FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

THE ROMAN FORUM.

Ar one end of the rostra, or orator's tribune, in the old Roman Forum, and but a few paces from the spot where the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus was afterwards erected, stood the umbilicus urbis Romae, or ideal centre of the city and empire of Rome. It was, in fact, a kind of milestone from which all distances within the city walls were reckoned. Situated close to the Sacred Way, it must have looked upon the triumphal procession of many a returning conqueror, and, perhaps, it caught a glimpse now and then, through the ranks of the well-ordered train, of those far different processions which, consisting of captives taken in the recent wars, were withdrawn from the general retinue before entering the Forum and led off to their doom in the prisons on the opposite side of the Way. If we can suppose a thing of brick and marble to be possessed of human emotions, it might have recognized in each new triumph an evidence of its own growing dignity; and when, as in the time of Trajan, the empire reached from the Pillars of Hercules and the Firths of Forth and Clyde to the Caspian and the Persian Gulf, even this Roman milestone might have been pardoned for aspiring to become what many of the former emperors would have been glad to make it, the centre of the world.

What the ambition of the emperors could not acomplish, the changes of time have wrought. The Roman Empire has fallen, and the very monuments of her glory have been covered by the waste of ages. A new world has been discovered, larger than that which the Romans knew; but the investigating spirit of the present century has laid bare the ruins of Rome's early glory, and to-day, a low, circular pile of bricks, all that remains of the ancient umbilicus urbis Romae, is more truly the centre of the world than the most marvellous successses of the Roman arms ever made the marble-covered column of which it once formed a part. For, if Rome is the place which more than all others travellers, from every quarter of the globe, delight to visit, it is quite as true that the Roman Forum possesses, even in ruin, an interest which no other part of the Eternal City affords. general view of the Forum, with its granite and marble columns standing solitary or in groups, or lying prostrate and broken by the side of the Sacred Way, with its beautiful triumphal arch, with its shapeless masses of brick, is picturesque beyond description. What these columns stand for, and what lends them the greater

A

THE ROMAN FORUM.

part of their charm, can best be shown by giving here a hasty sketch of the rise and uses of the Roman Forum.

A portion of the marshy valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills in ancient Rome was early set apart as the place for holding all popular assemblies. As the city increased in numbers, this place began to assume great importance. Accordingly, it was freed from its marshy bottom and embellished with temples and public buildings of the finest architecture. Such, for example, were the temple of Saturn,—at the same time temple and public treasury, the temple of Castor and Pollux, the temple of Concord, and the Senate-house. The whole was fringed with rows of booths where vendors of meat and fruit and what-not plied a busy trade, or grumbled, I suppose, when times were dull. Considered as embracing under its own name all the structures within its assigned limits, the Roman Forum was a growth of centuries, and contained the results of the best artistic skill of those centuries. The enormous growth of the city called five new fora into existence, but they never approached in magnificence this gem of the Roman Empire. Its glorious traditions were not forgotten, but, revived in bronze and stone, they took the form of statues and honorary columns, and chose to remain in the place which had always been their home.

The Forum was traversed by four streets, two pairs of parallels running at right angles to each other. The intersection of these pairs formed an oblong rectangle (its longest sides run nearly east and west) in the centre of the Forum, called by the Romans the comitium, or place where the popular elections were held. At the west end of this open space and facing toward it, is the rostra, with a passing reference to which I began this letter. This is believed to be the same from which Cicero delivered the second oration against Catiline to the people assembled in the comitium. Behind this rostra at the west end of the old Forum, as well as of the excavated portion, are some indistinct ruins supposed to be those of the temple of Concord and the Senatehouse, and three standing columns of the temple of Vespasian. The southern boundary of the excavation runs nearly parallel with the corresponding boundary of the comitium. Beginning from the temple of Vespasian, one sees along this side eight columns which once formed the front of the temple of Saturn, then the pavement and broken pillars of the Basilica Julia, and lastly three beautiful Corinthian columns of Parian marble, regarded as among the finest of the order that have come down to this age. One more object deserves mention, both as occupying a conspicuous position near the centre of the excavation, and as having formed, for a

FAITH TRIUMPHANT OVER DOUBT.

long period, the distinctive feature of the Forum. It was described by Byron as "the nameless column with a buried base." It is no longer nameless, but is known to have been erected in honour of Phocas, in the year 608 A.D.

