xed sometimes at those modern buildings which intrude themselves among
the venerable spoils of antiquity. But a portico by the side of a humble
cottage, pillars, between which appear the little windows of a church, a
tomb affording an asylum to a whole rustic family, produce an
indescribable mixture of great and simple ideas, a newly-discovered
pleasure which inspires a continual interest. The greater part of our
European cities have externally a common and prosaic appearance; and
Rome, oftener than any other, presents the melancholy aspect of misery
and degradation; but all of a sudden a broken column, a bas-relief
half-destroyed, stones knit together in the indestructible manner of the
ancient architects, remind us that there is in man an eternal power, a
divine spark, which he must never cease to excite in himself and revive
in others.

This Forum, whose enclosure is so narrow in compass, and which has
witnessed so many astonishing things, is a striking proof of the moral
greatness of man. When the universe, in the latter times of Rome, was
subjected to inglorious masters, we find whole centuries, of which
history has scarcely preserved any events; and this Forum, this little
space in the centre of a city, at that time very circumscribed, whose
inhabitants were fighting all around them for their territory, has it
not occupied by the memories which it recalls, the most sublime geniuses
of every age! Honour then, eternal honour, to nations, courageous and
free, since they thus captivate the admiration of posterity!

Corinne observed to Lord Nelville that there were very few remains of
the Republican age to be found at Rome. The aqueducts, the canals formed
under ground, for the distribution of water, were the only luxury of the
Republic and the kings who preceded it. They have only left us useful
edifices: tombs raised to the memory of their great men, and some
temples of brick, which still subsist. It was not until after the
conquest of Sicily that the Romans for the first time made use of marble
for their monuments; but it is sufficient to behold places where great
actions have occurred, to experience an indefinable emotion. It is to
this disposition of the soul that we must attribute the religious power
of pilgrimages. Celebrated countries of every kind, even when stripped
of their great men and of their monuments, preserve their effect upon
the imagination. What struck our sight no longer exists, but the charm
of