It

sians. Its weight and dimensions are as variously stated as the number of churches belonging to the holy city, as Moscow is here called. Measurements were made of it by order of the Emperor Alexander ; and reduced to English terms, it is twenty feet high, and weighs four hundred thousand pounds, nearly two hundred tons. The tongue is fourteen feet long. was suspended upon huge wooden beams, which were destroyed by fire the same year; a piece seven feet in height was broken from it at the time, as represented in the engraving. This pride of the Muscovites was cast during the reign of the Empress Anne, from a former bell, with the addition of many thousand pounds of metal contributed by her, and many thousands more from the people and nobles, who came from all parts of the empire with gold and silver ornaments, plate, jewels, &c., as offerings to this national monument. Within the present century it has been placed upon a granite pedestal at the foot of the tower of Ivan Veliki. An inscription upon it states all the dates in reference to its predecessor, the time of its casting, hanging, &c., and basreliefs represent the empress, in her coronation robes, between St. Peter and Anna the Prophetess. It is said that forty or fifty men were necessary to move the tongue.

The true splendor of Moscow dates from its destruction in 1812, when the inhabitants decided to fire their holy city, rather than see it profaned by its foreign enemies. In that last and sublime effort of savage heroism, Tartar Rome, as Madam De Stael calls it, presented itself in a new aspect, and from its utter ruin arose its real grandeur. It was like the serpent who deserts his old envelop only to array himself more brilliantly; or like the gold which comes purified from the crucible; or shall I grow poetical and compare it to the phoenix, rising from its funeral pyre younger and more beautiful than ever. It is unquestionable that in a few years after its suicidal destruction in 1812, Moscow was changed from a city of wood to a city of stone; for by this term they dignify bricks in Russia. This rapid and magnificent resurrection, as also that of London after the great fire of 1665, and Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755, certainly proves that merely physical calamities can never entirely efface cities or VOL. V.-17

While the Lord of all ages is here? True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God,

And those who can suffer can dare. Each past Age of Gold was an iron age too, And the meekest of saints may find stern work to do

In the day of the Lord at hand.

Is not that a great burst of heart, flashing with the true light-effervescing with the spirit divine? Is it not a genuine lyrical bubbling of the soul with song? And here is a snatch of music in a rich minor key, that has haunted my brain ever since I first heard it:

SONG.

O, the merry, merry lark, was up and singing,
And the merry, merry bells below were ringing,
And the hare was out and feeding on the lea;
As my child's laugh rang through me!
Now, the hare is snared, and dead beneath the
snow-yard,

And the lark beside the dreary winter sea; And the baby in its cradle in the churchyard

Waiteth there until the bells bring me.

IN

N our last number we gave examples of the symbols of the Roman Catacombs. Thefe is an

other class of sculptures and paintings, found among these interesting memorials, which may be called pictorial Scripture lessons. Bishop Kip gives numerous examples of them; many more, indeed, than Maitland but as the latter writer discusses them more fully, we shall depend upon the bishop mostly for our illustrations, while we refer chiefly to the English author for our comments. The student of these invaluable antiquities should possess both works, if not, indeed, Boldetti's Osservazioni and Arringhi's Roma Subterranea.*

These pictorial remains are interesting in two respects: first, for the light they throw on the theological and ecclesiastical characteristics of the primitive Church; and secondly, as illustrations of early Christian art. Maitland devotes an elaborate and entertaining chapter to the latter view of them; we shall confine ourselves mostly to their religious suggestions, for suggestions only shall we find among them-yet mostly important ones, in a negative respect, at least. Let us then resume our reverent walks in these hallowed aisles of what may be called the subterranean cathedral of ancient Christianity-walks which we trust the reader has hitherto found suggestive to his heart as well as instructive to his theological inquiries, and which we hope he will not find fatiguing or irksome before we finally retire from them.

After a day's stroll among the pompous temples of modern Rome, and a "morning with the Jesuits," discussing her claims to traditional authority, what should we expect to find on descending to these consecrated caverns-what but representa

Arringhi's work is the chief authority on the subject. Bishop Kip has consulted him extensively. He says that there is but one copy in this country; his, however, is a mistake. New-York readers will find a copy in the Astor Library, as also the great work of the French Commission.

