(for the incense, and images, and purple-bearing train he encounters, are more nearly allied to heathen than Christian worship!)"-See MAITLAND'S Church in the Catacombs.

NERO'S CIRCUS.-PIAZZA 1 OF ST. PETER'S.

"Awful reflections arise, while we stand on this spot, for it is the site of Nero's Circus, where a terrible persecution made havoc of the early Christians. The monster, to shift from himself the charge of having set fire to Rome, wickedly tried, by false accusers,

1 This is the immense area, or open space, before the great Church of St. Peter's at Rome.

to fasten it on the followers of Him who preached mercy and peace to all men. Tacitus admits the falsehood of the accusation; disbelieving revealed truth, he condemns the horrid cruelties inflicted on innocent men. They were put to death with exquisite cruelty, and to their sufferings Nero added mockery and derision. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts, and left to be devoured by dogs; others were nailed to the cross; numbers were burnt alive; and many, covered over with inflammable matter, were lighted up, when the day declined, to serve as torches during the night.' This circus witnessed the dreadful exhibition described by the historian."-WHITESIDE'S Italy.

SCRIPTURE NOTICE.

"We came the next day to Puteoli; where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days; and so we went toward Rome."-Acts xxviii. 13, 14.

Pozzuoli, the ancient Puteoli, is distant about five miles from Naples, and probably was in ancient times the larger city. It lies on the edge of a little promontory jutting out into the water, and opposite the celebrated Bay of Baiæ, a steep hill rising up behind it.

"I was anxious to visit Pozzuoli-the Puteoli' at which St. Paul arrived, when, having fetched a compass from Syracuse, and come to Rhegium, the south-western

breeze bore him onwards to the Italian shore. At length my eyes rested on the honoured spot; and, reviewing the course of my journey from Rome, partly along the Appian way, I was enabled to recall the scenes through which the great Apostle passed, pressing onwards to the 'eternal city'—a prisoner in the hands of a Roman centurion, a fearless witness of the 'faith once delivered to the saints.' Ages have rolled bygovernments have flourished and decayed, and dynasties have crumbled; yet amidst the wreck, two things have remained permanent-the track of the Apostle's journey in the cause of eternal truth, and the record of his apostleship written in pages of living light by the finger of the Spirit of God. Pozzuoli is now an insignificant town, as viewed at a little distance. Its inhabitants are very generally occupied in fishing. In the immediate neighbourhood are the remains of a temple of Jupiter Serapis, many parts of which are in good preservation, and convey an idea of its original beauty."- FISK'S Pastor's Memorial, &c.

"You drive through a straight long alley of poplar trees; to these the vines in the grounds on each side are trained in festoons, two or three of which are carried quite across the road. At the end of the avenue the sea opens to the left, the land ending in a bluff point, close to which is the small rocky islet of Nisita. The rocks bordering the right of the road, are bold and picturesque. Their tops and sides are covered with a quantity of the prickly pear, and various stone-plants. You see as you approach Pozzuoli a hole cut through the living stone, for the course of an aqueduct, and immediately afterwards the remains of brickwork, part of the ancient Puteoli.

1

"... Its situation, on a rock jutting out into a bay, displays it to a spectator at Baia' with singular advantage; a trifling circumstance, to which perhaps it owed

1 The fine old castle of Baiæ stands on a little promontory exactly opposite Pozzuoli.

its increase and prosperity, when in the more luxurious ages of Rome, Baia and its environs became the seat of pleasure and magnificence. In fact, it is plain from the extensive surface over which remains of Puteoli are seen, that it must have flourished wonderfully under the Romans...

"As the most distant point of this excursion to Pozzuoli, it is usual to walk first to the Solfatara. This is the crater of an exhausted volcano . . . now a small oval plain, shut in on every side with hills, leaving only a comparatively narrow aperture where the road passes by which we enter. The ground and bottom of the hills are nearly white, which is relieved only by some rank weeds and the green brushwood near the tops of the heights. On the right of the entrance is a manufactory of sulphur, the principal material drawn from hence, and from which the spot takes its name . . .

"In a garden, which may be taken returning from the Solfatara, are some tombs, discovered about four months before we paid our visit to them. They are four in number, and were found in a vault about fourteen feet long, paved and roofed with mosaic. The sarcophagi are of marble, ornamented with bad sculpture; but are without any inscription which might indicate who owned the sepulchre.

"Not far from this garden is a long subterranean building, sustained upon massy piers, which, the first time we saw it was dry, and we walked about in all parts of it; but it has since been applied to its original purpose of a water tank. There can be little doubt of its having served for this object, as the remains of the aqueducts which led off the water to Puteoli are still visible. In short, nearly the whole length of the road by which you go to the above and following antiquities, has on one side of it an aqueduct carried under ground. Near this reservoir are the remains of a large amphitheatre, called by the country people, Il Coliseo, with no other reason than because the amphitheatre at Rome is