Meanwhile the big drum, tambourine, tam-tam, clarionet, bagpipe, etc, etc., announced with joyous din that the crowd must turn their steps elsewhere, and show to others all this paraphernalia of rejoicing. The palanquin was borne toward the streets. From time to time the march was suspended, the music ceased, and the young dancers resumed and continued for nearly an hour their agile feats of strength.
So the night passed, and the first rays of the sun announced that it was time to end it all. The husband and wife descended from the palanquin to hear mass, and then entered upon real life; the wedding was over. In the evening a car drawn by two magnificent oxen, transported the bride, accompanied by several relatives, to the village of her husband, who escorted the family, mounted upon a pretty white horse.
AMACAREI, Sept 29th, 1865.
From the Dublin Review
ROME THE CIVILIZER OF NATIONS.
1. Le Parfum de Rome. Par Louis Veuillot. 3me edition. Paris: Gaume Frères. 1862.
2. Rome et la Civilisation. Par EUGENE MAHON DE MONAGHAN. Paris: Charles Douniol. 1863.
The useful little work which stands at the head of this article, by M. Mahon de Monaghan, (whose name would, perhaps, be more correctly printed M. MacMahon de Monaghan,) may be regarded as a supplement to the more important volume of the Abbé Balmez. "The study of church history in its relations with civilization," he told us, "is still incomplete;" and the writer before us seems to have taken this as a hint, and to have conceived the laudable plan of pursuing further some of the Spanish divine's arguments, and strengthening them by new illustrations gathered from history. "Le Parfum de Rome" is a work of another description, but bearing on the same subject. It consists of many discursive reflections on Rome, as the residence of the Vicar of Christ, and is full of point, brilliancy, and humor.
When a Catholic, who has enjoyed the advantage of a good education, and is accustomed to habits of reflection, arrives for the first time in Rome, he is usually overwhelmed by the multitude of objects offered to his attention, and requires time to select, arrange, and analyze them. The light is too vivid, the colors are too varied, the perfume is too strong. Two thousand years, richly laden with historic events, crowd his memory; the united [{639}] glories of the past and the present kindle his imagination; the sublime mysteries of religion, marvellously localized, exercise his faith; long galleries thronged with the rarest productions of art court his gaze, and a presence peculiar to the spot, which he feeds, but cannot yet define, completes his pleading bewilderment in heart and brain. By degrees the tumult of thought subsides, and order begins to rise out of chaotic beauty. The traveller is resolved to render his sensations precise, and he asks himself emphatically, "Whence springs the resistless charm of Rome? Wherein does the true glory of Rome consist? What is this nameless presence that mantles all things with divinity? Where does the Shekinah reside?"
Then more and more clearly, the voice of Rome herself is heard in reply: "This is the home of the vicar of Christ, the throne of the fisherman, the seat of that long line of pontiffs who, like a chain of gold, bind our erring globe to Emmanuel's footstool. This garden is fertilized by the blood of Peter and Paul, and of thirty Popes: hence all its amazing produce; hence its exquisite fragrance and perennial bloom. These are the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief of the church militant; and Christ himself is present here in the person of his viceroy, promulgating a law above all human laws, inflexible, uniform, merciful, and strict. He diffuses this grateful perfume; he colors every object with rainbow tints; he sheds this dazzling light which causes Rome to shine like a gem with a myriad facets. The Lord loveth the gates of Rome more than of old he loved the gates of Zion; he lives in the solemn utterances of his high priest, and speaks by him as of old he spoke by the Urim and Thummim that sparkled on Aaron's breast. Here he so multiplies sacraments, that all you see becomes sacramental; and here you find, in the father of the faithful, the most perfect representation of your Incarnate God, and the most certain pledge of his resurrection."
If the peculiar presence of Christ thus hallows Christian Rome, it cannot be matter of surprise that she also should be an enigma to the world, and have a twofold character; that she should be one thing to the eye and another to the mind; one thing to Gibbon and Goethe, [Footnote 132] and another thing altogether to Chateaubriand and Schlegel; that she should have her seasons of gloom and jubilee, of persecution and triumph; should require in each to be interpreted by faith; and that every page of her history should share in this double aspect. Thus Rome resembles Christ; and in this resemblance lies her glory and her strength. Other glories she has which do not directly come from him. She had them of old before he came; the inroad of barbaric hordes, age after age, could not trample them out, and they endure abundantly to this day. These the world understands; these she extols with ceaseless praises, and sends her children from every clime in troops to do homage at their ancient shrines. The worldling, enamoured of these, exclaims: