The Argosy — page 67: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

54 ‘Ecco Roma!” St. Paul is said to have been bound to, and the block of marble on which he was beheaded. It contains also the three fountains which, tradition says, sprang from the ground as the severed head bounded forth and three times touched the earth. When all was over, the sorrowing Christians removed the body to the catacombs to await interment. On the site of St. Paul’s martyrdom a magnificent Basilica was built, and must have stood out nobly on that desolate plain, under the blue Italian sky. The first church was erected in the time of Constantine. Hereonce had been the vineyard given as a first burial place for St. Paul by Lucina, a Roman matron. As time went on the church was added to and embellished, until its magnificence was unparalleled. On the 15th of July, 1823, the church was burnt -o the ground, and all its beauty and magnificence perished. On that night Pius VII., dying, was disturbed by a series of dreams in which some great misfortune had happened to the Church of Rome. Several times he started out of his sleep asking if nothing had occurred. ‘The terrible misfortune of the burning of the church was concealed from him. He had lived here in days gone by as a monk and teacher; he loved it above all other earthly spots; and the knowledge of its destruction would have disturbed his last hours, The rebuilding of the church was begun without delay, and it was re-opened in 1854 by Pius IX. The exterior appears to possess no point of beauty, and the interior is shorn of most of those treasures of art for which the former Basilica was famous. Yet nothing can exceed its simple dignity and grandeur. Its great point is the nave, which is three hundred feet long, and two hundred feet wide, with four ranges of granite columns on each side, resting on. white marble bases. The floor is of marble, so polished that everything appears reflected. The roof is flat, and a beautiful speci- men of carved wood. The light is subdued. _The aspect of this nave, the fine perspective of the forest of columns ~ as you.look upon them and through them, impressed one as few things in religious architecture can ever do. There is a simple grandeur about it scarcely to be equalled. The outlines are broad and distinct. There is no minuteness of detail to arrest or disturb the eye. The whole. scene is solemn, almost sublime. One longs to be able to pass a lifetime in this elevating, refining atmosphere; to come here day by day and pass hours under its influence. If I possessed the purse of Fortunatus, or the lamp of Aladdin, or the resources of Vathek, I would immediately raise myself a new Hall of Eblis, and it should be an exact copy of the nave of S. Paolo. But such ambitions in these days, when magic has ceased, must be kept for dreams and visions. And if we only dream long enough and vividly enough, perhaps we are equally happy. Possession does not always mean beatitude. Many of our happiest times are those when we are still chasing our Will o’ the Wisp. The pleasures of CORNICE OOKS:COM