252 Architecture in the United States. 
and doubtless conveyed to that of the ancient Romans, a more cheer- 
ful idea, than is suggested by all the wealth, and pomp, and splen- 
dor of the proud drowsy city of the East. Rome draws half its m- 
terest from its seven hills: from the days when Romulus and 
Remus took their auguries on the Palatine and Aventine mounts, 
till the choosing of the present Pope, on mons Vaticanus, they have 
figured most in its history : they mingle in our recollections of every 
fine description or heroic deed, and were at once the defence and or- 
nament, and just boast of that city—the queen of cities. Even the 
forum took much of its character, and its orators much of their pow- 
er from the Capitoline hill, immobile saxum, which overhung it, and 
on which the citadel and the temples of their gods stood out distinct 
and clear against the bright blue sky... Those spots still breathe a 
thrilling eloquence ; what must they have been in the days of their 
splendor and glory! We have a Rome or two in our country : [have 
never seen them, but will venture to affirm that they are built on the 
most level ground the districts could afford. The ancients under- 
stood these things far better. Constantinople is celebrated far and 
wide for its beauty as it is approached. It has minarets and domes 
without number : the minaret, tall and delicate, and always white, is 
a beautiful thing, and scarcely less so is the white swelling dome- 
But these alone would not produce an effect so like fascination, as 
the scene rises first before the traveller. It is because these domes 
and minarets rise from their proud elevation in splendid relief against 
the sky; because the hills bring now an ivy-draped aqueduct, now 
a cypress grove, now a palace, now a tower into view, making what is 
really beautiful appear so, and because that the dense mass of houses 
elow is on every variety of ground, that Constantinople takes the 
preeminence among handsome views. New York has sometimes 
been compared to it in regard to position, and the comparison is just 5 
but if the citizens of New York would have the comparison go fur- 
ther, they must save their hills, which I understand, are now fast dis- 
appearing before the levelling system, so prevalent in our Jand. A 
level spot may serve admirably for a corn-field, but whether it is best 
for a city I must now submit to the reader’s judgment. I would not 
have abrupt eminences, or high ones, or many: but should still 
prefer them to a plain: rolling ground, with sufficient inclination 
throughout, to give a brisk current after a rain, is probably the best- 
. Iwas going to say that the subject deserves further discussion, but it 
