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FILIAL RESPECT.

"Son, support the old age of thy father, and grieve him not in his life; and if his understanding fail, have patience with him, and despise him not when thou art in thy strength."-Ecclesiasticus iii, 14, 15.

AH! grieve not him whose silver hairs
Thin o'er his wasted temples stray;
Grieve not thy sire when time impairs
The glory of his manhood's sway.

His tottering steps with reverence aid,
Bind his wan brow with honor's wreath,
And let his deafened ear be made

The harp where filial love shall breathe.

What, though his pausing mind partake
The evils of its house of clay,
Though wearied, blinded memory break
The casket where her treasures lay:

Still with prompt arm his burdens bear,
Bring heav'nly balm his wounds to heal,
And with affection's watchful care,

The error that thou mark'st, conceal.

Know'st thou how oft those powerless arms
Have clasped thee to his shielding breast,
When infant woes or childish harms

Thy weak, unguarded soul distressed?

Know'st thou how oft those accents strove

Thine uninstructed mind to aid?

How oft a parent's prayer of love

Hath pierced dense midnight's darkest shade?

Grieve not thy father till he die,

Lest when he sleeps in earth's cold breast,

The record of his lightest sigh

Should prove a dagger to thy rest.

For if this holiest debt of love,
Forgotten or despised should be,
He whom thou call'st thy Sire above,
Will bend a judge's frown on thee.

IT

ST. PETER'S CHURCH AT ROME,

BY M. C. JENKINS.

T is at Rome, of all places on earth, and at St. Peter's church of all other places in Rome, that we are made to feel how greatly is religious devotion assisted by external aids, how frequently revived in bosoms that may have ceased to feel its consoling impulses. Always has the Catholic acknowledged the importance of exterior agents in matters of religion, and wondered why modern reformers should have stripped religion of all her outward pomp, while they crowded style and ceremony on all profane things. They who are so shocked at the extrinsic helps of religious worship are seen to gaze with pleasure on the glittering pomp of a military display, and on the sash and apron of the odd fellow and mason. They legislate for the discipline, decorations, and ceremonies of their armies, navies, and embassies; and if some great work of improvement is to be commenced, or converts to be sought out for the temperance cause, a procession of the people with banner and badge is the surest expedient to give consequence and impressiveness to their laudable undertakings. Should a La Fayette come back in his old days to visit the country of his youthful love and chivalry, our cities are illuminated, our armies paraded and our utmost ingenuity is taxed to increase by ceremony, the effect and importance of the illustrious stranger's reception. And shall people who feel how interesting are these exterior auxiliaries to their civil concerns, how naturally they accompany popular fervor and enthusiasm, withhold from him alone to whom infinite gratitude is due, similar manifestations of their pious impulses and their religious ardor? If they do, at at least let them not condemn those who consider the reverence and homage conferred by ceremonies, infinitely more worthy of the Most High than of any mere creature of his hand. For as these external ceremonials of respect are graduated by the importance attached to the individual or ocVOL. II.-No. 3.

casion that calls them forth, the Catholic may be readily excused if his thoughts soar at once to the source of all majesty and greatness as the most fitting subject for all the pomp and circumstance of external reverence. It is some pleasure to us to see that a respectable portion of our Protestant brethren begin to view this subject with Catholic eyes. "Far be from us," says a writer in the New York Review, commenting on the rituals of his Protestant Church, "the absurd supposition that God surrounds man with all this bright host of powers in his own world, and all for nothing! No, they were meant, not less than the occupation of life, and the parental duties, to be important means in the work of culture. For grant them to be agencies at all, and they can be agencies only for good." The same writer continues in another place,—

Now it is to be considered that preaching is not the sole element of public Christian virtues. Prayer, poetry, music, architecture, in some form and in some way, are its fixed and established accompaniments." "We do not include paintings," says the same writer in a note, "because it contributes nothing to the ritual of Protestant churches. This has been regretted by many whose opinions deserve the highest respect." To improve these sentiments-to expand them to the Catholic standard of religious culture, it would be only necessary for a writer with such favorable prepossessions to visit with a proper spirit, the church of St. Peter at Rome. There indeed would he behold those external agencies which he desires to see established in his own church, developed in their utmost human perfection, and there would he see an enduring embodiment of all that gives grace, and awe, and dignity to religion, and strength and fervor to its followers. The most vivid description is but feeble to convey an adequate conception of this unrivalled temple of the living God. I have been almost afraid to mention St.

