It is a very wonderful arrangement of Providence
that these things should have been preserved for a long series of coming
generations by that accumulation of dust and soil and grass and trees and
houses over them, which will keep them safe, and cause their reappearance
above ground to be gradual, so that the rest of the world's lifetime may
have for one of its enjoyments the uncovering of old Rome.
The tombs were accessible by long flights of steps going steeply
downward, and they were thronged with so many visitors that we had to
wait some little time for our own turn. In the first into which we
descended we found two tombs side by side, with only a partition wall
between; the outer tomb being, as is supposed, a burial-place constructed
by the early Christians, while the adjoined and minor one was a work of
pagan Rome about the second century after Christ. The former was much
less interesting than the latter. It contained some large sarcophagi,
with sculpture upon them of rather heathenish aspect; and in the centre
of the front of each sarcophagus was a bust in bas-relief, the features
of which had never been wrought, but were left almost blank, with only
the faintest indications of a nose, for instance.
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