From The Thames To The Tiber

London: Its teeming millions of population: Its commercial aspect: Leaving
Victoria Station for New Haven: On the Boat: New found friends: Landing
at Dieppe: Leaving for Paris: Rouen, its Cathedral, etc.
We had settled to have a holiday¿not a mere pic-nic, not a week-end at
Blackpool, or a tour of a few days in the Isle of Man¿but a real first-class,
out-and-out trip. Where then is it to be? Why, to Rome and back, came the
reply. From St. Paul¿s in London, the largest city in the world, to St. Peter¿s
in Rome, one of the great cities of the ancient world.
¿To Rome!¿ my friends said in astonishment.
¿Yes! to Rome.¿ There seems to be magic in the very word. Rome¿The
Eternal City. The city of the seven hills. The city of which St. Paul was
proud to be a citizen. See Acts, chapter 22, verse 25. ¿Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man that is a Roman, uncondemned?¿ verse 28. ¿Then the Chief
Captain came and said unto him. Tell me, art thou a Roman?¿ He said,
¿Yes.¿London: Its teeming millions of population: Its commercial aspect: Leaving
Victoria Station for New Haven: On the Boat: New found friends: Landing
at Dieppe: Leaving for Paris: Rouen, its Cathedral, etc.
We had settled to have a holiday¿not a mere pic-nic, not a week-end at
Blackpool, or a tour of a few days in the Isle of Man¿but a real first-class,
out-and-out trip. Where then is it to be? Why, to Rome and back, came the
reply. From St. Paul¿s in London, the largest city in the world, to St. Peter¿s
in Rome, one of the great cities of the ancient world.
¿To Rome!¿ my friends said in astonishment.
¿Yes! to Rome.¿ There seems to be magic in the very word. Rome¿The
Eternal City. The city of the seven hills. The city of which St. Paul was
proud to be a citizen. See Acts, chapter 22, verse 25. ¿Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man that is a Roman, uncondemned?¿ verse 28. ¿Then the Chief
Captain came and said unto him. Tell me, art thou a Roman?¿ He said,
¿Yes.¿
Rome stands for power. Her proud eagles once swept their wings over
almost the then known world. Rome stands for antiquity, greatness,
wealth, splendour, conquest and colonization, liberty, law, self control,
prowess, skill. But, alas! It also stands for cruelty, luxury, strife, war,
humiliation, decay, decline.