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race; but such tricks are too ludicrous to be carried to the grave.

With the exception of Leo X. and two or three others, there is scarcely a distinguished name in the congregation of Popes, who have been so fortunate as to find an apotheosis in St. Peter's. But what is still more remarkable in a city, which is the very centre of the fine arts, and in the grandest temple ever reared by human hands, the sepulchral monuments are generally characterized by a sort of regular dullness, with no very gross defects and but few striking merits; as if genius was paralysed by the subjects it was employed to commemorate. But besides this cold negative mediocrity, there is much positive bad taste in the ornaments-devices unsuited to the solemnity of the church and the tombmaterials of different complexions-mart.les highly gilt, and tricked out with other gaudy decorations. By far the finest monument is in memory of Clement XIII. by Canova. At the base are two recumbent lions: the one represented asleep is a noble production of the chisel. A holy family, by Michael Angelo, is on too small a scale to produce much ef fect. The baptismal font was once a part of the tomb of Otho II. It is of beautiful porphyry, but tastelessly bediz zened with bronze. A pillar in one of the aisles is said to be that against which the Saviour leaned, while disputing with the doctors in the temple at Jerusalem. The church is finely lighted, and an equable temperature preserved through. out the year.

The principal chapels are those of the Choir, in which mass is daily celebrated; and of the Holy Sacrament, on the opposite side of the nave. Innumerable confessories, resembling the sentry boxes of watchmen, with a lateral aper ture, where the ear of the priest may come in contact with the lips of the penitent, are ranged round the ends of the transept. They are made of wood, moveable, and labelled with the languages for which each is intended. A person may here confess his transgressions in any tongue, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, English, and a dozen others. All sorts of persons, old and young, male and fe male, civil and military, may be seen kneeling at the sides of the boxes, pouring out the secrets of their hearts in whispers. It is said, with what truth I know not, that frequent iniquities are practised by the priests, availing themselves of the propensities and weaknesses disclosed to them in confessions,

for forming intrigues of their own; while in too many instances the worldly-minded make a cloak of religion, converting an act of contrition into the means of greater offences,→→→→

"And e'en in penance planning sins anew."

By a flight of steps in the vicinity of the High Altar, we descended into the crypt beneath the pavement, where the old church built by Constantine is still preserved. It is only ten or twelve feet in height; but the relic is held in great veneration by the pious. The subterranean region seems to be nearly co-entensive with the pavement of the church. One or two young ecclesiastics lighted us through the gloomy labyrinths with candles, and pointed out the numerous curiosities. At the entrance, is the Chapel of the Confession in the form of a Latin cross, embellished with bas-reliefs in marble and bronze, illustrative of the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul. The workmanship of some of the ornaments is exquisite. A grate in the pavement, forming the roof of the chapel, admits a few rays of light, which fall like moonbeams on the sculptured marble. The dust of the Patron Saint is said to repose beneath the altar. Tradition says that his head was buried at St. John Lateran, while a part of the body of the Apostle, from whom that church derives its name, here mingles with the ashes of St. Peter. Such are the nice apportionments into which the Catholics enter, in the subdivisions of relics. Medallions of the two great heralds of the gospel are suspended from the altar. We groped our way like ghosts through the vaults of the dead, whose slumbers were undisturbed by any sound, save the echoes of our footsteps. Popes and cardinals, princes and nobles, here sleep in state; But the same remarks are applicable to their sarcophagi, as to the tombs above, round the walls of the church. Very few names induce the visitant to pause and strain his eyes to read the long Latin inscriptions by the gleams of the taper.

Our ascent to the top of St. Peter's, in the afternoon of a bright day, formed a striking contrast with this visit to the subterranean world. The inclination of the stair-way, or more properly the road leading to the roof of the church, is so gentle that donkeys may go up without difficulty. A little town paved with brick, and covered with small buildings, here opens to the view of the traveller, over, which he strolls

as carelessly, as he would through the streets of a village, occasionally leaning over the balustrades to look at the Piazza, or the gardens of the Vatican. Amidst pinnacles and minor copulas, forming the roofs of the chapels below, the great dome swells with inconceivable grandeur, surrounded by magnificent columns joined in pairs; surmounted by the lantern, which sits like a Grecian temple upon the apex; and overtopped by the ball and cross. This stupendous work is as indescribable as it is inimitable.

