fect an instrument for the restraining and corrupting the
education of all the rest of the people? To endow this priesthood,--what
else would it be but to give them an additional influence and power, to
be used always for their own aggrandisement, and the strengthening of
their own usurpations? The donative of a Protestant government would not
make them dependent upon that government; they have sources of wealth in
their own superstitions; they draw their vitality, and strike their
roots, in a far other soil than the crafty munificence of an opponent.
They would use the gift as best it pleased them, and defy a
government--anxious only for peace--to withdraw it. No! even if the
tranquillity of the empire should require the two churches to be placed
on an equal footing, I still would not endow the Roman Catholic.--But
pardon me,--what have we to do with the politics of England here?"

"I cannot tell you," said Mildred, quite acquiescing in this dismissal
of the subject. "I cannot tell you what a singular pleasure it gave me
when I first saw the _classic_ ruin--the few upright Corinthian pillars
with their entablature across them, and the broken column lying at their
feet--which the pictures of Claude make us so familiar with. It must be
confessed, that the back-ground of my picture--such as the _Campo
Vaccino_ afforded me--was not exactly what a Claude would have selected.
How different in character and significance are the two ruins--the
classic and the romantic! The one square, well-defined,
well-proportioned, speaks of an age of _order_,--when Time stood still a
little, and looked with complacency on what he was about; the other,
with its round towers of unequal height, its arches of all shapes and
dimensions, full of grandeur, but never exhibiting either completeness
or congruity, tells us clearly of a period of turmoil and disorder, and
great designs withal,--when Time had struck his tent, and was hurrying
on in confused march, with bag and baggage, knight, standard, and the
sutler's wagon all jumbled together.--Let us, on our return, pass
through that group of desolate Corinthians; and, looking in at the
Capitol, bid farewell to the _Dying Gladiator_."

In retracing their steps, they therefore passed through the old forum,
and then ascending the Capitol, entered the museum there, and renewed
their impression of that admirable statue. What pain!--but pain
overmastered--on that brow, as he sinks in death! Nor was the