Consolations in Travel | Page 9

Europe by the brethren of that band of martyred patriots; I saw bodies
of these men traversing the sea, founding colonies, building cities, and
wherever they established themselves, carrying with them their peculiar
arts. Towns and temples arose containing schools, and libraries filled
with the rolls of the papyrus. The same steel, such a tremendous
instrument of power in the hands of the warrior, I saw applied, by the
genius of the artist, to strike forms even more perfect than those of life
out of the rude marble; and I saw the walls of the palaces and temples
covered with pictures, in which historical events were portrayed with
the truth of nature and the poetry of mind. The voice now awakened my
attention by saying, "You have now before you the vision of that state
of society which is an object of admiration to the youth of modern
times, and the recollections of which, and the precepts founded on these
recollections, constitute an important part of your education. Your
maxims of war and policy, your taste in letters and the arts, are derived
from models left by that people, or by their immediate imitators, whom

you shall now see." I opened my eyes, and recognised the very spot in
which I was sitting when the vision commenced. I was on the top of an
arcade under a silken canopy, looking down upon the tens of thousands
of people who were crowded in the seats of the Colosaeum,
ornamented with all the spoils that the wealth of a world can give; I
saw in the arena below animals of the most extraordinary kind, and
which have rarely been seen living in modern Europe--the giraffe, the
zebra, the rhinoceros, and the ostrich from the deserts of Africa beyond
the Niger, the hippopotamus from the Upper Nile, and the royal tiger
and the gnu from the banks of the Ganges. Looking over Rome, which,
in its majesty of palaces and temples, and in its colossal aqueducts
bringing water even from the snows of the distant Apennines, seemed
more like the creation of a supernatural power than the work of human
hands; looking over Rome to the distant landscape, I saw the whole
face, as it were, of the ancient world adorned with miniature images of
this splendid metropolis. Where the Roman conquered, there he
civilised; where he carried his arms, there he fixed likewise his
household gods; and from the deserts of Arabia to the mountains of
Caledonia there appeared but one people, having the same arts,
language, and letters--all of Grecian origin. I looked again, and saw an
entire change in the brilliant aspect of this Roman world--the people of
conquerors and heroes was no longer visible; the cities were filled with
an idle and luxurious population; those farms which had been
cultivated by warriors, who left the plough to take the command of
armies, were now in the hands of slaves; and the militia of freemen
were supplanted by bands of mercenaries, who sold the empire to the
highest bidder. I saw immense masses of warriors collecting in the
north and east, carrying with them no other proofs of cultivation but
their horses and steel arms; I saw these savages everywhere attacking
this mighty empire, plundering cities, destroying the monuments of arts
and literature, and, like wild beasts devouring a noble animal, tearing
into pieces and destroying the Roman power. Ruin, desolation, and
darkness were before me, and I closed my eyes to avoid the melancholy
scene. "See," said the Genius, "the melancholy termination of a power
believed by its founders invincible, and intended to be eternal. But you
will find, though the glory and greatness belonging to its military
genius have passed away, yet those belonging to the arts and

institutions, by which it adorned and dignified life, will again arise in
another state of society." I opened my eyes again, and I saw Italy
recovering from her desolation--towns arising with governments almost
upon the model of ancient Athens and Rome, and these different small
states rivals in arts and arms; I saw the remains of libraries, which had
been preserved in monasteries and churches by a holy influence which
even the Goth and Vandal respected, again opened to the people; I saw
Rome rising from her ashes, the fragments of statues found amidst the
ruins of her palaces and imperial villas becoming the models for the
regeneration of art; I saw magnificent temples raised in this city
become the metropolis of a new and Christian world, and ornamented
with the most brilliant masterpieces of the arts of design; I saw a
Tuscan city, as it were, contending with Rome for pre-eminence in the
productions of genius, and the spirit awakened in Italy spreading its
influence from the South to the North.