tains of water are playing in the pavilions, and long vistas of sculpture carry the eye a quarter of a mile in length. The apartments amount to many thousands: the wonder is that any man ever undertook to count them. All description of this place seems an utterly vain attempt. It is realizing the dreams of fairy splendor to wander over it. After the ceremonies of the Holy Week are over, strangers generally leave the city, and Rome becomes a quiet place. There is little traffic or industry here, although the population is nearly double that of Boston. No rattling of carts over the pavements, no throng of busy passengers in the streets, give tokens of active business. The shop keepers sit idly at their counters, and look as if a customer would astonish them. Two or three little feluccas lie at a landing-place in the Tiber, unloading coffee and sugar from Marseilles, and this is all that looks like commerce. Rome has nothing to export but rags and pozzolana, or volcanic sand, which, mixed with lime, forms the composition known as Roman cement. At sunset the genteel classes ride out in their carriages to the gardens in the neighborhood of the city, and this gives some appearance of life to the place at that time. But far the greater part of the day the streets are lonely and still. The shopkeepers close their doors after dinner and go to sleep.

Rome is full of splendid palaces and churches, profusely and magnificently adorned with pictures, sculptures, precious stones, gilding, and every other sort of embellishment. The shrines of the saints are very curious. They are covered all over with votive offerings from persons who have been sick or have escaped from accidents. If a man is in danger of drowning, or is run over by a horse, or gets a bang on the shin, or has a sore finger, he makes a vow to his

favorite saint, and, after his escape or recovery, gives him a present of a little silver ship, or leg, or finger, which is stuck up in the church as a memento of the saint's intercession and the man's gratitude. In this manner you may see the walls of a church covered, for many yards square, with silver legs, toes, arms, hands, fingers, hearts, ears, noses, and nobody knows what else. A traveller unacquainted with the fact might take them for hieroglyphics. All sorts of rich offerings are made to these shrines. I have seen the figure of a saint in a glass case completely covered with gold watches, rings, bracelets, necklaces, &c. When the saint finds himself so overloaded with ornaments as to leave no room for any more, he allows himself to be stripped. The watches and jewels are sold, and the shrine is open for new presents. It is easy to see how, in a long course of years, this practice, and others similar, have brought into the treasury of the church that abundance of wealth which has been lavished upon the magnificent edifices of this country. The votive offerings above described are so numerous and constant that the silversmiths have always for sale, heads, legs, hearts, arms, &c., of all sizes, to suit the customer as to wealth or devotion. Sometimes the offering is accompanied with a painting descriptive of the event commemorated; and you see a portion of the church walls covered with the oddest pictures in the world. A man is tumbling down a ladder; another is run over by a carriage; another is knocked on the head with a club; another is kicked by a horse; another is running for life, with a mad bull at his heels; another is sick abed, with a most alarming array of doctors and apothecaries around him, &c.

Fountains are abundant throughout the city: and it is most agreeable, in the hot weather which prevails here for the

greater part of the year, to hear the murmur and bubbling of the rills and jets of water which adorn every street. When we consider the enormous sums of money which the ancient Romans expended upon their aqueducts, and behold the immense lines of arches that stretch across the country, we cannot be surprised that the modern city is better. supplied with water than any other place in the world. It is brought from a great distance, as the water in the neighborhood is very bad. In one of my rambles, a few miles from the city, I passed a stream running into the Tiber, which appeared almost as white as milk, and had a strong smell of sulphur. All the country round here is of volcanic origin; yet there has been no eruption or appearance of subterranean fire within the memory of man.

Rome is a fine residence for a person with a small income, no business to do, and the wish to get as much as possible for his money. House-rent is as low as one can reasonably desire. You may lodge in a palace with galleries paved with marble and the walls covered with the finest paintings; for the Roman nobles are poor and proud; they will not sell their palaces or pictures, even though threatened with starvation; but they let their best rooms to lodgers, and live in the garrets. In all Rome I saw but one new house-a sure sign of the low value of real estate. The markets are cheap; clothing costs about half what it does in America. The people have some queer ways in buying and selling. Many things sell by the pound, which we never think of putting into scales: apples, cherries, green peas, firewood, charcoal, &c. I inquired as to a pair of woollen stockings at a shop, and the goods were weighed before I could be told the price. I bespoke a pair of boots, and calling one day to see if they were done, I found the shoemaker at

work upon them, but the leather had never been colored. " 'Body of Bacchus!" said I-for that is the current Roman exclamation-"I don't want yellow boots, Signior Lapstonaccia!" I was surprised, however, to be told that the Roman cobblers always made the shoes first and colored the leather afterwards.

The greater part of the campagna or open country about the city is kept waste by the malaria or unwholesome air of summer. What is the cause or nature of this noxious vapor, no one has yet been able to discover. The soil is perfectly dry, and there is no marshy land or stagnant water in the neighborhood which can impart unhealthy moisture to the atmosphere. The sky is beautifully clear in almost every season, and each breeze that blows seems to savor of nothing but balmy purity. Nevertheless, the country for miles is uninhabitable, and shows a desolate plain, with a field of wheat here and there, or a few scattered willow trees and thickets of bramble. Shepherds feed their flocks among the ruins during the healthy season; but there are no villages till you come to the hills of Albano, Frascati and Tivoli, in which neighborhood the Romans have their country seats.

The malaria also infests the city, particularly the ruinous portion. Strangers seldom pass the summer in Rome on this account, although I was told there is no danger of sickness for any one who does not go out at night, and takes care to sleep with the windows shut. The unhealthy season is from June to September. During the remaining months Rome is thought to be as healthy as any spot in the world. The winter is delightful, being mostly like the finest October weather in New England.

I could fill a book with stories about this wonderful place; but the brief space allotted to me makes it necessary to pass on in my story.

THIS event, described in the sixth and seventh chapters of Genesis, is one of the most wonderful that is recorded in the history of the world. It was a judg ment sent upon the earth by the Almighty, in consequence of the great wickedness of mankind. His purpose was to destroy not man only, but the animal tribes, except a pair of each species, so as to repeople the earth, after having thus set before the world, for all future time, a fearful warning against disobedience of his commands.

This great catastrophe occurred 1656 years after the creation, and more than 4000 years ago. We have not only the testimony of the Bible to assure us that this event actually occurred, but most nations, particularly those of high antiquity, have either historical records or traditions of such an occurrence. account given of it in Genesis is one of the finest pieces of description that has ever been penned; but it is very general, and gives us few details, or minute incidents. Yet the imagination can easily

The

portray many affecting scenes that must have been witnessed in the fearful overthrow of the great human family.

Noah, who was a good and wise man, was forewarned of the coming destruction, and, by the command of God, he built an ark, of vast dimensions, and which cost him the labor of a hundred years. It was a sort of bark, being shaped somewhat like a chest or trunk. It was larger than the largest vessels of modern times. It is a large ship that measures a thousand tons, yet Noah's ark measured forty-two thousand tons!

Into this ark Noah collected his family, and a pair of each kind of bird, each kind of quadruped, and each kind of reptile. Under the guidance of the Almighty, this vessel and its numerous inhabitants floated safely on the water for a whole year.

Here they were fed, and here the lion was made to lie down with the kid. When, at last, the waters had subsided, and the ark rested upon the land, then they all came forth.

This story of Noah and his family is