HEAD OF CHRIST IN THE CATACOMBS.

tions of the Virgin and Child, the Assump. tion, Peter with the keys, popes crowned with tiaras, priests with sacerdotal robes, monks en costume, images of saints and martyrs worshiped by prostrate groups, burning candles, smoking censers, holy water, Rosaries, Relics, Invocations of saints, appeals to the spectator to pray for the deliverance of the departed from the tortures of purgatory, and, above all, crucifixes with their horrible signs of anguish, their crowns of thorns, and blood-dripping wounds? But what do we find? Not an indication of these, literally not one, except among the additions, made unquestionably after those ages of fiery trial in which the Church found here alike its sanctuary and its cemetery.*

Besides the simple and purely evan

It is an interesting and significant fact, that the word cemetery-a sleeping-place-was first applied to the grave by the early Christians. "In this auspicious word," says Maitland, "now for the first time applied to the tomb, there is manifest a sense of hope and immortality, the result of a new religion. A star had risen on the borders of the grave, dispelling the horror of darkness which had hitherto reigned there: the prospect beyond was now cleared up, and so dazzling was the view of an eternal city sculptured in the sky,' that numbers were found eager to rush through the gate of martyrdom, for the hope of entering its starry portals."

gelical symbols which we have described, the first Christians covered these rude walls with pictured lessons from the Holy Scriptures. They were poor, unlettered people; books were rare among their class; the sacred writings especially were yet circulated in few and precious copies. Selecting, therefore, their most striking incidents and lessons, they pictured them for the instruction of themselves and their children, on the sepulchers of their departed brethren. They are as abundant, almost, as the inscriptions on the tombs of old Egypt. They present an outline of both the Old and New Testament history. Bishop Kip gives numerous examples. Contemn not their rude art, Christian reader: it remained for the Church of a later date to lose, in the "idolatry of art," the reverence of divine truth; this "noble army of martyrs" sought for themselves and their children only

We find the outlines of Christ's history | often repeated. The Nativity was a favorite subject. We give a copy of a bas-relief of it from a sarcophagus in the cemetery of St. Sebastian. It represents the child in the manger, the oxen, the magi, and the star of Bethlehem.

We insert also a much older representation of the Adoration of the Magi, given by Bishop Kip from the cemetery of St. Marcellinus. The "wise men" in both instances wear the Phrygian caps.

The baptism of Christ is portrayed in one of the best paintings yet found in the Catacombs: it represents him

tist administers the water with his hand.

says Bishop Kip, "is that of our Lord placing his hand on the head of a child and blessing it. The one which we give is copied from the cemetery of St. Callistus."

also his ultimate entrance as the King of glory into the New Jerusalem.

The representation which we give is the most elaborate we have met with. It is taken from a sarcophagus in the Vatican.

The miracles of our Saviour, however, were the subjects on which the early Roman Christians most delighted to dwell. Strangely represented, indeed, yet always in such a way that we at once recognize the intention and design.

In the following cut our Lord is portrayed by the untutored artist, at the time when "a certain woman, which had an issue of blood for twelve years, came in the press behind and touched his garments; and Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned about in the press and said, 'Who touched my clothes?"" It is on a sarcophagus. We copy it on account of the accompanying views. It brings before us a specimen of church architecture in the end of the fourth century, to which period the details of this picture enable us to refer it with tolerable certainty. We see before us a complete Christian basilica, (apparently the same

one repeated in several positions,) with the circular baptistery at the side, yet detached from it. At the end of the building, on the right, we see the terminating absis. Before the doors hang those vails which are even now common in the Italian Churches, to aid in preserving an equable temperature, and to which St. Augustine refers as used at the entrances of pagan schools, (as he expresses it,) 'serving to conceal the ignorance that took refuge within.""

The cuts which we give above represent the cure of the blind man, and the paralytic to whom Christ said, "Take up thy bed and walk."

The raising of Lazarus, says Maitland, was used as a symbol of the resurrection; it was there

fore a favorite subject. Bishop Kip gives three engravings of this miracle, showing the progress of art in the Catacombs: the first is a bare outline "scratched on the slab, just sufficient to represent Lazarus coming forth from the tomb, though, perhaps, it would be unintelligible, were it not for other representations with which to compare it. The second, though also

rudely done, is executed with more care, while the figure of our Lord is introduced as summoning Lazarus forth to life. In all these he is intended to be portrayed as 'bound hand and foot with grave-clothes.'

"The last one, from a later sarcophagus, is well carved, as far as each individual figure is concerned, though all rules of proportion are set at defiance in the