at the conclusion, that the putrid or fœtid principle of this genus "chara" is, if not the only, at least one of the principal, causes of the malaria of Italy. The Count de Tournon, in his "Etudes Statistiques sur Rome," seems decidedly of opinion that the climate is not changed; but that the ancients counteracted, or, at all events, mitigated, the effects of malaria, by their prudent modes of diet and dress, and by the suitable construction of their habitations; and in no other way can we account for the existence of the thirty flourishing towns which once existed even in the Pontine Marshes. It is easy to conceive, with this view of the case, that were the campagna of Rome distributed into small portions, and cultivated by independent proprietors, it might again be rendered safe and habitable. But who can expect such events from its present Government? whose stolid acts and apparent superstitions would almost make one see, like Shelley, in his Prometheus CHAPTER V. ROMAN RUINS. ROME is a great modern city, with busy streets, and glittering shops, and moving busy crowds; but that is not the Rome the traveller has journeyed far to behold. He seeks the scene of heroic deeds that have formed the first glowing impressions on his youthful mind; the first seeds of historic lore; the first incentives to ambitious dreams, and high emprise; he seeks to tread the ground once trodden by those who bore names familiar to his childhood, as those of kindred. Other portions of Italy derive their deepest interest from men and events belonging to modern time; but the first desire created by the name of Rome, is to behold the scene of the eventful drama of the last great empire of the ancient world. One longs to behold the spot, where stood the hall, in which the senators in their godlike state awaited the victorious Gauls; and to behold but one sculptured stone to stamp it with reality, and prove it not a fable or a dream: he longs to climb the Capitol, the scene of the early glories and later triumphs of the people of Romulus; and in its remnant masonry and neighbouring ruins, each successive description of which he has read with such avidity, behold still existing witnesses of those events, and evidences of their reality. He wishes to stand in the forum, the Forum Romanum, and judge for himself, whether the remaining ruins are evidences sufficient of the truth of pictures so firmly painted on his imagination, when it was to prove them not cheats or fables, but stern realities. With such feelings, his steps mechanically turn in the direction of the Campo Vaccino. He passes along the crowded Corso, and sees the magnificent column of Antoninus, still nearly as perfect as when first erected, though a Saint has supplanted the Emperor on its apex; driving the imperial spirit from the tomb |