or converting the
vast structure into a manufactory; and how, in connection with this
plan, immense numbers of shops were fitted up in the arcades and arches
below,--and how the plan finally failed, after having cost the pope who
undertook it ever so many thousand Roman dollars; how, after this, it
remained for many centuries wholly neglected, and the stones, falling in
from above, together with the broken bricks and mortar, formed on the
arena below, and all around the walls outside, immense heaps of rubbish;
and finally, how, about one hundred years ago, people began to take an
interest in the ruins, and to wish to clear away the rubbish, and to
prop up and preserve what remained of the walls and arches.

"It was the French that cleared away the rubbish at last," said Mr.
George, "and put the ruins in order."

"The French!" repeated Rollo; "how came the French here?"

"I don't know," said Mr. George. "The French are every where. And
wherever they go, they always take with their armies a corps of
philosophers, artists, and men of science, who look up every thing that
is curious, and put it in order, and preserve it if they can."

"Then I am glad they came here," said Rollo.

Here Mr. George shut his book, and rose from his seat, saying, as he did
so,--

"The Coliseum is so large that it covers six acres of ground."

"Six acres?" repeated Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George. "It is six hundred and twenty feet long. That is
monstrous for such a building; but then the steamship Great Eastern is
about a hundred feet longer."

"Then the Great Eastern is bigger than the Coliseum."

"She is longer," said Mr. George, "but she is not so wide nor so high."

"And which, all things considered, is the greatest work, do you think?"
asked Rollo.

"The Coliseum may have cost the most labor," said Mr. George, "but the
Great Eastern is far above it, in my opinion, in every element of real
greatness. The Coliseum is a most wonderful structure, no doubt; but the
building of an iron ship like the Great Eastern, to be propelled by
steam against all the storms and tempests of the ocean, to the remotest
corners of the earth, with ten thousand tons of merchandise on board, or
ten thousand men, is, in my opinion, much the greatest exploit."

"At any rate," said Rollo, "the Coliseum makes the finest ruin."

"I am not certain of that, even," said Mr. George. "Suppose that the
Great Eastern were to be drawn up upon the shore somewhere n