The eloquence of Corinne excited the admiration of Oswald without convincing him; he sought for some moral sentiment in all this, without which all the magic of the arts could not satisfy him.  Corinne then recollected that in this very amphitheatre the persecuted Christians died victims of their perseverance, and showing Lord Nelville the altars which are raised in honour of their ashes, as well as the path of the cross, which is trodden by penitents, at the foot of the most magnificent wrecks of worldly grandeur, asked him if the ashes of martyrs conveyed no language to his heart?  “Yes,” cried he, “I deeply admire the triumph of the soul and of the will over the pains of death.  A sacrifice, whatever it may be, is nobler and more difficult than all the flights of the soul and of thought.—­An exalted imagination may produce miracles of genius, but it is only in devoting ourselves to our opinion or to our sentiments that we are truly virtuous;—­it is then alone that a celestial power subdues the mortal man in us.”

This language, so noble and so pure, yet gave uneasiness to Corinne.  She looked at Nelville—­then cast down her eyes—­and though, at that moment, he took her hand and pressed it against his heart, she shuddered at the idea that such a man could sacrifice others or himself to the worship of opinions, of principles, or of duties, which he might have chosen.

FOOTNOTES: 

[11] Mineralogists affirm that these lions are not of basalt, because the volcanic stone to-day known under that name could not have existed in Egypt; but as Pliny calls the Egyptian stone out of which these lions have been carved, basalt, and as Winckelmann, the historian of the arts, also retains this appellation, I have deemed myself justified in using it in its primitive acceptation.

[12]
     “Carpite nunc, tauri, de septem collibus herbas,
     Dum licet.  Hic magnae jam locus urbis erit.” 
          
                                    TIBULLUS.

“Hoc quodcunque vides hospes quam maxima Roma est,
Ante Phrygem Enean collis et herba fuit.” 
PROPERTIUS, Book IV. el. 1.

[13]
     Roma domus fiet:  Veios migrate, Quirites;
     Si non et Veios occupat ista domus.

[14] Mounts Citorio and Testacio.

[15] The Janicula, Mount Vaticano and Mount Mario.

Chapter v.

After the excursion to the Capitol and the Forum, Corinne and Nelville spent two days in visiting the Seven Hills.  The Romans formerly observed a festival in honour of them.  These hills, enclosed in her bosom, are one of the original beauties of Rome; and we may easily conceive what delight was experienced by feelings attached to their native soil, in celebrating this singularity.