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dust of the palace of Nero and Augustus, he could have uttered one of his plaintive meditations on the ruins of departed greatness. Soon would it change its tone to one of triumphant rejoicing, as he thought how the city of Nero became the city of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and that "the glory of this last city should be more than that of the first." Before you, are the arch of Titus, the Coliseum, and the arch of Constantine, which form a triangle, and which were built on the boundaries of the ancient and the Christian world, when Paganism and Judaism were disputing with the rising church the empire of mankind.

3. The arch of Titus, by its inscription on both sides, recalls to us the prophecy of Daniel and the prophecy of Christ, with respect to the destruction of the city, and shows to all generations the effect of these words, "His blood be upon us and upon our children.". The second is the Coliseum, a witness of the degradation of humanity at the era of Christianity, of the struggle of paganism, and of the cruelty which she exercised against the Church. It is also a witness of the victory of the weak over the strong, and of the suffering victims over those who persecuted them. This was the battle-field where the martyrs were crowned. In this amphitheatre, erected by the hands of Jews and pagans, the most glorious triumphs of Christianity were gained. But the scene draws to a close.

4. The arch of Constantine is the witness of the conquest of Catholicity over the territory through which paganism reigned. It was erected to the "liberator of the city, and to the founder of peace." These the finger of God seems to have kept in such a state of preservation, to be his witnesses to the end of all ages. Viewed by the eye of Christian philosophy, the ruins of the Eternal City speak with a wondrous eloquence There God and man meet; Christianity the conqueror, and paganism the conquered, are present everywhere. As the work of man, the city presents to us the ruins of temples, of palaces, aqueducts, and mutilated mausoleums-all mingled together in the dust; as the work of God, the city of St. Peter and of Pio Nono is always radiant with youth.

5. The cross has crowned the Capitol for a longer period

than the imperial eagle. Everywhere you see a privileged ruin of paganism coming to shelter itself under the wing of religion, to escape from utter destruction. Like captives, who find any conditions acceptable, should their lives be spared, the old glories of Rome have submitted themselves to any use hat may be made of them. They have become Christian temples, tombs of martyrs, columns, pedestals, and even the pavement in the houses of the victors. They are satisfied if the daughter of heaven deign to touch them with her finger. It is to them an assurance of immortality. They seem to remember the treatment which they received from the hands of the barbarians, and, to escape fresh ravages, they are desi rous of being adopted by that poor church, whose blood they drank in the day of their glory.

6. How often is the Catholic pilgrim delighted with these obelisks, which were formerly erected to some of the great men of the world! At their base you find inscribed the name of the hero to whom they were erected; above this, the name of the Pontiff, the successor of the fisherman of Galilee, who dedicated them to St. Peter, St. Paul, or the Mother of God, and placed their statues on the summit of the pillar. Here both history and poetry seem united together. This aspect of defeat and victory, which is to be met with at every step in the Eternal City, affords much instruction.

7. It is to the serious mind a lesson which makes him despise all that is of earth, and admire all that is from God. If with feelings like these, the traveller, the artist, and the pilgrim behold all these monuments of antiquity, and if they be tne means of detaching him from all that is changing around him, and of uniting him to the things which change not, h may indeed say he has seen Rome.

109. ROSEMARY IN THE SCULPTOR'S STUDIO.

HUNTINGTON.

J. V. HUNTINGTON, born in New York in 1815, formerly an Episcopalian Einister; since his conversion to Catholicity entirely devoted to literary pursuits. He is best known as a novelist, but has published a volume of poetry and a good many fugitive pieces. His novels indicate an intimate acquaintance with the better and more cultivated portion of American society. His novel of "Rosemary" is a work of considerable dramatic power, colored with the warm tints of a poet's fancy. His "Pretty Plate" is one of the best juvenile stories with which we are acquainted.

1. ROSEMARY sat with her back to the countess, and her face to the old brilliant picture of the glorious Coming, with its angels in sky-blue robes and saints with gilded halos. "A very interesting picture," Rory said.

"Very! I can hardly take my eyes off from it."

"Very well, as you must look at some point in particular, suppose that you look at that picture."

