NINTH LETTER.

E are still at the ancient capital of the world.

Here is abundant evidence that the Romans were once rich, powerful, and happy, as worldly things go. These ruins bear testimony on every hand. The Arch of Constantine talks to us still of mighty victories. The Arch of Titus, in its bas-reliefs, tells us of Roman power and of Hebrew humiliation. The very stone talks to us of God's justice and impartiality, sparing not even His own when they provoked His wrath by their repeated sins.

Just as we were entering the Museum on the Palatine Hill we were surprised very agreeably by our musical son from Paris coming on us suddenly, and asking if we were in want of a guide. guide. After being so long and so widely separated, the meeting for a little robbed us of our relish for things antiquated. He had learned from our letters when we expected to reach Rome, and had ventured to come down and find us. After our surprise was over, he joined us in our pleasures over the interesting sights and relics with which Rome abounds.

In the midst of wreck and ruin on every hand, there is in good preservation a representation of the triumphal procession bearing back from Jerusalem, on the shoulders of the conquerors, the holy emblems taken from the temple. The golden candlestick is there, especially prominent. So poor, foolish Israel was robbed of her light, because she esteemed it not,

groping even unto this day, but finding not the true Light, of which this was the figure. No child of God can stand within this arch and view these chiselled records without sorrow.

And here, too, are the Forum and the Coliseum, which tell us of the pleasures of Rome in her palmy days. What millions of gold have been lavished on these places of amusement! We were astonished at the durability of the walls. One must admire the

skill of those old builders who could run up a roofless wall of seventy or eighty feet, and make it stand the storms and earthquake shocks of twenty centuries. Within these galleries 100,000 spectators used to assemble to witness the games and gladiatorial combats in the open space in the centre, or (water having been turned in), naval fights in such real earnest that men were killed for the mere amusement of those who looked on. Here are the lofty ceilings and leaden pipes, and bright pictured walls which gave comfort and elegance to the imperial household.

THE COLISEUM.

BY CLARENCE LUCAS.

Colossal remnant!

Vast and mighty ruin ;

Thou crumbling echo of great Emperors gone;
Like the vague memory of a glorious dream
Remainest thou. Shadow of vanished splendor,
Thy limpid fountains stifled up with slime,

Thy kingly lion's den a silent cave,
Thy monarch's balcony a bed of weeds,
Thy vast arena green, that oft ran blood.

The brooding owl hoots nightly unmolested,
Where first some trembling maid confessed her love;
The skulking rat his midnight feast engorges

Of refuse on the throne where Cæsar sat.