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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Italy, the Magic Land, by Lilian Whiting
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Italy, the Magic Land
+
+Author: Lilian Whiting
+
+Release Date: August 10, 2009 [EBook #29658]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ITALY, THE MAGIC LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emanuela Piasentini and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Illustration: _Temple, Taormina_]
+
+
+
+
+ ITALY
+
+ THE MAGIC LAND
+
+ BY
+
+ LILIAN WHITING
+
+ AUTHOR OF "THE FLORENCE OF LANDOR," "THE LAND OF
+ ENCHANTMENT," "THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL," ETC.
+
+
+ "And, under many a yellow star,
+ We dropped into the Magic Land!"
+
+
+ _Illustrated from Photographs_
+
+ BOSTON
+ LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
+ 1907
+
+
+
+
+_Copyright, 1907_,
+
+BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+Published November, 1907
+
+THE GRIFFITH-STILLINGS PRESS, BOSTON, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+ TO
+ ELLA
+
+ (MRS. FRANKLIN SIMMONS)
+
+ WHOSE EARTHLY FORM REPOSES IN THE BEAUTIFUL ROMAN CEMETERY,
+ WHERE POETIC ASSOCIATIONS WITH KEATS AND SHELLEY HAUNT
+ THE AIR,--UNDER THE SCULPTURED "ANGEL OF THE RESURRECTION,"
+ WITH ITS MAJESTIC SYMBOLISM OF THE
+ TRIUMPH OF IMMORTALITY,--BUT WHOSE RADIANT
+ PRESENCE STILL TRANSFIGURES THE LIFE THAT
+ HELD HER IN IMMORTAL DEVOTION,--
+ THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED,
+
+ WITH THE UNFORGETTING LOVE OF
+
+ LILIAN WHITING.
+
+ROME, ITALY, May Days, 1907.
+
+
+
+
+ "_Nor Life is ever lord of Death,
+ And Love can never lose its own._"
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY NOTE
+
+
+That Florence, the "Flower City," receives only a passing allusion in
+this record of various impressions that gleam and glow through the days
+after several visits to the Magic Land, is due to the fact that in a
+previous volume by the writer--one entitled "The Florence of
+Landor"--the lovely Tuscan town with its art, its ineffable beauty, and
+its choice social life, formed the subject matter of that volume. Any
+attempt to portray Florence in the present book would savor only of the
+repetition of loves and enthusiasms already recorded in the previous
+work in which Walter Savage Landor formed the central figure. For that
+reason no mention of Florence, beyond some mere allusion, is attempted
+in these pages, which only aim to present certain fragmentary
+impressions of various sojourns in Italy, refracted through the prism of
+memory. Whatever inconveniences or discomfort attend the traveller
+swiftly fade, and leave to him only the precious heritage of resplendent
+sunset skies, of poetic association, of artistic beauty. In spirit he is
+again lingering through long afternoons in St. Peter's till the golden
+light through the far windows of the tribune is merged into the dusk of
+twilight in which the vast monumental groups gleam wraith-like. Again
+he is ascending the magnificent _Scala Regia_, and lingering in the
+Raphael Stanze, or in the wonderful sculpture galleries of the Vatican,
+or sauntering in the sunshine on the Palatine. In memory he is again
+spellbound by ancient and mediæval art. In the line of modern sculpture
+the work of Franklin Simmons in Rome is a feature of Italy that haunts
+the imagination. No lover of beauty would willingly miss his great
+studios in the Via San Nicolo da Tolentino, with their wealth of ideal
+creations that contribute new interest to the most divine of all the
+arts.
+
+ "The world of art is an ideal world,--
+ The world I love, and that I fain would live in;
+ So speak to me of artists and of art,
+ Of all the painters, sculptors, and musicians
+ That now illustrate Rome."