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Peter's, says a manuscript now before me, of a dear deceased brother, lest I should inadvertently be guilty of the folly of attempting to describe it. It may be reasonably supposed that it was the first object to which my eager and highly excited curiosity was directed. Again and again have I visited it, and often again shall I return to exhaust hours after hours in wonder, amazement, and unspeakable admiration. Whether it be taken in its entirety or in parts, be it surveyed in a single, comprehensive glance, or examined in minute detail, see it by grand divisions of ceilings, aisles and walls, or stop before each chapel, altar, monument, picture and statue, and you will find all-every thing-magnificently grand, transcendently beautiful! The building, including the splendid colonnades, embraces an area of seven acres, of which four acres are comprehended in the interior of the church. It is situated at the northwest extremity of Rome, at the foot of the Vatican hill, and near the site of the gardens of Nero. In the year 323 Constantine built upon this site a large church, in honor of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles. In the middle of the fifteenth century this church was in a decayed and dilapidated condition. Nicholas V, who at that time reigned over the Church, conceived the idea of renovating it, and enlarging it to a scale worthy of its lofty purpose. To Julius II who was elevated to the papacy in 1503, belongs the glory of having commenced the design which his predecessor had so boldly conceived.

As you approach St. Peter's you are at once struck with its beautiful piazza, 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, on which are placed one hundred and thirty-six statues of martyrs, founders of religious orders, and at intervals by the arms of the sovereign pontiff under whom it was erected.

"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 Bernini. 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 Caligula brought it from Alexandria 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. This obelisk remained standing in the circus of Nero, when 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 Buonarotti 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 character-such 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. His first care 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 Dominico Fontana, reserving, however, the execution of it to two more aged, 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 him with extraordinary power.

"The greatest difficulty arose from the size

of the obelisk, which, according to the calculations of Fontana, weighs nine hundred and sixty-three thousand, five hundred and thirty-seven Roman pounds. On the 15th of April, 1586, it was raised two palms (seventeen and a half 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 enormous bars of iron, which sustained it on its resting place. This was the work of five hours.

"Immediately the firing of cannon, and the ringing of bells announced a result so glorious for the architect, and so satisfactory to the Pontiff. It is, however, related that Fontana was mistaken in his calculation relative to the length of the ropes; and that the obelisk would not have been raised, had not a sailor from San Remo, named Bresca, 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. It is added, that to reward this brave man, he and his descendants were invested with the privilege of furnishing palms on Palm Sunday to the Roman churches. Perhaps,' remarks the writer from whom I have borrowed this anecdote, 'this is one of the thousand tales by which mediocrity consoles itself for the success of superior talents.' This fact, however, is represented in the frescoes of the Vatican library. On the twenty-seventh 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 were forty thousand dollars.

"The granite of which the obelisk is formed, is a very hard stone, composed of blackspotted red stones. It was known to the ancients by the name of Sienite marble. 'The kings,' says Pliny, speaking of the

shepherd-kings of Egypt, emulously employed Sienite marble to make a kind of beam which they called obelisks, and which they consecrated to the Sun. Their form represents in some manner the rays of this luminary; and in the Egyptian language the world itself signifies a ray. They were introduced by Nuncoree, who reigned in the city of the Sun; he had received in a dream an order to make them, and had many imitators.' It is, then, probable that these obelisks belong to the most remote antiquity. When the Roman emperors became masters of Egypt, they transported several of them to Rome to adorn its public piazzas, its circus, and the other places where they loved to display their magnificence. What is particularly remarkable in the obelisk of which we have been speaking, as well as in two others, less considerable, which were formerly before the mausoleum of Augustus, and which are now-one behind St. Mary Major, the other at Monte Cavallo, is, that no hieroglyphics are found on them, while, according to Champollion, the monuments which were placed before temples, had an historic character, and required an inscription. . . .

