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#0285
Ch. νπ.
THROUGH ITALY.
275
Their arches still stand gracing· not the capital
only and its vicinity, but the most remote pro-
vinces, and astonish travellers by their solidity
and their elevation. Consider those bridges which
eighteen centuries, aided by inundations and
earthquakes, have not in many places even shaken;
and see the Danube itself for once submitting to
the yoke, and still respecting the traces of his
subjection. See their almost interminable roads
intersecting the immensity of the empire, from
the borders of Persia to the Orcades, from the
'Tanais to the Nile, and opening a free commu-
nication through all parts of the civilized world.
These are monuments which no other nation has
left behind, monuments not of taste and art only,
but of wisdom and benevolence, which claim not
merely our admiration but our gratitude, and
rank their authors among the best benefactors of
mankind.
Inventas qui vitam excoluere per artes
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.
dEneid vi.
To apply this remark to works of genius would
be to enter a field of criticism too extensive for
the present work; but we may be allowed to as-
sume that there is in all the great Roman authors,
whether in verse or prose, a certain loftiness of
τ 2
THROUGH ITALY.
275
Their arches still stand gracing· not the capital
only and its vicinity, but the most remote pro-
vinces, and astonish travellers by their solidity
and their elevation. Consider those bridges which
eighteen centuries, aided by inundations and
earthquakes, have not in many places even shaken;
and see the Danube itself for once submitting to
the yoke, and still respecting the traces of his
subjection. See their almost interminable roads
intersecting the immensity of the empire, from
the borders of Persia to the Orcades, from the
'Tanais to the Nile, and opening a free commu-
nication through all parts of the civilized world.
These are monuments which no other nation has
left behind, monuments not of taste and art only,
but of wisdom and benevolence, which claim not
merely our admiration but our gratitude, and
rank their authors among the best benefactors of
mankind.
Inventas qui vitam excoluere per artes
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.
dEneid vi.
To apply this remark to works of genius would
be to enter a field of criticism too extensive for
the present work; but we may be allowed to as-
sume that there is in all the great Roman authors,
whether in verse or prose, a certain loftiness of
τ 2