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invisible poison, rising from the ground, is the chief
cause of disease at Rome; and the Jews keep this
down by their constant trampling up and down,
and sitting and standing about on the pavements,
which is the surest way to block out the malaria
from rising.

In the third place, they adhere to the laws of
Moses about clean and unclean meats, and many
ceremonial observances, in which there may be
more than we Christians are apt to think.

So we will continue our course in a northerly
direction.

Presently our ears are assailed by a noise as if
all the tinpot-makers, braziers, blacksmiths, &e.,
&e., in Rome were at work in a huge pillared edi-
fice on our left hand, the Theatre of Marcellus. It
has evidently been a magnificent building, but now
it has had its arches built up, and has been divided

ROUGH NOTES ON ROME.

lose our way, and presently we will turn up to the
right by a street which will take us to the Pantheon.
We come up to the back of it, and step out into
the Piazza before we turn round and look at its
noble portico. Those pepper-boxes at the top are
a modern addition, and no improvement ; but see
those columns, each of them is nearly fifty feet in
height, all in one solid block of granite. This is
only the porch; the temple itself, as seen in the
cut, is circular, with walls in solid brickwork
nineteen feet thick, and upwards of seventy feet
high, supporting a stone dome of the same height
as the walls; a grand building, truly, and noble in
its proportions. Like the other ancient edifices o
Rome, it has suffered by time and violence. The
dome was once covered with plates of gilded
bronze, but an emperor began, and a pope finished,
the stripping of it. Yet, otherwise, there it stands

THE PANTHEON.

into dwelling-houses, workshops, marine-store shops,

of a most uninviting description, in the lower story. |
One thing that strikes us is the shortness of the
lower range of columns—quite out of proportion to
the range above it, and we wonder how it came to
be built in such a strange fashion. But it was not
built so, a large portion, perhaps a third, of the |
lower story is buried in the earth. The soil has |
risen round it to that height, for people cannot go |
on for some two thousand years, throwing all their
cabbage-stalks, dead cats, broken pottery, old shoes,
&e., &e., out of window, without making some dif-
ference in the level of the soil. Add to this all the
results which fire, decay, and violence have pro-
duced, and it is no wonder that the level of old |
Rome lies several fect below that of the modern |
city.

But we will work onward, taking care not to

in its glory, least injured of any of Rome’s
temples.

These slight sketches are a mere sample of what,
one sees ina walk through Rome. Many are the;
objects of interest which we have passed by ang
mentioned, or with the most cursory notice, but
which are worthy of, and have received, the most
curious and lengthened investigation. We will
not, therefore, linger over them any longer, but
will take a drive outside the walls for a short:
distance. We must, however, be back before
sunset, for fear of the malaria, which may be!
rising from the soil, or the cattiva gente, who may
be hiding behind some of the ruined tombs that
line the sides of the road, to rob us.

What a curious word that “cattiva” is, by the
way; in the mouth of an Italian it means any
thing that is bad, and yet it originally signified

SS