+
+The mystic charm of the pilgrimage to Assisi; the romance that reflects
+itself in the violet seas and flaming splendors of the sky on the shores
+of Ischia and Capri; the buried treasures of Amalfi; the magnetic
+impressiveness of the Eternal City,--all these enter into life as new
+forces to build and shape the future into undreamed-of destinies.
+
+ L. W.
+
+ THE BRUNSWICK, BOSTON,
+ October Days, 1907.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+ I THE PERIOD OF MODERN ART IN ROME 3
+
+ II SOCIAL LIFE IN THE ETERNAL CITY 127
+
+ III DAY-DREAMS IN NAPLES, AMALFI, AND CAPRI 227
+
+ IV A PAGE DE CONTI FROM ISCHIA 281
+
+ V VOICES OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI 341
+
+ VI THE GLORY OF A VENETIAN JUNE 389
+
+ VII THE MAGIC LAND 423
+
+ INDEX 459
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ Temple, Taormina _Frontispiece in Photogravure_
+
+ Angel, Church of San Andrea delle Fratte, Rome _Page_ 12
+
+ Detail from the Stuart Monument, St. Peter's, Rome " 24
+
+ Tomb of Clement XIII, St. Peter's, Rome " 32
+
+ "The Genius of Death," Detail from the Tomb
+ of Clement XIII, St. Peter's, Rome " 43
+
+ "La Fortuna," Accadémia di San Luca, Rome " 47
+
+ Spanish Steps, Piazza Trinità dei Monti, Rome " 72
+
+ Tomb of Pio Nono, San Lorenzo (Fuori le Mura) Rome " 75
+
+ "The Dance of the Pleiades" " 92
+
+ "Grief and History," Detail from Naval Monument,
+ Washington " 105
+
+ "The Genius of Progress Leading the Nations" " 108
+
+ "Mother of Moses" " 112
+
+ "Valley Forge" " 116
+
+ La Pieta, St. Peter's, Rome " 120
+
+ Villa Medici, Rome " 134
+
+ Entrance to Villa Pamphilia-Doria, Rome " 159
+
+ Statue of Christ, Ancient Church of San Martina, Rome " 193
+
+ Castel San Angelo and St. Peter's, Rome " 204
+
+ Porta San Paola, Pyramid of Caius Cestius, Rome " 216
+
+ Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples " 231
+
+ Ancient Temple, Baiæ " 241
+
+ Ischia, from the Sea " 282
+
+ La Rocca, Ischia " 294
+
+ Castello di Alfonso, Ischia " 306
+
+ Detail from "Parnassus," Raphael Stanze, Palazzo
+ Vaticano, Rome " 311
+
+ Vittoria Colonna, Galleria Buonarroti, Florence " 320
+
+ San Francescan Convent-Church, Assisi " 346
+
+ St. Francis d'Assisi, The Duomo, Assisi " 366
+
+ Santa Chiara, The Duomo, Assisi " 375
+
+ Baiæ and Ischia, from Camaldoli " 382
+
+ Ruins of the Greek Theatre, Taormina, Sicily " 429
+
+ Ponte Vecchio, Florence " 434
+
+ Campo Santo, Genoa " 453
+
+
+
+
+ "_Rest we content if whispers from the stars
+ In wafting of the incalculable wind
+ Come blown at midnight through our prison-bars._"
+
+
+
+
+THE MAGIC LAND
+
+ _By woodland belt, by ocean bar,
+ The full south breeze our forehead fanned;
+ And, under many a yellow star,
+ We dropped into the Magic Land._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ _We heard, far-off, the siren's song;
+ We caught the gleam of sea-maids' hair;
+ The glimmering isles and rocks among
+ We moved through sparkling purple air._
+
+ _Then Morning rose, and smote from far
+ Her elfin harps o'er land and sea;
+ And woodland belt, and ocean bar
+ To one sweet note sighed--"Italy!"_
+
+ OWEN MEREDITH.
+
+
+
+
+ITALY, THE MAGIC LAND
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE PERIOD OF MODERN ART IN ROME
+
+ But ah, that spring should vanish with the Rose!
+ That youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close?
+ The nightingale that in the branches sang,
+ Oh, where and whither flown again,--who knows?
+
+ OMAR KHAYYAM.
+
+
+ROME, as the picturesque city of the Popes in the middle years of the
+nineteenth century, was resplendent in local color. It was the Rome of
+sunny winters; the Rome of gay excursions over that haunted sea of the
+Campagna to pictorial points in the Alban and Sabine hills; the Rome of
+young artist life, which organized impromptu festas with Arcadian
+freedom, and utilized the shadow or the shelter of ruined temples or
+tombs in which to spread its picnic lunches and bring the glow of
+simple, friendly intercourse into the romantic lights of the poetic,
+historic, or tragic past. There were splendid Catholic processions and
+ceremonials that seemed organized as a part of the stage scenery that
+ensconced itself, also, with the nonchalance of easy possession, in the
+vast salons of historic palaces where tapestried walls and richly
+painted ceilings, arched high overhead, with statues dimly seen in
+niches here and there, and the bust of some crowned Antoninus, or
+radiant Juno, gleaming from a shadowy corner, all made up the
+_mise-en-scène_ of familiar evenings. There were lingering hours in the
+gardens of the Villa Medici into whose shades one strolled by that
+beguiling path along the parapet on Monte Pincio, through the beautiful
+grove with its walks and fountains. The old ilex bosquet, with its
+tangled growth and air of complete seclusion, had its spell of
+fascination. Then, as now, the elevated temple, at the end of the main
+path, seemed the haunt of gods and muses. In all the incidental, as well
+as the ceremonial social meeting and mingling, art and religion were the
+general themes of discussion. This idyllic life--
+
+ "Comprehending, too, the soul's
+ And all the high necessities of art"--
+
+has left its impress on the air as well as its record on many a page of
+the poet and the romancist. The names that made memorable those
+wonderful days touch chords of association that still vibrate in the
+life of the hour. For the most part the artists and their associates
+have gone their way--not into a Silent Land, a land of shadows and
+vague, wandering ghosts--but into that realm wherein is the "life more
+abundant," of more intense energy and of nobler achievement; the realm
+in which every aspiration of earth enlarges its conception and every
+inspiration is exalted and endowed with new purpose; the realm where, as
+Browning says,--
+
+ "Power comes in full play."
+
+The poet's vision recognizes the truth:--
+
+ "I know there shall dawn a day,
+ --Is it here on homely earth?
+ Is it yonder, worlds away,
+ Where the strange and new have birth,
+ That Power comes in full play?"
+
+The names of sculptor, painter, and poet throng back, imaged in that
+retrospective mirror which reflects a vista of the past, rich in ideal
+creation. Beautiful forms emerge from the marble; pictorial scenes glow
+from the canvas; song and story and happy, historic days are in the
+very air. To Italy, land of romance and song, all the artists came
+trooping, and
+
+ "Under many a yellow Star"
+
+they dropped into the Magic Land. If the wraiths of the centuries long
+since dead walked the streets, they were quite welcome to revisit the
+glimpses of the moon and contribute their mystery to the general
+artistic effectiveness of the Seven-hilled City. All this group of
+American idealists, from Allston and Page to Crawford, Story, Randolph
+Rogers, Vedder, Simmons, and to the latest comer of all, Charles Walter
+Stetson, recognized something of the artist's native air in this Mecca
+of their pilgrimage.
+
+It was, indeed, quite natural, on account of the stupendous work of
+Michael Angelo and the unrivalled museums of the Vatican, that Rome
+should have become pre-eminently the artistic centre of the nineteenth
+century and should have attracted students and lovers of art from all
+parts of the world. The immortal works of the two great periods, the
+Greek and the Renaissance,--the art that was forever great because it
+was the outgrowth of profound religious conviction,--were enshrined in
+the churches and the galleries of Rome. The leading countries of Europe
+sent here their aspiring students and established permanent academies
+for their residence. Germany, France, and England were thus represented.