"At an equal distance, on each side of the obelisk, are two fountains, which cast up their waters from a double basin of granite. They produce a fine effect, and contribute much to the ornament of the piazza, by the quantity of water they uninterruptedly spout up to such a height, that they form, in rising, a thick and white sheaf which dissolves in spray in the descent. The first time that Christina of Sweden saw this spectacle, she was struck with it; and, thinking that it was exhibited on her account, she thanked the attendants by whom she was accompanied, and told them to stop the waters. What was her surprise on being told that they had not ceased to play thus for a century! The water comes from a distance of twenty-four miles; it rises to an elevation of about twenty-two feet, and the basin into which it falls is eighty-six feet in circumference. This water would move large mills.

"If the piazza of St. Peter's delights the lovers of art by the beauties it presents to

their admiration, it no less captivates the faithful Christian, by the recollections it suggests. Here was the circus of Nero; it was the theatre of his madness, where he glutted himself with the torments and carnage of the Christians. Fire having consumed almost the entire city of Rome, in his reign, it was thought that Nero himself was the author of the conflagration. Wishing to silence the seditious rumors that were in circulation against him, and to give the public hatred another direction, he accused the Christians of the crime, and ordered them to be persecuted. Not satisfied with the ordinary punishments, he invented others before unheard of, and surpassed even himself in cruelty. Many Christians were enclosed in the skins of wild animals, and devoured as such by dogs. Others were besmeared with pitch, and impaled on stakes; fire was applied, and by the light of those horrible torches, the emperor was accustomed to walk by night in his gardens, drive his chariot, and sing verses, unmoved by the cries of his expiring victims. It was in this persecution that St. Peter and St. Paul terminated their lives by martyrdom. For eighteen centuries have the faithful come here, from all parts of the world, to venerate their remains. Thus, altars have been erected on the earth, which was moistened with the blood of the martyrs; and it is not without a particular providence of God, that the basilica of the prince of the apostles is built on the spot where the palace of the first persecutor once stood.

"The ascent to the church is by a magnificent flight of steps, which are almost entirely of marble; and at the bottom of which are two statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. On ascending you admire more and more the façade, which is three hundred and seventy feet in breadth, and one hundred and forty-nine in height. The proportions are so admirable, that its columns appear of ordinary dimensions, and must be approached before they can be estimated. Each column with its pedestal and capital is eighty-three feet high, and eight feet and three inches in diameter. This façade, although majestic, is somewhat low for its breadth. Probably the architect, Carlo Ma

derno, preferred that it should have this defect, than that it should conceal the cupola, the imposing coup d'œil of which constitutes the greatest ornament of the church.

"The vestibule is entered by five openings. At the sides of this vestibule are two galleries, which present at their extremities an equestrian statue of heroic appearance, placed in a deep recess, covered with a canopy and drapery. On the right is Constantine; on the left Charlemagne. Constantine is represented at the moment when he beholds the cross, under which he was to conquer; Charlemagne is crowned with laurel, after the manner of the Roman emperors.

"Corresponding with the five gates of the façade are five doors which open into the church. That on the right is walled up; it is called the holy gate; and since the year 1500, the solemnity of the jubilee is commenced every twenty-five years, by the opening of this gate, which ceremony is intended to represent the opening of a time of grace and mercy. It is again shut at the termination of the jubilee. On the wall which closes up this entrance is a cross of gilt bronze pilgrims kiss it as they pass, and scrape away some of the plaster, which they bring home as a relic. The folds of the middle door are entirely of bronze, on it are bas relief representations of some portions of sacred history, and some facts of the life of Eugene IV, under whom it was made. Over the gate is a bas relief by Bernini, representing Jesus Christ giving the care of his sheep to Peter, to whom he addresses the words: Feed my sheep ;'— words which alone suffice to confute heresy and schism. All the gates are adorned with columns of beautiful marble.

"Let us now enter the church. This edifice, from the entrance to the end of the tribuna, is six hundred and fourteen English feet in length; notwithstanding this extent, the first coup d'œil produces no feeling of surprise. All parts are so well proportioned that nothing appears long, or broad, or high; because nothing is seen there that could make the building appear so; that is, there is nothing short, low, or small in it. Thus the greatest astonishment felt on

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