) And while the observer in Rome may well feel sad
in the midst of reminders of the enormous sins of the past, there is
an uplifting, for the soul eager to perceive the truth, in all her
assurances of that mercy which is the cause of religion. If the Holy
See was established in Rome because it was the city where the worst
wickedness upon earth, because the most intelligent, was to be found,
we may conclude that the old emperors, stormy and grotesque, are
responsible for its melancholy "atmosphere of sin," to which Hilda
alludes as a condition of the whole planet; and not the popes who have
prayed in Rome, nor the people who believe there. In printed remarks
about Italy both my parents say that she most reminds them of what is
highest.
But, whether chilly or warm, the Eternal City did not at once make a
conquest of my father's allegiance, though before he bade it farewell,
it had painted itself upon his mind as sometimes the sunniest and most
splendid habitation for a populace, that he knew. In the spring my
sister wrote:--
"We are having perfectly splendid weather now,--unclouded Italian
skies, blazing sun, everything warm and glorious. But the sky is too
blue, the sun is too blazing, everything is too vivid. Often I long
for the more cloudy skies and peace of that dear, beautiful England.
Rome makes us all languid. We have to pay a fearful price for the
supreme enjoyment there is in standing on the very spots made
interesting by poetry or by prose, imagination, or (which is still
more absorbing) truth.
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