DOI chapter:
Chap. VII: Departure from Rome - Characters of the Romans, ancient and modern
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62268#0277
Ch. VII.
THROUGH ITALY.
267
vanishing in darkness for the last time ! It is in-
deed impossible to leave this city without emo-
tion; so many claims has it to our attention; so
many holds upon our best passions.
As the traveller paces along her streets, spa-
cious, silent, and majestic, he feels the irresistible
genius of the place working in his soul, his me-
mory teems with recollections, and his heart
swells with patriotism and magnanimity; two
virtues that seem to spring from the very soil, and
flow spontaneously from the climate: so generally
do they pervade every period of Roman history.
While the great republic, the parent of so many
heroes rises before him, he looks around like
Camillus at the hills—the plain—the river—for
ever consecrated by their fame, and raises his
eyes with reverence to the sky that seemed to in-
spire their virtues.
In truth, no national character ever appeared
so exalted, rose with such an accumulation of
honor from so many trials, or retained its hard-
earned glory for so long a period, as that of the
Romans. Nulla unquam respublica nec major,
nec sanctior, nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit. says
Titus Livius*, and the assertion was not the effu-
* Lib. 1. Prof.
THROUGH ITALY.
267
vanishing in darkness for the last time ! It is in-
deed impossible to leave this city without emo-
tion; so many claims has it to our attention; so
many holds upon our best passions.
As the traveller paces along her streets, spa-
cious, silent, and majestic, he feels the irresistible
genius of the place working in his soul, his me-
mory teems with recollections, and his heart
swells with patriotism and magnanimity; two
virtues that seem to spring from the very soil, and
flow spontaneously from the climate: so generally
do they pervade every period of Roman history.
While the great republic, the parent of so many
heroes rises before him, he looks around like
Camillus at the hills—the plain—the river—for
ever consecrated by their fame, and raises his
eyes with reverence to the sky that seemed to in-
spire their virtues.
In truth, no national character ever appeared
so exalted, rose with such an accumulation of
honor from so many trials, or retained its hard-
earned glory for so long a period, as that of the
Romans. Nulla unquam respublica nec major,
nec sanctior, nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit. says
Titus Livius*, and the assertion was not the effu-
* Lib. 1. Prof.