Had been changed to a sober yet cheerful address Marked with smiles and true dignity, few can express. Every look, every gesture evinced that they knew That courtesy based on religion is true. All frivolity gone--vain amusements forgot, I found not in city or country one spot, Where an opera, ball-room or theatre stood To arouse evil thoughts or to stifle the good. The Sabbath, profaned for long centuries past, Was observed, not by sorrowful penance or fast, But the nation obeyed the divine command given, To rest and to worship one day in seven. The gay gardens and palaces, open of yore, Where drinkers and dancers by turns trod the floor, Were thronged by a multitude ever inclined To read or to hear what would profit the mind. No imperial rule forced each class to obey, No autocrat, king or dictator held sway, A firm free Republic framed long time ago, Proved popular still, as Time’s chronicles show. No soldier police stood guard to detect, Arrest or confine--there was none to suspect. Throughout the wide land not a murmur was heard. No quarrel was known--none spake an ill word, And I thought, as I travelled through country or town, ’Twas as if heaven itself, to earth had come down. We passed on the rail, swift as birds cleave the air, Vales dotted with villages--mountain peaks bare, But tinged in the sunlight with soft golden hue, For many a league ’till the Alps met our view. There they stood--their proud forms towering up in the sky But no traces of glaciers or snow, met the eye; Since the time all mankind had known the new birth, One perpetual spring had encircled the earth. Cold, heat, frost, storm and ice were unknown; No earthquakes now rumbled beneath each broad zone; Volcanoes were none--their fires were decayed, And cities no longer in ruins were laid. As the slopes of Italian vales caught the sight, Every glance at the scene called forth new delight. The sun-embrowned peasants in vineyard or field Were tilling each crop or gathering the yield. Rich clambering vines o’er the road threw their shade, The tropic banana its broad leaf displayed, While the palm, like a monarch with sceptre and crown, O’er the lowlier trees of the forest looked down. The olive, the fig and the pomegranate there Repaid in abundance the laborer’s care, And the mingled perfume of a thousand sweet flowers, Like incense arose from the thick orange bowers. But the train still sped on, and now in the haze That purpled the hills in the sun’s level rays, The columns and temples of Rome rose in view, Spires, domes and palaces, ancient and new. We entered where once the chariots rolled To the vast Coliseum, when centuries old Saw the sandy arena clotted with gore, While above the death groan rung the lion’s wild roar.