Pursuing our journey upward, we entered the dome and walked round both of the galleries, which are at such a height from the pavement, as to make the head swim and the feet to fall lightly, notwithstanding the defence of a balustrade. Whispers are distinctly heard from side to side. From this point to the lantern, the narrow stairs lead through the concentric walls of the cupola, both of stone, and substantially constructed. Thence we continued the arduous ascent by an iron ladder to the ball, which is eight feet in diameter, and about four hundred and fifty feet from the ground. The wind roared like a furnace round the brazen walls, though the day was comparatively calm. Persons have ascended by a ladder of ropes, on the outside of the ball to the cross. A French lady is said to have performed the achievement, and to have leaned, like a graceful statue, with the utmost coolness, against the burnished crucifix. But the useless undertaking is attended with so much danger, that the Pope has prohibited the ascent by a special bull.

From the lantern, which contains an album for recording the names of visitants, and also a card of the dimensions of the church, we had a splendid view of Rome and its environs, the Tiber rolling beneath us, the Seven Hills strewed with ruins, the Campagna, the distant mountains, and the sea. But these objects are already too familiar to my readers, to bear a repetition. Although the dome of St. Peter's is twice the height of the tower to the Senator's House on the Capitoline Hill, the prospect from the latter is preferable, as it commands nearly the same horizon, and is more central, especially as it regards objects in the city. On this account, it is generally selected as the observatory of travellers and

artists.

The history of St. Peter's may be told in few words-at least all that the generality of readers will care to know. It was founded in the 4th century, and acquired great venera

tion, from being the rallying-point of the primitive christians, as well as from the reputation of containing the relics of the Apostle. The old church erected by Constantine, became ruinous in the lapse of a thousand years, and the foundations of the present structure, the proudest temple of religion that the world ever saw, were laid at the commencement of the 16th century. From that period onward for many ages, the richest materials were collected, and through the successive reigns of thirty-five Pontiffs, the services of the first architects were put in requisition-Bramante, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Vignola, Giotto, and Bernini; names to which the present age can furnish no parallels. It may be doubted, whether the united skill of all the countries upon the globe, notwithstanding the modern improvements in science, could now erect an edifice equally splendid. Certain it is, the experiment is not worth trying; for St. Peter's has exhausted the resources of a nation, and entailed poverty and wretchedness upon millions of people.

A sufficient sum has been wasted, emphatically wasted, upon the Vatican Mount, to render the inhabitants of the papal dominions free, great, and happy, instead of sinking them into miserable and abject slaves. The original cost of St. Peter's was something like sixty millions of dollars; and the gorgeous, tasteless Sacristy added by Pius VI. with other embellishments which every new Pope is ambitious of introducing has increased, the total expenditure to an amount not less than a hundred millions! And what is the intrinsic value of this gewgaw, with all its dazzling glories? For any purposes of religious worship, the humble temple of Goldsmith's Curate,

"The decent church that topp'd the neighbouring hill,"

is worth more than all the pomp and glare of St. Peter's, leading the thoughts astray, and fixing the eye, not on heaheaven, but on the monuments of human pride.

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LETTER LXXII.

ROME CONTINUED-VATICAN-SALA REGIA-SISTINE CHAPEL -LAST JUDGMENT OF MICHAEL ANGELO-PAOLINE CHAPEL -GALLERIES AND CHAMBERS OF RAPHAEL-COLLECTION OF PICTURES.

June, 1826.-Adjoining St. Peter's on the north is the Vatican or the Palace of the Pope, an irregular, enormous pile, covering an area twelve hundred feet in length by one thousand in breadth, and forming a congeries of buildings, which have been added one after another, from the days of Constantine to the present period. As no systematic plans or orders of architecture have been followed, and the vari ous sections have sprung up in ages widely differing in charater, the exterior is without form and void, presenting nothing striking except its magnitude. Some of the twentyfive courts enclosed by these vast ranges of palaces are rather splendid, adorned with fountains, and the other usual embellishments. One peculiar feature prevails in the construction of these buildings. They conform to the original contour of the hill, rising one above another on the acclivity; and the extensive galleries, which have been opened in the interior, are in the forms of inclined planes, which may be considered an ornament rather than a defect.

The whole of the Vatican, except the suite of apartments appropriated to the Pope, is occupied as an immense repository of the fine arts-by far the most extensive and splendid in the world, not excepting the Gallery at Florence, or the Louvre at Paris. Several days were industriously employed in examining its various compartments; and as many months might be passed without exhausting their interesting contents. But I am neither an artist nor an amateur, and a cursory notice of a few of the more prominent objects will alone be attempted. A mere specification of the articles in the Va tican would fill a volume, which nobody of course would read.

The entrance is by the Sala Regia or Regal Stair-way, a magnificent flight of steps, springing from the Porch of St. Peter's, near the equestrian statue of Constantine, and lead

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