“It must be-- And yet it moves me, Romans! it confounds The counsels of my firm philosophy, That Ruin’s merciless ploughshare must pass o’er, And barren salt be sown on yon proud city. As on our olive-crowned hill we stand, Where Kedron at our feet its scanty waters Distils from stone to stone with gentle motion, As through a valley sacred to sweet Peace. How boldly doth it front us! how majestically! Like a luxurious vineyard, the hill-side Is hung with marble fabrics, line on line, Terrace o’er terrace, nearer still, and nearer To the blue heavens. Here bright and sumptuous palaces, With cool and verdant gardens interspersed; Here towers of war, that frown in massy strength, While over all hangs the rich purple eve. And as our clouds of battle, dust, and smoke, Are melted into air, behold the Temple, In undisturbed and lone serenity, Finding itself a solemn sanctuary In the profound of heaven! It stands before us A mount of snow, fretted with golden pinnacles! The very sun, as though he worshipped there, Lingers upon the gilded cedar roofs! And down the long and branching porticoes, On every flowery sculptured capital Glitters the homage of his parting beams. By Hercules! the sight might almost win The offended majesty of Rome to mercy.” MILMAN. It is a wonderful city, wonderful in its origin, in its history, in its present character; strange events, too, have been foretelling its doom, and terrible is to be its downfall. A flaming sword was seen night after night, for the space of a year, suspended over the city; the inhabitants crowded to the Temple, they offered sacrifices, but still that bloody sword was over them; the timid buried themselves in their chambers and wept; the gay tried to forget it in debauch, but still it hung above the city, and the hearts of the stoutest at length quailed before it. It has lately disappeared, but they do not know whether to consider this as an omen for good or for evil. Also the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, which requires twenty men to move it, one night, though secured by heavy bolts, opened of its own accord, as if to show that the spirits which had been keeping guard in the Temple were leaving it. Also one night at Pentecost, as the priests were going to their duties in the inner court of the Temple, they felt a quaking of the earth, and then, as they stood to recover from their dread, they heard a whispering noise as of a multitude of people, saying, “_Let us go hence._”