+Thorwaldsen came as a pensioner from the Academy of Fine Arts in
+Copenhagen; and it was during his life, and that of the noble Canova,
+that Rome began to be recognized as the modern world-centre of art. Was
+it not a natural sequence that the early painters and sculptors who came
+to study under the stimulating influences of the great masterpieces of
+the past should linger on in the city whose very air became to them the
+breath of inspiring suggestion? Where but in Rome would have come to
+Crawford the vision of his "Orpheus" and of his noble Beethoven? or to
+Story his "Libyan Sibyl," and that exquisite group, "Into the Silent
+Land"? or to Vedder his marvellous creations of "The Fates Gathering in
+the Stars," the "Cumæan Sibyl," or the "Dance of the Pleiades"? to
+Simmons his triumphant "Angel of the Resurrection," and "The Genius of
+Progress Leading the Nations"? or to Stetson that ineffable vision of
+"The Child," and that wonderful group called "Music"? whose coloring
+Titian or Giorgione might well mistake for their own.
+
+Under the Pontifical _régime_ the general character of Rome was mediæval
+and religious. The perpetual festas of the church made the streets
+constantly picturesque with their processions of monks, and friars, and
+priests, and these wonderful blendings of color and scenic effect
+stimulated the artistic sense. The expenses of living in Rome were then
+only a fraction of what the cost is at the present time; and as the city
+was the resort of the wealthy and cultured few, the artists were
+surrounded by the stimulus of critical appreciation and of patronage.
+Their work, their dreams, were the theme of literary discussion, and
+focussed the attention of the polite world. Their studios were among the
+important interests to every visitor in the Eternal City. In those days
+the traveller did not land with his touring car at Naples, make "the
+run" to Rome in a record that distanced any possibilities of railroad
+trains, pass two or three days in motoring about the city and its
+environs, seeing the exterior of everything in a dissolving view and the
+interior of nothing,--as within this time, at least, he must flash on
+in his touring car to Florence. On the contrary, the traveller proceeded
+to Rome with serious deliberation, and with a more realizing sense of
+undertaking a journey than Walter Wellman experiences in attempting to
+fly in his aero-car to the North Pole and send his observations across
+the polar seas by wireless telegraphy. The visitor went to Rome for a
+winter, for a year, and gave himself up to leisurely impressions. Rome
+was an atmosphere, not a spectacle, and it was to be entered with the
+lofty and reverent appreciation of the poet's power and the artist's
+vision.
+
+In Rome, Thomas Cole painted some of his best pictures; and in Rome or
+Florence wrought a long list of painters and sculptors. Whether in the
+Eternal City or in the Flower City, their environment was alike
+Italy--the environment of the Magic Land. Among the more prominent of
+all these devotees of Beauty several nationalities were represented.
+Each might have said of his purpose, in the words of William Watson:--
+
+ "I follow Beauty; of her train am I,
+ Beauty, whose voice is earth and sea and air;
+ Who serveth, and her hands for all things ply;
+ Who reigneth, and her throne is everywhere."
+
+Among these artists there flash upon memory the names of Vanderlyn,
+Benjamin West, Allston, Rauch, Ange, Veit, Tenerani, Overbeck, Schadow,
+Horace Vernet, Thorwaldsen, John Gibson, Hiram Powers, Crawford, Page,
+Clark Mills, Randolph Rogers, William Rinehart, Launt Thompson, Horatio
+and Richard Greenough, Thomas Ball, Anne Whitney, Larkin G. Mead, Paul
+Akers, William Wetmore Story, Harriet Hosmer, J. Rollin Tilton, and,
+later, Elihu Vedder, Moses Ezekiel, Franklin Simmons, Augustus St.
