Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/139

Rh upon a sky-blue ground, with sprays of flowers and other decorations, which prove the ancient splendor of the room. Every thing besides, bather's seats, tables, statues, all are gone, and are now preserved in the museums. The great business of life was, to the heathen, in time of peace, the enjoyment of life; in which was the luxury of the bath. We Christians have better and more important objects. The principal enjoyments of the bath are, in every case, pure water and the undisturbed repose of the time, and the Empress of Rome could not enjoy these in her splendid bath-room more than the humblest woman in a bathing-house devoid of all ornament. The power of enjoyment equalizes many differences in worldly fortune.

Another day I climbed, as in duty bound, up into the tower of the Capitol; but I was richly rewarded for the trouble. The sky was without a cloud, and beneath its light was spread out the vast Mosaic picture of Rome, in the greatest clearness and exactitude. The verdant gardens lay like little lost bouquets in this world of stone. The Tiber came out thence, like a little brook from its reservoirs, (I speak as it appeared from this point,) and soon lost itself behind Monte Aventino. The old Pagan Rome—the Rome of the Republic and the Empire, with its triumphal arches, the ruins of the Forum, of temples and palaces; the Papal Rome with the Vatican, and St. Peter's; the Quirinal with its San Giovanni di Lateran, Sta. Maria Maggiore, Scala Santa, pontifical gardens, its dwellings of priests and monks; the central Rome, with a few palaces, and an ant's-nest of lesser habitations, with the