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THE TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. Pp. 80, 150.
_A Day in Ancient Rome_. Edgar S. Shumway. P. 44.

THE TEMPLE OF VESTA.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. Pp. 75, 160.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. ii, p. 689.
_The Life of the Greeks and Romans_. Guhl and Koner. P. 319.
_Italian Note-Books_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. P. 128.

THE TEMPLE OF SATURN.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. P. 77.
_Rome of To-day and Yesterday_. John Dennie. P. 29.
_Walks in Rome_. Augustus J.C. Hare. P. 143.

POEM.--Dedication Hymn.
_Poems_. Nathaniel P. Willis. P. 91.

ST. PETER'S.
A Walk in Rome. Oscar Kuhns. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xxxiv, p. 57.
A Night in St. Peter's. T. Adolphus Trollope. _Atlantic Monthly_.
Vol. xl, p. 409.

HAWTHORNE'S VISIT TO ST. PETER'S.
_Italian Note-Books_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Pp. 64, 143.

DICKENS' IMPRESSIONS OF ROMAN CHURCHES.
_Pictures from Italy_. Charles Dickens. P. 133.

POEM.--Jupiter and His Children.
John G. Saxe.

SOME RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS

"In the house of every Greek and Roman was an altar; on this altar
there had always to be a small quantity of ashes, and a few lighted
coals. The fire ceased to glow upon the altar only when the entire
family had perished; an extinguished hearth, an extinguished family,
were synonymous expressions among the ancients."
--de Coulanges

THE PAGAN RELIGION.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. i.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. i, Chap. i.
_Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_. W. Warde Fowler.
Chap. xi.

SOME ROMAN GODDESSES.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. Charles Mills Gayley.
Chap. x.
_Vergil_. Introduction. Charles Knapp.

THE PENATES.
_The Ancient City_. Fustel De Coulanges. Chap. xvi.

THE BLESSING OF ANIMALS.
_Roba di Roma_. William W. Story. P. 462.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. iii.

CHILDREN'S DAY IN ROME.
_Heroic Happenings_. Elbridge S. Brooks. P. 89.

THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS.
_Roba di Roma_. William W. Story. P. 142.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. i.

EASTER TIME IN ROME.
Anne Hollingsworth Wharton. _Lippincott's Magazine_. Vol. lxxix,
p. 528.

A ROMAN CITIZEN.
_Bible_. Acts, xxii, 25.

POEM.--Elysium.
_Poems and Ballads of Schiller_. Tr. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
P. 369.

THE INFERNAL REGIONS.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. Charles Mills Gayley.
P. 354.
_The Aeneid_. Vergil. Book vi.

SOME FAMOUS PICTURES AND SCULPTURE

_Vita brevis, ars longa._

HOW TO STUDY PICTURES.
Charles H. Caffin. _Saint Nicholas_. Vol. xxxii, p. 23.

ODE.--Upon the Sight of a Beautiful Picture.
_Complete Poems_. William Wordsworth. P. 399.

SCULPTURE IN ANCIENT ROME.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. v.

THE SCULPTURE GALLERY OF THE CAPITOL AT ROME.
_The Marble Faun_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Chap. i.

POEM.--The Celestial Runaway: Phaeton.
_Poetical Works_. John G. Saxe. P. 233.

DIDO BUILDING CARTHAGE.
_The Aeneid_. Vergil. Book i, 418-440.

BYRON'S IMPRESSION OF THE LAOCOoeN.
_Childe Harold_. Canto iv, clx.

SHELLEY'S IMPRESSION OF THE LAOCOoeN.
_The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley_. Harry Buxton Forman.
Vol. iii, p. 44.

ATALANTA'S FOOT RACE.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. Charles Mills Gayley.
P. 139.
_Hellenic Tales_. Edmund J. Carpenter. P. 80.

POEM.--Ode on a Grecian Urn.
_Complete Poetical Works_. John Keats. P. 134.

THE FAUN OF PRAXITELES.
_The Marble Faun_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Chap. i.

POEM.--A Likeness.
Willa S. Cather. _Literary Digest_. Vol. xlviii, p. 219.

ROMAN BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

_Vita sine litteris mors est._

ROMAN BOOKS.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. i, p. 401.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. Pp. 182, 199.
_The Private Life of the Romans_. H.W. Johnston. P. 290.

