SECRETARY'S REPORT. 273 



in tlic world, solemn and grand, eloquent and instructive in its 

 beauty. The half of the great oval which remains rises to an 

 elevation of a hundred and sixty feet, and there is enough of 

 the interior left, though many parts are crumbled and rent, to 

 give a good idea of its construction. Imagine a hundred thou- 

 sand human beings, the rank, the power, and beauty of Rome, 

 seated within the vast walls ! When it was dedicated under 

 Titus, the festivities lasted a hundred days, and ten thousand 

 wild beasts, mostly brought from Africa, were slain there, 

 together with captives and gladiators in great numbers. The 

 ruins are now covered with grass and wild flowers, moss and 

 shrubs growing in the crevices, and clinging to the walls out- 

 side, hanging pendant or shooting their graceful forms towards 

 heaven. Very nearly three hundred different species of plants 

 are found growing in the ruins of the Colosseum. 



The tomb of the Scipios is close by the palace of the Caesars, 

 and after visiting that, we explored the ruins where the empe- 

 rors of Rome once dwelt. These vast ruins are now partly 

 covered and overgrown witli shrubbery. I gathered ripe peaches 

 and apricots among them, and plucked a most beautiful pome- 

 granate blossom there. The century plant grows wild, and so 

 does the fig, and I think some species of the cactus. Cicero 

 once had a house upon this hill, the Aventine, so that he was a 

 near neighbor of Augustus. 



I cannot even allude to the many objects of interest for the 

 stranger in Rome. Volumes would be required to give any 

 adequate idea of them. But there is a certain class of 

 objects which I should be glad, did my limits permit, to dwell 

 longer upon. I allude to the many relics of the Holy Land 

 which are pointed out by the devout guides, such as the stairs 

 up which the Saviour walked when he went to the council, to 

 receive his sentence from Pilate, and which are ascended now 

 only upon the knees of the penitent ; the well to which the 

 woman of Samaria came to draw water, preserved in the cloister 

 of St. John Lateran ; the very table on which the Last Supper 

 was eaten ; the measure used to show the height of Christ, 

 and a thousand others of a similar kind, but as I do not know 

 on what their authenticity rests, I must pass them over. 



I left Rome with regret. It had been so much connected 

 with my early studies that I had looked upon it as a kind of 



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