{"product_id":"2940013740600","title":"A Night In Rome","description":"Chancing to be in Rome in the August of 1830, I visited the gorgeous\u003cbr\u003echurch of Santa Maria Maggiore during the celebration of the\u003cbr\u003eanniversary of the Holy Assumption.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a glorious sight to one unaccustomed to the imposing religious\u003cbr\u003eceremonials of the Romish church, to witness all the pomp and\u003cbr\u003esplendour displayed at this high solemnity--to gaze down that\u003cbr\u003eglittering pile, and mark the various ecclesiastical dignitaries, each\u003cbr\u003ein their peculiar and characteristic costume, employed in the\u003cbr\u003eministration of their sacred functions, and surrounded by a wide\u003cbr\u003esemicircle of the papal guards, so stationed to keep back the crowd,\u003cbr\u003eand who, with their showy scarlet attire and tall halberds, looked\u003cbr\u003elike the martial figures we see in the sketches of Callot. Nor was the\u003cbr\u003ebrilliant effect of this picture diminished by the sumptuous framework\u003cbr\u003ein which it was set. Overhead flamed a roof resplendent with burnished\u003cbr\u003egold; before me rose a canopy supported by pillars of porphyry, and\u003cbr\u003eshining with many-coloured stones; while on either hand were chapels\u003cbr\u003edevoted to some noble house, and boasting each the marble memorial of\u003cbr\u003ea pope. Melodious masses proper to the service were ever and anon\u003cbr\u003echanted by the papal choir, and overpowering perfume was diffused\u003cbr\u003earound by a hundred censers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSubdued by the odours, the music, and the spectacle, I sank into a\u003cbr\u003estate of dreamy enthusiasm, during a continuance of which I almost\u003cbr\u003efancied myself a convert to the faith of Rome, and surrendered myself\u003cbr\u003eunreflectingly to an admiration of its errors. As I gazed among the\u003cbr\u003esurrounding crowd, the sight of so many prostrate figures, all in\u003cbr\u003eattitudes of deepest devotion, satisfied me of the profound religious\u003cbr\u003eimpression of the ceremonial. As elsewhere; this feeling was not\u003cbr\u003euniversal; and, as elsewhere, likewise, more zeal was exhibited by the\u003cbr\u003elower than the higher classes of society; and I occasionally noted\u003cbr\u003eamongst the latter the glitter of an eye or the flutter of a bosom,\u003cbr\u003enot altogether agitated; I suspect; by holy aspirations. Yet me\u003cbr\u003ethought, on the whole, I had never seen such abandonment of soul, such\u003cbr\u003eprostration of spirit, in my own colder clime, and during the exercise\u003cbr\u003eof my own more chastened creed, as that which in several instances I\u003cbr\u003enow beheld; and I almost envied the poor maiden near me, who, abject\u003cbr\u003eupon the earth, had washed away her sorrows, and perhaps her sins, in\u003cbr\u003econtrite tears.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070205542640,"sku":"2940013740600","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740600_p0.jpg?v=1763589614","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740600","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}