CICERO'S LIBRARY.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. i, p. 405.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. P. 180.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN ROME.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. i, p. 413.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. Chap. vii.
_The Life of the Greeks and Romans_. Guhl and Koner. P. 531.

THE BOOK MARKETS.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. P. 183.
_The Life of the Greeks and Romans_. Guhl and Koner. P. 529.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. vi.

ANCIENT MYTHS AND LEGENDS

"O antique fables! beautiful and bright,
And joyous with the joyous youth of yore;
O antique fables! for a little light
Of that which shineth in you evermore,
To cleanse the dimness from our weary eyes
And bathe our old world with a new surprise
Of golden dawn entrancing sea and shore.
--James Thomson

SONG.--Hymn to the Dawn.
_Dido: An Epic Tragedy_. Miller and Nelson. P. 61.

THE RELATION OF THE CLASSIC MYTHS TO LITERATURE.
The Influence of the Classics on American Literature. Paul Shorey.
_Chautauqua_. Vol. xliii, p. 121.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. C.M. Gayley. Introduction.

THE ORIGIN OF MYTHS.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. C.M. Gayley. P. 431.

MYTHOLOGY IN ART.
Classic Myths in Modern Art. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xlii, p. 455.

THE MYTH OF ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. C.M. Gayley. P. 106.

TARPEIA AND THE TARPEIAN ROCK.
_Walks in Rome_. Augustus J.C. Hare. P. 118.
_The Marble Faun_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Chap. xiii.
The Origin and Growth of the Myth about Tarpeia. Henry A. Sanders.
_School Review_. Vol. viii, p. 323.

LAMIA. _Complete Poetical Works_. John Keats. P. 146.

PLAY.--Persephone.
_Children's Classics in Dramatic Form_. Augusta Stevenson. Vol. iv.

RECITATION.--Mangled Mythology.
_Literary Digest_. Vol. xxxix, p. 1110.

THE ANCIENT MYTH IN MODERN LITERATURE

"The debt of literature to the myth-makers of the Mediterranean has
been an endless one starting at Mt. Olympus, and flowing down in
fertilizing streams through all the literary ages."
--James A. Harrison

ICARUS.
_Poetical Works_. Bayard Taylor. P. 88.

ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTE.
_Henry VIII_. William Shakespeare. Act. iii, scene i.

IPHIGENIA AND AGAMEMNON.
The Shades of Agamemnon and Iphigenia. _Poems and Dialogues in
Verse_. Walter Savage Landor. Vol. i, p. 78.

VENUS AND VULCAN.
_Poetical Works_. John G. Saxe. P. 238.

PANDORA.
_Poetical Works_. Bayard Taylor. P. 203.

THE LEGEND OF ST. MARK.
_Poetical Works_. John G. Whittier. P. 36.

ICARUS: OR THE PERIL OF THE BORROWED PLUMES.
_Poetical Works_. John G. Saxe. P. 229.

LAODAMIA.
_Complete Poetical Works_. William Wordsworth. P. 525.

THE LOTUS EATERS
_Poetical Works_. Alfred Tennyson. P. 51.

THE SHEPHERD OF KING ADMETUS.
_Complete Poetical Works_. James Russell Lowell. P. 44.
_Classic Myths in English Literature_. C.M. Gayley. P. 131.

CERES.
Bliss Carman. _Literary Digest_. Vol. xlv, p. 347.

PERSEPHONE.
_Poetical Works_. Jean Ingelow. P. 181.

WHAT ENGLISH OWES TO GREEK

"We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our
arts, have their root in Greece."

THE INFLUENCE OF GREEK ON ENGLISH.
The Iliad in Art. Eugene Parsons. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xvi. p. 643.
The Greek in English. E.L. Miller. _School Review_. Vol. xiii,
p. 390.

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANCIENT GREECE.
Edward Capps. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xxiv, p. 290.
_The Life of the Greeks and Romans_. Guhl and Koner. P. 183.

THE MODERN MAID OF ATHENS AND HER BROTHERS OF TO-DAY.
William E. Waters. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xvii, p. 259.

OUR POETS' DEBT TO HOMER.
English Poems on Greek Subjects. James Richard Joy. _Chautauqua_.
Vol. xvii, p. 271.

