Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/116

126 Our hemisphere turns again towards the sun, and absorbs his rays with renewed force. They shine into my soul, into my mind, which this morning felt fresh and bright, able to perceive that which the new year ever preaches, and that which Home preaches to me like the New Year. For it preaches a sermon, this ancient city, a doctrine in symbolic signs and monuments, which become ever clearer to me daily, and which strike me with new clearness in the light of the new year. And this sermon is “''Risorgimento! Vita'' Nuova! ” The Phœnix, the wonderful bird, shakes his wings in the ascending sun above the ancient city, and indicates its life, an ascending metamorphosis. There stand the Egyptian obelisks, evidences of the most ancient art, and the most ancient worship. They stand rigid, pointing upwards, testifying by their hieroglyphic inscriptions, that mankind worship God in their earthly rulers and in nature. But above the oriental columns now stand a star and a cross. These proclaim that a crucified, buried, and arisen son of man has delivered mankind from the hand of despots, and from the wild chaos of Pantheism, and raised them nearer to Heaven.

Here stand the splendid columns of Trajan and Antoninus, covered with bas-reliefs in commemoration of the victories of the Roman people over foreign nations, who were led captive in the triumphal processions of the conquerors. Formerly the statues of these conquerors crowned the columns, but now, instead, stand the figures of Peter and Paul, Apostles of the doctrine of peace. They have conquered the