Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/212

222 Interments are still continued round the church. Commendatore Visconti showed, in his comments upon these ruins, the new and beautiful views unfolded by the Christian comprehension of man and life, in comparison with those of the heathen world. I always listen to such comparisons willingly, though on the present occasion I felt the want of various concessions which impartial truth demanded. Christianity needs no stilts of injustice to raise her above the stand-point of heathenism.

The long, calm journey across the Campagna—that desert in which Rome lies like a gigantic monument—was to me the greatest pleasure of this excursion. You see on all sides, along the immense, waving grass-covered plain, lying between Rome and the mountain barrier-line of the horizon, nothing but herds of cattle grazing, ruins and tombs, aqueducts, some solitary ruined towers, and here and there, a little farm. The wind travels over the plain, which no tree, nor rock, nor town diversifies. All this produced a deep impression, particularly when you remember that this plain, which is now covered with grass, is a burial-place for human generations, and their magnificent works through many ages.

In a few places, the earth had been turned over by the plow, and the young vigorous seed, was growing strong and succulent, waving before the wind, and giving clear evidence of how affluent was the soil of the Campagna. I have been told that, if the Campagna were brought into full cultivation, it would make Rome and the whole of the Papal states wealthy.