ATHENS AS IT APPEARS TO-DAY.
In and about Modern Athens. William E. Waters. _Chautauqua_. Vol.
xvii, p. 131.
Skirting the Balkan Peninsula. Robert Hichens. _Century Magazine_.
Vol. lxiv, p. 84.

GREECE REVISITED.
Martin L. D'Ooge. _Nation_. Vol. xcvi, p. 569.

THE INFLUENCE OF GREEK ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.
W.H. Goodyear. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xvi, pp. 3, 131, 259.

MODERN ROME

"What shall I say of the modern city? Rome is yet the capital of the
world."
--Shelley

POEM.--The Voices of Rome.
_Poetical Works_. Bayard Taylor. P. 202.

THE BEAUTY OF ROME.
Rome. Maurice Maeterlinck. _Critic_. Vol. xlvi, p. 362.

SHELLEY'S IMPRESSION OF ROME.
_With Shelley in Italy_. Anna B. McMahan. P. 70.

A FRENCHMAN'S IMPRESSION OF ROME.
_The Italians of To-day_. Rene Bazin. P. 94.

POEM.--At Rome.
_Poetical Works_. William Wordsworth. P. 749.

HAWTHORNE'S MOONLIGHT WALK IN ROME
_Italian Note-Books_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. P. 173.

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL IN ROME.
Howard Crosby Butler. _Critic_. Vol. xxiii, p. 466.

THE VATICAN.
_Roba di Roma_. William W. Story. P. 534.
The City of the Saints. Lyman Abbott. _Harper's Magazine_. Vol.
xlv, p. 169.
_Walks in Rome_. Augustus J.C. Hare. Chap. xvi.

THE PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN ROME.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. ii, p. 512.
_Roba di Roma_. William W. Story. P. 509.
_Walks in Rome_. Augustus J.C. Hare. P. 698.
_With Shelley in Italy_. Anna B. McMahan. Pp. 228, 241.
_Literary Landmarks of Rome_. Laurence Hutton. P. 35.

POEM.--The Grave of Keats.
_The Poems of Oscar Wilde_. Vol. ii, p. 5.

THE TIBER.
_Rome of To-day and Yesterday_. John Dennie. P. 7.
_Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries_. Rodolfo
Lanciani. P. 232.
Following the Tiber. _Lippincott's Magazine_. Vol. xv, p. 30.

POEM.--Roman Antiquities.
_Poetical Works_. William Wordsworth. P. 695.

THE EXPENSE OF LIVING IN ROME.
_Roma Beata_. Maud Howe. Pp. 28, 250.

POEM.--February in Rome.
_On Viol and Flute_. Edmund W. Gosse. P. 53.

POEM.--What he saw in Europe.
_Current Literature_. Vol. xxxvi, p. 365.

POEM.--Rome Unvisited.
_The Poems of Oscar Wilde_. Vol. i, p. 64.

POEM.--Roman Girl's Song.
_Poetical Works_. Mrs. Hemans. P. 227.

ITALY OF TO-DAY

"No sudden goddess through the rushes glides,
No eager God among the laurels hides;
Jove's eagle mopes beside an empty throne,
Persephone and Ades sit alone
By Lethe's hollow shore."
--Nora Hopper

SONNET.--On Approaching Italy.
_The Poems of Oscar Wilde_. Vol. i, p. 59.

NAPLES.
_Lectures_. John L. Stoddard. Naples. Vol. viii, p. 115.
_Peeps at Many Lands_. Italy. John Finnemore. Chap. xiii.

CERTAIN THINGS IN NAPLES.
_Italian Journeys_. W.D. Howells. P. 80.

A SCHOOL IN NAPLES.
_Italian Journeys_. W.D. Howells. P. 139.

ITALIAN RECOLLECTIONS.
More Letters of a Diplomat's Wife. Mary King Waddington.
_Scribner's Magazine_. Vol. xxxvii, p. 204.

THE ITALIAN PEASANTRY.
_Roma Beata_. Maud Howe. P. 34.
_Peeps at Many Lands_. Italy. John Finnemore. Chap. xix.

A STROLL ON THE PINCIAN HILL.
_The Marble Faun_. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Chap. xii.