"Is the position in which I sit of any consequence ?"

"As long as you do not lean back, and continue to look at the picture, it is of no consequence. You may change it whenever you like. Be quite unconstrained in that respect."

"I am glad you allow me to sit. I supposed the sitting would be a standing."

"Not to-day. Another time I may try your patience further."

2. While Rosemary sat thus, her eyes fastened on the picture, and scarcely seeing O'Morra, who stood near his pile of clay, working it with an instrument into shape, he conversed with her in a tranquil tone. She was pleased though surprised at this, for from the rigid silence he had imposed on the countess, she had counted on more than usual taciturnity on his part. First, he gave her a history of the picture, painted by a monk in the fifteenth century. Thence he naturally passed to the subject of which it treated.

3. All representations of so great a theme, the crowning event of human history, but lying beyond the domain of human experience, were unsatisfactory. Rosemary thought so too. Insensibly he diverged to the mighty scene itself. His lan guage, remorably calm and unexcited but admirably chosen,

became soon the outline of a meditation on the Final Judg ment. Circumstance after circumstance taken from Holy Writ came in to heighten the tremendous word-picture, and in the midst of the scene Rosemary and himself were placed as assistants and spectators.

4. "We may suppose that our purgation will not have ceased before, as it will certainly cease then. What feelings must be ours, in such a case, when we shall have burst the prison of the tomb, to behold the tomb itself, the solid earth, crumble and melt, and yet feel in our own risen bodies the throb of eternal life! What a moment the wedding again of the flesh and spirit instantaneously co-glorified; a fact of which we shall take note with perfect intellectual clearness, even in the same instant that the Beatific Vision breaks upon us with its infinite vistas of entrancing splendor !"

5. Rosemary's beautiful face kindled like a vase lighted from within; she leaned a little forward and raised one fair arm towards the old picture, as if she would have spoken.

"The resurrection of the flesh, its glorification, its divini sation almost, is to me one of the most consoling dogmas of our faith. That body is immortal already in my opinion; it shall breathe and pulsate, shall see and hear, have motion and force and splendor, while God shall be God. What is the grave? You have lain in it once, yet now you live! What has happened to you in a figure shall happen to us all in reality. You ought to feel this vividly-you, once the motionless tenant of a tomb !"

6. From that time O'Morra worked on in silence. At last Rosemary timidly glanced at him-for she was weary. He was not looking at her at all; his bright eye was fixed on vacancy, and his fingers worked, like a blind man's, in the plastic clay. It was a rude human figure, feminine vaguely, nude, black, dripping wet; in the body the posture was nearly all that was evident, and that was roughly outlined; the head was massively brought out, and under the clay hair, clotted and lumped, was a noble face, upturned to heaven with an expression of wonder, awe, joy, and earnest gazing, as upon some marvellous glory.

110. STELLA MATUTINA, ORA PRO) NOBIS.'

HUNTINGTON.

1. GLEAMING o'er mountain, coast, and wave,
What splendor Ir, foretokening, gave
The front of shadow-chasing morn!
And, ere the day-star was re-born,
With borrow'd but auspicious light
Gladden'd the night-long watcher's sight!

2 Fair herald of a brighter sun,

And pledge of Heaven's own day begun,
When th' ancient world's long night was o'er,
So shone, above death's dreaded shore,
And life's now ever-brightening sea,
The lowly MAID of GALILEE.

3. Lost now in His effulgent ray,

Bathed in the brightness of His day,
O Morning Star! still sweetly shine
Through that dim night which yet is mine,
Precede for me His dawning light,
Who only puts all shades to flight!

111. RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

LEIBNITZ.

WM. G. LEIBNITZ was born in Leipsic in 1646; died in 1716. His sc.. entific and philosophical attainments entitle him to be placed among the Lighest mathematicians and philosophers of the age.

1. SINCE the glory of God and the happiness of our fellowcreatures may be promoted by various means, by command or by example, according to the condition and disposition of

Stella Matutina, ora pro nobis: Morning Star, pray for us ;-one of the suffrages in the Litany of Loretto.

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