cing a
comprehensive library and a remarkable museum, the whole surrounded by
spacious and elegantly kept gardens. Twenty courts, eight grand
staircases, and two hundred ordinary ones, are all contained within its
walls. It is connected by a covered gallery with the castle of St.
Angelo, a quarter of a mile away, and with St. Peter's, which it nearly
adjoins. Probably no other building, or series of buildings, in the
world contains so much wealth of art and riches generally as does the
Vatican at Rome. Its treasures in gold, silver, precious stones, books,
priceless manuscripts, and relics, are almost beyond enumeration. All
the world--ancient and modern, savage and Christian--has contributed to
swell this remarkable accumulation. The two most celebrated paintings,
and esteemed to be the two most valuable in existence, are to be seen
here; namely, "The Transfiguration," by Raphael, and "The Communion of
St. Jerome," by Domenichino. So incomparable are these works of art that
no critic of note has ventured to say which deserves to be named first;
but all agree that they are the two greatest paintings, as to real
merit, in the world. They are colossal in size, and have both made the
journey to Paris. Napoleon I. had them both transferred to the Louvre;
but they are back again, forming the great attraction of the Vatican.
The "Last Judgment," by Michael Angelo, covers one whole side of the
Sistine Chapel, one of the very best of this great master's works,
requiring hours of study to enable one to form a just conception of its
design and merits. Raphael has a series of fifty other paintings within
the walls of the Pope's palace.

[Illustration: THE COLISEUM AT ROME.]

The most notable ruin in this ancient city is the Coliseum, the largest
amphitheatre, and still one of the most imposing structures, in the
world; broken in every part, but still showing, by what remains of its
massive walls, what it must once have been. History tells us, that, upon
its completion, it was inaugurated by gladiatorial combats continued for
one hundred days; during which time five thousand wild beasts were
killed in contests with Christian slaves, who acted as gladiators. The
Coliseum was begun by Vespasian, on his return from his war with the
Jews, but was dedicated by his son Titus, and completed by Domitian over
eighteen hundred years ago. Ten thousand captives are said to have been
slain at the time of its dedication, and it was designed to