HOTELS IN ITALY.
_Roman Holidays and Others_. W.D. Howells. Chap. vi, p. 68.

A MODERN ITALIAN FARMYARD AS SEEN BY SHELLEY.
_The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley_. Harry Buxton Forman.
Vol. iv, p. 43.

SCHOOL LIFE IN ITALY.
Glimpses of School Life in Italy. Mary Sifton Pepper. _Chautauqua_.
Vol. xxxv, p. 550.
Education in Italy. Alex Oldrini. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xviii, p. 413.

A NIGHT IN ITALY.
_Exits and Entrances_. Charles Warren Stoddard. P. 41.

POEM.--In Italy.
_Poetical Works_. Bayard Taylor. P. 130.

LIFE IN MODERN ITALY.
In Italy. John H. Vincent. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xviii, p. 387.
Life in Modern Italy. Bella H. Stillman. _Chautauqua_. Vol. xi,
p. 6.

O TEMPORA! O MORES!

"The seeds of godlike power are in us still;
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!"
--Matthew Arnold

POEM.--The Watch of the Old Gods.

POVERTY AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMANS.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. iii.
_The Private Life of the Romans_. H.W. Johnston. P. 305.
_The Ancient City_. Fustel De Coulanges. P. 449.

POVERTY AMONG THE AMERICANS.
The Problem of Poverty. Robert Hunter. _Outlook_. Vol. lxxix,
p. 902.
The Weary World of Human Misery. _World's Work_. Vol. xvi,
p. 10526.
_How the Other Half Lives_. Jacob Riis. Chap. xxii, p. 255.

THE CRAZE FOR AMUSEMENT AMONG THE ANCIENT ROMANS.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. Chap. ix.
_Readings in Ancient History_. Rome and the West. William Stearns
Davis. P. 194.

THE CRAZE FOR AMUSEMENT AMONG THE AMERICANS.
What New York spends at the Theaters. _Literary Digest_. Vol. xlv,
p. 19.

LUXURY AND EXTRAVAGANCE IN ANCIENT ROME.
_Rome: The Eternal City_. Clara Erskine Clement. Vol. ii, pp. 524,
529.
_Society in Rome under the Caesars_. William Ralph Inge. P. 262.
_Readings in Ancient History_. Rome and the West. William Stearns
Davis. P. 305.

LUXURY AND EXTRAVAGANCE AMONG AMERICANS.
Newport: The City of Luxury. Jonathan T. Lincoln. _Atlantic
Monthly_. Vol. cii, p. 162.
Housekeeping on Half-a-million a Year. Emily Harington.
_Everybody's_. Vol. xiv, p. 497.
_The Passing of the Idle Rich_. Frederick Townsend Martin. Chap.
ii, p. 23.

POEM.--_Tempora Mutantur_.
_Poetical Works_. John G. Saxe. P. 98.

* * * * *

SELECTIONS THAT MAY BE USED

FOR THE PROGRAMS

* * * * *

A PLEA FOR THE CLASSICS[1]

A Boston gentleman declares,
By all the gods above, below,
That our degenerate sons and heirs
Must let their Greek and Latin go!
Forbid, O Fate, we loud implore,
A dispensation harsh as that;
What! wipe away the sweets of yore;
The dear "_amo, amas, amat?_"

The sweetest hour the student knows
Is not when poring over French,
Or twisted in Teutonic throes,
Upon a hard collegiate bench;
'Tis when on roots and kais and gars
He feeds his soul and feels it glow,
Or when his mind transcends the stars
With "_Zoa mou, sas agapo!_"

So give our bright, ambitious boys
An inkling of these pleasures, too--
A little smattering of the joys
Their dead and buried fathers knew;
And let them sing--while glorying that
Their sires so sang, long years ago--
The songs "_amo, amas, amat_"
And "_Zoa mou, sas agapo!_"

--Eugene Field

[Footnote in original book (published 1916):
Copyright. Used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.]

ON AN OLD LATIN TEXT BOOK

I remember the very day when the schoolmaster gave it to me.... And I
remember that the rather stern and aquiline face of our teacher relaxed
into mildness for a moment. Both we and our books must have looked very
fresh and new to him, though we may all be a little battered now; at
least, my _New Latin Tutor_ is. It is a very precious book, and it
should be robed in choice Turkey morocco, were not the very covers too
much a part of the association to be changed. For between them I
gathered the seed-grain of many harvests of delight; through this low
archway I first looked upon the immeasurable beauty of words....

