Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pencil Sketches in Rome - 1. Ecclesiastical Rome, and Italian
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
PENCIL SKETCHES IN ROME.
I.
ECCLESIASTICAL ROME, AND ITALIAN.
ALL who have had a chance to compare papal and
ecclesiastical Rome with that of Italy, have but one
opinion on the point—that the city during the last four
years,* has altered much to its advantage. I except of
course the Catholic priests, to whom Rome ceased to be
Paradise when it ceased to be the capital of ignorance
and dirt. I do not mean by this to say that dirt is as
necessary a condition as ignorance, to an abstract Eden ;
but the former, like the latter, had prescriptive right in
its favor, and a priestly government loves no novelties.
Even cleanliness, when it is something hitherto untried,
may to such a government seem perilous to society.
Moreover, clerical noses are tuned to a different and
higher pitch of smell, than those of other mortals. The
French Jesuit Louis Veuillot, has written two thick vol-
umes about " Les Odeurs de Paris " and " Les Parfums
de Rome." To his thinking, the censers around the
king of high priests gave even to the exhalations of the
Ghetto a scent of newly blossomed roses.
It is now probably :about ten years, since the author
of Pictures from Italy, my friend Carlino, drank from
the Fontana Trevi the desire to see the holy city again
* These sketches were written, I believe, in 1874. —C.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
