th its mysterious scroll still unread.
Speak, stranger, and tell us, with thy deep Coptic voice, the secrets of
four thousand years ago. Say, wouldst thou not like to revisit thy
native Nile, and spend thine age beside the tombs of the Pharaohs, the
companions of thy youth, and amidst the congenial silence of the sands
of Egypt?

The traveller who would enjoy the finest view of the modern city must
ascend the Pincian hill. In the basin beneath him he beholds spread out
a flat expanse of red-tiled roofs, traversed by the long line of the
Corso, and bristling with the tops of innumerable domes, columns, and
obelisks. Some thirty or forty cupolas give an air of grandeur to the
otherwise uninteresting mass of red; and conspicuous amongst these, over
against the spectator, is the princely dome of St Peter's, and the huge
bulk of the Castle of St Angelo. The Tiber is seen creeping sluggishly
at the base of the Janiculum, the sides of which are thinly dotted with
villas and gardens, while its summit is surmounted by a long stretch of
the old wall.

Standing in the Piazza del Popolo, the person is in a good position for
comprehending the arrangement of modern Rome. Here three streets have
their rise, which, running off in diverging lines, like spokes from the
nave of a wheel, traverse the city, and form, with the cross streets
which connect them, the osteology of the Eternal City. This at least is
the arrangement which obtains till you reach the region lying around the
Capitol, which is an inextricable network of lanes, courts, and streets.
The centre one of the three streets we have indicated is the Corso. It
is a good mile in length, and runs straight south, extending from the
Flaminian gate to almost the foot of the Capitol. To an English eye it
is wanting in breadth, though the most spacious street in Rome. It is
but indifferently kept in point of cleanliness, though the most
fashionable promenade of the Romans. Here only you find anything
resembling a flag-pavement: all the other streets are causewayed from
side to side with small sharp pieces of lava, which pain the foot at
every step. The shops are small and dark, resembling those of our third
and fourth-rate towns, and exhibiting in their wares a superabundance of
cameos, mosaics, Etruscan vases, and statuary,--these being almost the
sole native manufacture of Rome. It is adorned with several truly noble
palaces, and with the colonnades and porticos of a great number o