantinople, which was formerly a Christian church dedicated to Sancta Sophia, or Holy Wisdom. It was founded by Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, A.D. 325, rebuilt by Justinian in 532-38, and changed into a mosque in 1453. 2 Si'on, a hill in Jerusalem, where on was built the royal palace of King David and his successors. The allusion in this line and that which follows is to the destruction in A.D. 70 of the temple and city of Jerusalem, which was the city of God's predilection under the Jewish dispensation, as Rome is under the Christian. universe, makes His creatures forget to wonder at its wonderfulness, to feel true thanksgiving for its immeasurable goodnèss. The sun rises and sets so surely, the seasons run on amid all their changes with such inimitable 1 truth, that we take as a matter of course that which is amazing beyond all stretch of the imagination, and good beyond the widèst expansion of the noblèst human heart. 2. The poor man, with his hälf-dozen children, toils, and often dies, under the vain labor of winning bread for them. God feeds His family of countless myriads swarming over the surface of all His countless worlds, and none know need but through the follies or the cruelty of their fellows. God pōurs His light from innumerable 2 suns on innumerable rejoicing planets; He waters them everywhere in the fitting moment; He ripens the food of globes and of nations, and gives them fair weather to garner it; and from age to age, amid His creatures of endless forms and powers, in the beauty and the sunshine, and the magnificence of nature, He seems to sing throughout creation the glorious song of His own divine joy in the immortality of His youth, in the omnipotence of His nature, in the eternity 5 of His patience, and the abounding boundlèssnèss of His love. 3 3. What a family hangs on His sustaining arm! The life and souls of infinite ages and uncounted worlds! Let a moment's failure of His power, of His watchfulness, or of His will to do good, occur, and what a sweep of death and annihilation 6 through the universe! How stars would reel, planets expire, and nations pĕrish! 8 4. But from age to age no such catastrophe occurs, even in the midst of national crimes, and of atheism that denies the 1 In ĭm'i ta ble, not capable of or condition which begins at death; being imitated or copied; surpass- everlastingness. ingly excellent or superior. 6 An ni'hi la'tion, the act of re 2 In nū’mer a ble, that can not ducing to nothing; the act of de be numbered. 3 Im'mor tǎl'i tỷ, the quality of being exempt from death and destruction; deathlessness. 4 Om nipo tence, the state of being all-powerful. 5 Eternity (e tēr′ni tỉ), the state stroying the form of a thing. 7 U'ni verse, all things created as a whole; the world. 8 A'the ism, the disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. |