+Gaudens, and Charles Walter Stetson, the name of Mr. Stetson linking the
+long and interesting procession with the immediate life of to-day. Of
+these later artists Story, Miss Hosmer, Ezekiel, Vedder, Simmons, and
+Stetson are identified with Rome as being either their permanent or
+their prolonged residence. Mr. St. Gaudens was a transient student,
+returning to his own country to pursue his work; and of two young
+sculptors, Hendrick Christian Anderson and C. Percival Dietsch, time has
+not yet developed their powers beyond an experimental stage of brilliant
+promise.
+
+ [Illustration: ANGEL, CHURCH OF SAN ANDREA DELLE FRATTE, ROME
+ Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini
+ _Page 32_]
+
+The Rome of the artists of clay and canvas was also the Rome of the
+poets and romancists, of authors in all lines of literary achievement.
+How the names of the procession of visitors and sojourners in the
+Eternal City, from Milton, Goethe, and Mme. de Staël to Henry James,
+Marion Crawford, Richard Bagot, and Grace Ellery Channing (Mrs. Charles
+Walter Stetson), gleam from that resplendent panorama of the modern past
+of Rome! Like the words in electric fire that flash out of the darkness
+in city streets at night, there shine the names of Shelley and of Keats;
+of Gladstone, on whom in one memorable summer day, while strolling in
+Italian sunshine, there fell a vision of the sacredness and the
+significance of life and its infinite responsibility in the fulfilment
+of lofty purposes. What charming associations these guests and
+sojourners have left behind! Hawthorne, embodying in immortal romance
+the spirit of the scenic greatness of the Eternal City; Margaret Fuller,
+Marchesa d'Ossoli, allying herself in marriage with the country she
+loved, and living in Rome those troubled, mysterious years that were to
+close the earthly chapter of her life; Robert and Elizabeth Browning,
+the wedded poets, who sang of love and Italy; Harriet Beecher Stowe,
+finding on the enchanted Italian shores the material which she wove
+with such irresistible attraction into the romance of "Agnes of
+Sorrento;" Longfellow, with his poet's vision, transmuting every vista
+and impression into some exquisite lyric; Lowell, bringing his
+philosophic as well as his poetic insight to penetrate the untold
+meaning of Rome; Thomas William Parsons, making the country of Dante
+fairly his own; Thackeray, with his brilliant interpretation of the
+_comédie humaine_; Emerson, who, oblivious of all the glories of art or
+the joys of nature, absorbed himself in writing transcendental letters
+to his eccentric, but high-souled aunt, Mary Moody Emerson; Ruskin,
+translating Italian art to Italy herself; Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe and
+his poet wife, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, in the first flush of their bridal
+happiness, when Mrs. Howe's impassioned love for the Seven-hilled City
+inspired many a lyric that mirrors the Roman atmosphere of that day;
+Kate Field, with a young girl's glad enthusiasm over the marvellous
+loveliness of a Maytime in Rome, and her devotion to those great
+histrionic artists, Ristori and Salvini; George Stillman Hillard,
+leaving to literature the rich legacy of his "Six Months in
+Italy,"--a work that to this day holds precedence as a clear and
+comprehensive presentation of the scenic beauty, the notable monumental
+and architectural art, and the general life and resources of this land
+of painter and poet. Other names, too, throng upon memory--that of
+William Dean Howells, painting Italian life in his "Venetian Days," and
+charming all the literary world by his choice art; and among later work,
+the interesting interpretations of Rome and of social life in Rome, by
+Marion Crawford, Henry James, and Richard Bagot,--in chronicle, in
+romance, or in biographical record. During the last quarter of the
+nineteenth century, indeed, the visitors to Rome--authors, artists,
+travellers of easy leisure--defy any numerical record. Mrs. Louise
+Chandler Moulton, poet, romancist, and delightful _raconteur_ as well,
+has recorded some charming impressions of her various sojourns in Rome
+both in her "Random Rambles" and in "Lazy Tours." Of the Palatine Hill
+we find her saying:--
+
+ "Sometimes we go to the Palace of the Cæsars, and look off upon the
+ heights where the snow lingers and the warm light rests, making
+ them shine like the Delectable Mountains. Nearer at hand are the
+ almond trees, in flower, or the orange trees, bright at once with
+ their white, sweet blossoms and their golden fruit."