What liquid words were these: _aqua_, _aura_, _unda_! All English poetry
that I had yet learned by heart--it is only children who learn by heart,
grown people "commit to memory"--had not so awakened the vision of what
literature might mean. Thenceforth all life became ideal....

Then human passion, tender, faithful, immortal, came also by and
beckoned. "But let me die," she said. "Thus, thus it delights me to go
under the shades." Or that infinite tenderness, the stronger even for
its opening moderation of utterance, the last sigh of Aeneas after
Dido,--

Nec me meminisse pigebit Elissam
Dum memor ipse mihi, dum spiritus hos regit artus....

Or, with more definite and sublime grandeur, the vast forms of Roman
statesmanship appear: "Today, Romans, you behold the commonwealth, the
lives of you all, estates, fortunes, wives and children, and the seat of
this most renowned empire, this most fortunate and beautiful city,
preserved and restored to you by the distinguished love of the immortal
gods, and by my toils, counsels, and dangers."

What great thoughts were found within these pages, what a Roman vigor
was in these maxims! "It is Roman to do and suffer
bravely." "It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country." "He that
gives himself up to pleasure, is not worthy the name of a man."...

There was nothing harsh or stern in this book, no cynicism, no
indifference; but it was a flower-garden of lovely out-door allusions, a
gallery of great deeds; and as I have said before, it formed the child's
first real glimpse into the kingdom of words.

I was once asked by a doctor of divinity, who was also the overseer of a
college, whether I ever knew any one to look back with pleasure upon his
early studies in Latin and Greek. It was like being asked if one looked
back with pleasure on summer mornings and evenings. No doubt those
languages, like all others, have fared hard at the hands of pedants; and
there are active boys who hate all study, and others who love the
natural sciences alone. Indeed, it is a hasty assumption, that the
majority of boys hate Latin and Greek. I find that most college
graduates, at least, retain some relish for the memory of such studies,
even if they have utterly lost the power to masticate or digest them.
"Though they speak no Greek, they love the sound on't." Many a
respectable citizen still loves to look at his Horace or Virgil on the
shelf where it has stood undisturbed for a dozen years; he looks, and
thinks that he too lived in Arcadia.... The books link him with culture,
and universities, and the traditions of great scholars.

On some stormy Sunday, he thinks, he will take them down. At length he
tries it; he handles the volume awkwardly, as he does his infant; but it
is something to be able to say that neither book nor baby has been
actually dropped. He likes to know that there is a tie between him and
each of these possessions, though he is willing, it must be owned, to
leave the daily care of each in more familiar hands....

I must honestly say that much of the modern outcry against classical
studies seems to me to be (as in the case of good Dr. Jacob Bigelow) a
frank hostility to literature itself, as the supposed rival of science;
or a willingness (as in Professor Atkinson's
case) to tolerate modern literature, while discouraging the study of the
ancient. Both seem to commit the error of drawing their examples of
abuse from England, and applying their warnings to America.... Because
the House of Commons was once said to care more for a false quantity in
Latin verse than in English morals, shall we visit equal indignation on
a House of Representatives that had to send for a classical dictionary
to find out who Thersites was?...

Granted, that foreign systems of education may err by insisting on the
arts of literary structure too much; think what we should lose by
dwelling on them too little! The magic of mere words; the mission of
language; the worth of form as well as of matter; the power to make a
common thought immortal in a phrase, so that your fancy can no more
detach the one from the other than it can separate the soul and body of
a child; it was the veiled half revelation of these things that made
that old text-book forever fragrant to me. There are in it the still
visible traces of wild flowers which I used to press between the pages,
on the way to school; but it was the pressed flowers of Latin poetry
that were embalmed there first. These are blossoms that do not fade.

