THE LEGACY OF ROME |
Rome is not only a reminiscent of a departed age, of mediaevalism, but they are also of the present. Thus the mediaeval era with its chants, its ceremonies, its religious formulae and symbolism, and with its institutional authority, lives today in Rome, in the Roman Catholic Church, in a more evident and pronounced form than anywhere else in the occident.
But Rome is also a city of modern culture and enterprise. Her monuments and memorials to men of recent years are magnif cent in their proportions and artistic in their design. Her streets are busy with the industry and trade of a progressive and prosperous city. The Appian Way has been improved for modernmotor traffic and, as a route of travel, it has been supplemented by every modern means of transportation.
The slaves of an ancient Roman aristocracy have yielded to workmen whose freedom is guaranteed under modern constitutional instruments of government. Blind, superstitious adherents to a formal religion have been succeeded, in large part, by intelligent men and women who follow relatively enlightened consciences in their personal, civil,religious, and other interests. Rome no longer rules the world,
or any considerable part of it, in either political or religious affairs; but as the capital of Italy she participates with other nations in all efforts to solve the perplexing social problems of our present complex civilization, and as the seat of the highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church she exercises an extensive influence in religion and passes fnal judgments for that branch of the Christian church. Her streets, her shops, her offcers, and her municipal organization and administration bear all the marks of the twentieth century. The airplane may be seen through the aperture in the top of the dome of the Pantheon, the vendors of picture postcards and doubtful information infest the Forum and the Colosseum, and travel agencies undertake to show the tourist on an "all-expense tour" all of Rome in two days. Rome is indeed a modern city.
The material ruins of the ancient Roman empire and the tangible evidences of a highly institutionalized mediaeval church in a city that, at the same time, typifes the material and economic achievements of modern times combine to symbolize the fusing of the centuries and also of human institutions and the interests they serve.
That we are not of the present day alone is generally accepted; but there are not many places, like Rome, that can remind us so forcefully, especially in America, of our relations to the past. The ease with which the visitor to Rome can pass from the ruins of an ancient city to a mediaeval church and then to the modern business life of her principal streets is symbolic of the combination of forces in our present thought and conduct. Unconsciously, perhaps, but surely do we express the intellectual and spiritual forces of other centuries and of other cultures.Ancient Rome has left to her successors much more than her forums, her temples and arches, and her arenas; she has bequeathed her civilization, including her laws, her customs, her literature, and her philosophy; and these have become the heritage of all the years since her time of undisputed power. They are a part of our civilization today. Few people will ever see what Rome accomplished in her buildings; but, on the other hand, few people will ever escape what Rome did in her contributions to intellectual advancement. And the end is not yet. Every day some new evidence of her vitality and her eternal qualities is being discovered. Men are literally digging into what she did.New records are continually being discovered which reveal the high personal and social qualities of our cultural ancestors on the Tiber. Increasingly will ancient Rome fuse into modern times not simply as an interesting and ornamental show of erudition but as a practical authority in our efforts to master the problems of the present. And so, also, with the church. Despite its wealth and its show of temporal power, there were unselfish and sacrifcial services performed in its name and by its servants. Thus within one city, the city of Rome, one fnds the tangible evidences of ancient, mediaeval, and modern cultures. And the older cultures did not flourish and then pass away except in their externalities. Fundamental and enduring qualities of those ages have been preserved or recovered and are gathered up in all that
we are in western civilization today. Rome is a kind of evidence of things not seen, but of things real and potent nevertheless.
She is a symbol of what we are in our practical, intellectual, and spiritual achievements and aspirations.
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