+
+Mrs. Moulton writes of the "stately dwellers" in Rome whom time cannot
+change; and to whom, whenever she returns, she makes her first visit;
+some of whom are in the mighty palace of the Vatican and some of whom
+dwell in state in the Capitol.
+
+ "The beautiful Antoninus still wears his crown of lotus in Villa
+ Albani and the Juno whom Goethe worshipped reigns forever at the
+ Ludovisi," she writes; "I can never put in words the pleasure I
+ find in these immortals." Mrs. Moulton loved to wander in the Villa
+ Borghese "before the place is thronged with the beauty and fashion
+ of Rome as it is in the late afternoon. I do not wonder that Miriam
+ and Donatello could forget their fate in these enchanted glades,"
+ she wrote, "and dance as the sunbeams danced with the shadows.
+ Sometimes I seem to see them where the sun sifts through the young
+ green leaves, and her beauty--her human, deep-souled beauty--and
+ his fantastic grace are the only things here that cannot change.
+
+ "The walls will crumble; the busts of kings and heroes and poets
+ will lose their contours, the lovely Roman ladies also grow old and
+ fade, and vanish from sight and from memory; but still these two,
+ hopeless yet happy, will dance in these wild glades immortally
+ beyond the reach of the effacing years."
+
+The visit to Rome of the Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks--later the Bishop of
+Massachusetts--is immortalized in the most lifelike portrait bust of the
+great preacher ever modelled; a bust in which the genius of the
+sculptor, Franklin Simmons, found one of its noblest expressions, and
+has perpetuated, with masterly power, the energy of thought, at once
+profound and intense, in the countenance of Bishop Brooks. These, and
+many another whom the gods have loved and dowered with gifts, rise
+before any retrospective glance over the comparatively recent past of
+Rome. Bishop Brooks passed there the Holy Week of one Lenten season,
+and of the Miserere in the Sistine Chapel he wrote that it was certainly
+the most wonderful music to which he had ever listened; and he added:--
+
+ "The Miserere in the Sistine, the Benediction from the balcony, the
+ solemn moment of the elevation of the Host on Easter, and the
+ illumination of St. Peter's, these all seem to reach very
+ remarkably the great ideal of the central religious commemoration
+ of Christendom."
+
+It was in the winter of 1828 that Mr. Longfellow first visited Rome,
+which "is announced," he wrote, "by Nero's tomb," and he quotes Dupaty's
+lines:--
+
+ "Quoi! c'est là Rome? quoi!
+ C'est le tombeau de Neron qui l'annonce."
+
+Mr. Longfellow expressed his love for the Eternal City, and in a
+personal letter[1] he said:--
+
+ "I have been so delighted with Rome that I have extended my
+ residence much beyond my original intention. There is so much in
+ the city to delay the stranger; the villages in the environs are so
+ beautiful, and there is such a quiet and stillness about everything
+ that, were it in my power, I should be induced to remain the whole
+ year round. You can imagine nothing equal to the ruins of Rome. The
+ Forum and the Coliseum are beyond all I had ever fancied them; and
+ the ruined temples and the mouldering aqueducts which are scattered
+ over the Campagna; I do not believe there is a finer view in the
+ world than that from the eastern gate of the city, embracing the
+ Campagna, with its ruined aqueducts diverging in long broken
+ arcades, and terminated by the sweep of the Albanian hills,
+ sprinkled with their white villages, and celebrated in song and
+ story! But the great charm of the scene springs from association;
+ and though everything in Italy is really picturesque, yet strip the
+ country of its historic recollections,--think merely of what it is,
+ and not of what it has been,--and you will find the dream to be
+ fading away.