--Thomas Wentworth Higginson

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S LOVE OF LATIN

Andrew Lang, in his _Adventures Among Books_, writes:

"Saint Augustine, like Sir Walter Scott at the University of Edinburgh,
was 'The Greek Dunce.' Both of these great men, to their sorrow and
loss, absolutely and totally declined to learn Greek. 'But what the
reason was why I hated the Greek language, while I was taught it, being
a child, I do not yet understand.' The Saint was far from being alone in
that distaste, and he who writes loathed Greek like poison--till he came
to Homer. Latin the Saint loved, except 'when reading, writing, and
casting of accounts was taught in Latin, which I held not far less
painful or penal than the very Greek. I wept for Dido's death, who made
herself away with the sword,' he declares, 'and even so, the saying that
two and two makes four was an ungrateful song in mine ears, whereas the
wooden horse full of armed men, the burning of Troy, and the very Ghost
of Creusa, was a most delightful spectacle of vanity.'"

THE WATCH OF THE OLD GODS

Were the old gods watching yet,
From their cloudy summits afar,
At evening under the evening star,
After the star is set,
Would they see in these thronging streets,
Where the life of the city beats
With endless rush and strain,
Men of a better mold,
Nobler in heart and brain,
Than the men of three thousand years ago,
In the pagan cities old,
O'er which the lichens and ivy grow?

Would they not see as they saw
In the younger days of the race,
The dark results of broken law,
In the bent form and brutal face
Of the slave of passions as old as earth,
And young as the infants of last night's birth?
Alas! the old gods no longer keep
Their watch from the cloudy steep;
But, though all on Olympus lie dead
Yet the smoke of commerce still rolls
From the sacrifice of souls,
To the heaven that bends overhead.

OLD AND NEW ROME

Still, as we saunter down the crowded street,
On our own thoughts intent, and plans and pleasures,
For miles and miles beneath our idle feet,
Rome buries from the day yet unknown treasures.

The whole world's alphabet, in every line
Some stirring page of history she recalls,--
Her Alpha is the Prison Mamertine,
Her Omega, St. Paul's, without the walls.

Above, beneath, around, she weaves her spells,
And ruder hands unweave them all in vain:
Who once within her fascination dwells,
Leaves her with but one thought--to come again.

So cast thy obol into Trevi's fountain--
Drink of its waters, and, returning home,
Pray that by land or sea, by lake or mountain,
"All roads alike may lead at last to Rome."

--Herman Merivale

THE FALL OF ROME

Rome ruled in all her matchless pride,
Queen of the world, an empire-state;
Her eagles conquered far and wide;
Her word was law, her will was fate.

Within her immemorial walls
The temples of the gods looked down;
Her forum echoed with the calls
To greater conquest and renown.

All wealth, all splendor, and all might
The world could give, before her lay;
She dreamed not there could come a night
To dim the glory of her day.

Rome perished: Legions could not save,
Nor wealth, nor might, nor majesty,--
The Roman had become a slave,
But the barbarian was free.

--Arthur Chamberlain

A CHRISTMAS HYMN

It was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up to might,
And now was queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars--
Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain:
Apollo, Pallas, Jove and Mars
Held undisturbed their ancient reign,
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago.

'Twas in the calm and silent night!
The senator of haughty Rome
Impatient, urged his chariot's flight,
From lordly revel rolling home:
Triumphal arches, gleaming, swell
His breast with thoughts of boundless sway:
What recked the Roman what befell
A paltry province far away,
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago?

Within that province far away
Went plodding home a weary boor;
A streak of light before him lay,
Falling through a half shut stable-door
Across his path. He passed--for naught
Told what was going on within:
How keen the stars, his only thought--
The air how calm, and cold and thin
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago!

Oh, strange indifference! low and high
Drowsed over common joys and cares;
The earth was still--but knew not why,
The world was listening, unawares.
How calm a moment may precede
One that shall thrill the world forever!
To that still moment, none would heed,
Man's doom was linked no more to sever--
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago!

It is the calm and silent night!
A thousand bells ring out, and throw
Their joyous peals abroad, and smite
The darkness--charmed and holy now!
The night that erst no name had worn,
To it a happy name is given;
For in that stable lay, new-born,
The peaceful prince of earth and heaven,
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago!

--Alfred Dommett

ROMAN GIRL'S SONG

Rome, Rome! thou art no more
As thou hast been!
On thy seven hills of yore
Thou satt'st a queen.

Thou hadst thy triumphs then
Purpling the street,
Leaders and sceptred men
Bow'd at thy feet.

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