MODERN ART IN ROME.

OW much of truth, as well as poetry, is conveyed in the phrase by which we generally designate Rome-" the Eternal City!" Its interest is indeed immortal; the

very earth upon which its palaces once stood is eloquent with history, and has inspired poets with their richest imaginings;

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while the relics of "the masters of the world" draw from all lands pilgrims as devoted as those who travelled in the past ages to Jerusalem. The student of history finds here the very monuments which make part of its records; the antiquary studies here the fragments which aid him in reconstructing its ruined temples and its past life, by which we may the better understand the historian's pages. The artist in his youth yearns towards the great old city-it is the hope and earnest struggle of his life to visit it, and in maturer age the memory of the sojourn there is ever present among his happiest experiences. The poet dreams amid its ruins, or rather, sounds his rhyme like a trumpet-call to the civilised world, gathering other devotees :

"With silent worship of the great of old!

The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns."

But yet let us not, while worshipping the past, forget the greatness of the present age, nor do it the injustice of not feeling its own peculiar power. It is not our necessity to construct a Coliseum, but our great commercial works are often as noble, and aid the march of civilisation in a manner unknown to any previous era. Thanks to "the iron road" and the power of steam, time, wind and tide are partially subdued, and their rule, once absolute, rendered more amenable to our necessities or pleasures. "Distance" has resolved itself into "time," and thus Rome, even to the mere excursionist, is very much nearer now than it ever was before.