What has been written may serve as a catalogue of some of the more important things which recent excavations have brought to light. Doubts exist as to the indentity of most of the ruins still unmentioned, and even as to that of the umbilicus and the Ciceronian rostra. Another rostrum near the opposite end of the comitium is said to be the scene of Mark Antony's oration over Cæsar's dead body. Readers of Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome will remember that, when Virginius stabbed his daughter to save her from dishonour at the hands of Appius Claudius, he employed for his purpose a knife snatched from a butcher's stall in the Forum.

FAITH TRIUMPHANT OVER DOUBT.

MANY questions trouble an inquiring Christian, which do not seem to have troubled an inquiring Jew. The very fact of knowing so much, makes us impatient of not knowing more. A thousand questions remain unanswered concerning the power of God, the justice of God, and the goodness of God, which all the more exercise the patience and even burden the conscience of a Christian, because God has told him so much, and because Christ has come to be the Light of the world, and the Justifier of the ways of God to man. Now faith-the sight of the invisible-Christian faith, which is the sight of the invisible God in Christ-must needs have an office to discharge in reference to these difficulties and perplexities. It was so from the beginning. The apostles themselves felt this when they were first called to believe in the possibility, in the fact, of a resurrection: "When they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted." Did they not worship? Did doubt preclude faith? Rather faith triumphed in and over doubting? and they who could not understand, yet felt themselves to be in the presence of a mightier and more convincing reality; and even when they could not see, they could adore and they could believe still. So it is now. A man keenly sensible of 'difficulties -a man on whose very soul lie the burdens of a thousand unreconciled contradictions-a man who feels that he would give all that he possesses for one ray of solution and explanation,-is no hypocrite and no unbeliever, if he still calls Christ his Saviour,

A MOTHER'S LOVE.

offers before Him all the capacities of his being. His doubts are nothing in comparision with his evidences. Is he to give up

Christ and go back into the outer darkness of sin unforgiven, and heaven unopened, because he cannot fathom the deep abyss of a Trinity in Unity, or combine in one logical theory the two opposite necessities, of a responsible man and omnipotent God? If he can find a lamp for his feet and a light for his steps, if he can find a Saviour worthy of his devotion, and a Spirit omnipresent to guide, he must be content to wait for explanation till he reaches a land where there is no temptation nor weakness; a life in which the intellect may expand itself in God's presence, and the soul drink in knowledge at the fountain head of God's truth. In the meantime faith triumphs amidst doubting; and when Christ asks, "Will ye also go away?" he is content to answer, Lord, to whom shall we go! Thou hast the words of eternal life.— J. C. Vaughan, D.D.

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A MOTHER'S LOVE.

A MOTHER'S love! Oh, how lightly do we often value, and how little do we appreciate a kind, loving mother! What a fountain of pure, unselfish love rises up from her generous, loving heart. Who will love us as a mother does? And who will suffer, work and toil for us, depriving themselves of every comfort, in order that we may be well cared for, and spared all anxieties and cares of life! No one but mother.

We may have a kind father, gentle and loving brothers and sisters,—and when we grow older and leave the parental roof, we may be fortunate in securing a kind husband or gentle wife, and may be blessed with dutiful and happy children; but no one will ever exercise toward us the same kind, patient love and gentle forbearance as a mother.

How kind we should be to her. We should share her anxieties, lighten the burden of her cares, and strive to make her declining years happy. It is a debt as well as a duty we owe to her; and it is, happily, in the power of all to pay it. Think of the many days of weary toil, and the years of unselfish love and patient devotion she has given to us, and then let us ask ourselves if we can do too much for mother.

A great many young people, especially girls, look on mother as a household machine to grind out everything necessary to comfort