+
+ "You would be shocked at the misery of the people, especially in
+ the Pope's dominions: but their element seems to be in rags and
+ misery; and with the ceremonials of their religion and the holidays
+ of the church, which average nearly three a week, they are
+ poor--and lazy and happy. I mean, happy in their way."
+
+In a later visit the poet was domiciled in an hotel on the Piazza
+Barberini, where the wonderful view included then the entire city "to
+where St. Peter's dome darkens against the sunset." Of this visit his
+brother, Rev. Samuel Longfellow, writes:--
+
+ "Here Mr. Longfellow became for the season the centre of the group
+ of American visitors and resident artists, whose well-known names
+ need not be recounted. Here he made, also, acquaintances among the
+ Italians,--especially the Duke of Sermoneta, the Dantean scholar,
+ and Monsignore Nardi, of the papal court. The Pope himself he did
+ not visit. An interesting acquaintance was that made with the Abbé
+ Liszt, who was spending the winter in Rome, having rooms in the
+ abandoned Convent of Santa Francesca, in the Forum. Calling there
+ one evening, in company with Mr. Healy the artist, the inner door
+ of the apartment was opened to them by Liszt himself, holding high
+ in his hand a candle which illuminated his fine face. The picture
+ was so striking that Mr. Longfellow begged his companion to put it
+ upon canvas,--which he did; and the painting now hangs in the
+ library of Craigie House. At a morning visit, Liszt delighted the
+ party with a performance upon his Chickering pianoforte.
+
+ "To see Rome, as all travellers know, is a work for many months;
+ and it was pursued with tolerable diligence. But Mr. Longfellow was
+ never a good sight-seer. He was impatient of lingering in picture
+ galleries, churches, or ruins. He saw quickly the essential points,
+ and soon tired of any minuter examination."
+
+But long, indeed, before nineteenth-century artists and authors laid
+siege to the Eternal City, in the far-away years of 1638, Milton visited
+Rome, and there still remains the tablet, on the wall of the _casa_ in
+the Via delle Quattro Fontane in which he stayed, a tablet bearing an
+inscription giving the date of his visit; as, also, in Via Machella,
+there is an inscription marking the place where Scott lived during his
+visit to Rome. Goethe made his memorable tour to Italy in 1786--fourteen
+years before the dawn of the nineteenth century--and wrote: "I feel the
+greatest longing to read Tacitus in Rome;" and again (an observation
+with which every visitor to the Eternal City will sympathize) he
+noted:--
+
+ "It grows more and more difficult for me to render an account of my
+ residence in Rome, for as we always find the sea deeper the further
+ we go, so it is with me in observation of this city.... Wherever we
+ go and wherever we stand, we see about us a finished
+ picture,--forms of every kind and style; palaces and ruins; gardens
+ and wastes; the distant and the near houses; triumphal arches and
+ columns,--often all so close together that they might be sketched
+ on a single sheet. One should have a thousand points of steel with
+ which to write, and what can a single pen do? and then in the
+ evening one is weary and exhausted with the day of seeing and
+ admiring. Here one reads history from within outward."
+
+Chateaubriand, who in his earliest youth had visited America as the
+guest of Washington, passed the winter of 1803-4 in Rome, and his
+pictorial transcriptions of the city and its environs are among the most
+exquisite things in literary record. As, for instance, this description
+of a sunset from Monte Mario:--
+
+ "I was never weary of seeing, from the Villa Borghese, the sun go
+ down behind the cypresses of Monte Mario, and the pines of the
+ Villa Pamphili planted by Le Notre. I have stood upon the Ponte
+ Molle to enjoy the sublime spectacle of the close of day. The
+ summits of the Sabine hills appeared of lapis lazuli and pale gold,
+ while their bases and sides were bathed in vapors of violet or
+ purple. Sometimes lovely clouds, like fairy cars, borne along by
+ the evening wind with inimitable grace, recall the mythological
+ tales of the descent of the deities of Olympus. Sometimes old Rome
+ seems to have spread all over the west the purple of her consuls
+ and her Cæsars, beneath the last steps of the god of day. This rich
+ decoration does not vanish so quickly as in our climate. When we
+ think the hues are about to disappear they revive on some other
+ point of the horizon; one twilight follows another and the magic of
+ sunset is prolonged."
