The Old World and the New: Or, A Journal of Reflections and Observations Made on a Tour in Europe, Volume 2

Front Cover
Harper & Brothers, 1836

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 188 - It is either men's inconsiderateness, or the error of their thoughts, that is the cause of all their wickedness. " My people doth not consider." (Isa. i. 3.) Paul " verily thought that he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus.
Page 132 - Rameses, between three and four thousand years ago.' They saw ages of empire and glory before Rome had a being. They are also in the most perfect preservation. So beautifully polished, and entirely free from stain, untouched by the storms of thirty-five centuries, it seems as if they had not lost one of their particles, since they came from the quarries of Egypt. That very surface, we know, has been gazed upon by the eyes of -a hundred successive generations. Speak, dread monitors! as ye point upward...
Page 286 - I repeat, we are embarked upon the voyage, and the proper wisdom of these times is, not idly to rail against the tide that is bearing us on, but to keep a strict watch and a close reckoning, and to bring every energy and to man every heart to the great enterprise. Society is entering upon new trials everywhere — in America, it has already entered upon them — and they are of the most serious nature. They demand a discussion among us, which they have scarcely yet begun to receive. Power has fallen...
Page 81 - I WENT to see the Colise'um by moonlight. It is the monarch, the majesty of all ruins ; there is nothing like it. All the associations of the place, too, give it the most impressive character. When you* enter within this stupendous circle of ruinous walls and arches, and grand terraces of masonry, rising one above another, you stand upon the arena of the old gladiatorial combats and Christian martyrdoms ; and as you lift your eyes to the vast amphitheater, you meet, in imagination, the eyes of a...
Page 133 - Methinks it were enough to penetrate the bosom of granite with emotion, to have witnessed what ye have witnessed. Methinks that the stern and inexorable mystery, graven upon your mighty shafts, must break silence, to tell that which it hath known of weal and wo, of change, disaster, blood, and crime ! LESSON XXI.
Page 229 - I repeat, with answers, and not with surmises of danger. Men cannot sleep through these intervals. What are they to do ? Why, if they do not work, or sleep, they must have recreation. And if they have not recreation from healthful sources, they will be very likely to take it from the poison•ed fountains of intemperance. Or, if they have pleasures, which, though innocent, are forbidden by the maxims of public morality, their very pleasures are liable to become poisoned fountains.
Page 81 - But to return to the Coliseum — we went up, under the conduct of a guide, upon the walls, and terraces, or embankments, which supported the ranges of seats. The seats have long since disappeared...
Page 81 - What voices', what greetings', what hurrying footsteps up the staircases of the eighty arches of entrance'! and now, as we picked our way carefully through the decayed passages, or cautiously ascended some moldering flight of steps, or stood by the lonely walls — ourselves silent, and, for a wonder, the guide silent too — there was no sound here but of the bat , and none came from without, but the roll of a distant carriage or the convent bell from the summit of the neighboring Esquiline.
Page 222 - ... relieved — let this be remembered — there must be seasons of relief, and the question is, how are these seasons to be filled up ? When the mind enjoys relief from its occupations, I say, that relief must come in the shape of something cheering and exhilarating. The man cannot sit down dull and stupid — and he ought not. Now suppose that society provides him with no cheerful or attractive recreations ; that society, in fact, frowns upon all amusements ; that the importunate spirit in business,...
Page 193 - ... flourish in a republic. For it is precisely in a republic that they are wanted to complete the system of social influences. "It is a mistake into which novices fall, to suppose that the arts are unfavorable to -.norality.

Bibliographic information