+
+It was in the same year that Mme. de Staël visited Rome and recorded, in
+her glowing romance, "Corinne," the impressions she received. In the
+spring of 1817 Lord Byron found in Rome the inspiration that he
+transmitted into that wonderful line in "Childe Harold":--
+
+ "The Niobe of Nations! There she stands."
+
+It was two years later that Shelley passed the spring in the
+Seven-hilled City, retiring to Leghorn later, to write his tragedy of
+"The Cenci."
+
+In Rome the visitor follows Michael Angelo and Raphael through the
+various churches and museums. The celebrated sibyls of Raphael are in
+the Santa Maria della Pace; his "Isaiah" is in San Agostino and his
+"Entombment" in the Casino of the Villa Borghese. While the sublime work
+of Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel is always one of the first
+things in Rome to which the traveller goes to study that incomparable
+work portraying the Creation--the Prophets and the Sibyls, the Angels
+and the Genii, that record the impassioned power of the master--yet all
+footsteps turn quickly, too, to the church called San Pietro in Vincoli,
+near the house in which Lucrezia Borgia lived, in which is the colossal
+Moses of Michael Angelo. As it stands, it fails to convey the first
+design of the great sculptor. Originally intended for the tomb of Pope
+Julius II, the plan included a massive block of marble (some forty by
+twenty feet) surmounted by a cornice and having its niches, its columns,
+and its statues, of which the Moses was to have been one. It would then
+have been judged relatively to the entire group, while now it is seen
+alone, and thus out of the proportions that were in the mind of the
+artist. The entire conception, indeed, was to unite sculpture and
+architecture into one splendid combination. "Thus the statue of Moses
+was meant to have been raised considerably above the eye of the
+spectator," writes Mr. Hillard, "and to have been a single object in a
+colossal structure of architecture and sculpture, which would have had a
+foreground and a background, and been crowned with a mass at once
+dome-like and pyramidal. Torn, as it is, from its proper place; divorced
+from its proportionate companionship; stuck against the wall of a
+church; and brought face to face with the observer,--what wonder that so
+many of those who see it turn away with no other impressions than those
+of caricature and exaggeration!"
+
+Mr. Hillard adds:--
+
+ "But who that can appreciate the sublime in art will fail to bow
+ down before it as embodied in this wonderful statue? The majestic
+ character of the head, the prodigious muscles of the chest and
+ arms, and the beard that flows like a torrent to the waist,
+ represent a being of more than mortal port and power, speaking with
+ the authority, and frowning with the sanctions of incarnate law.
+ The drapery of the lower part of the figure is inferior to the
+ anatomy of the upper part. Remarkable as the execution of the
+ statue is, the expression is yet more so; for notwithstanding its
+ colossal proportions, its prominent characteristic is the
+ embodiment of intellectual power. It is the great leader and
+ lawgiver of his people that we see, whose voice was command, and
+ whose outstretched arm sustained a nation's infant steps. He looks
+ as if he might control the energies of nature as well as shape the
+ mould in which the character of his people should be formed. That
+ any one should stand before this statue in a scoffing mood is to me
+ perfectly inexplicable. My own emotions were more nearly akin to
+ absolute bodily fear. At an irreverent word, I should have expected
+ the brow to contract into a darker frown, and the marble lips to
+ unclose in rebuke."
+
+ [Illustration: DETAIL FROM STUART MONUMENT, ST. PETER'S, ROME
+ Antonio Canova
+ _Page 33_]
+
+William Watson condenses his impressions of this majestic sculpture in
+the following quatrain.--
+
+ "The captain's might, and mystery of the seer--
+ Remoteness of Jehovah's colloquist,
+ Nearness of man's heaven-advocate--are here:
+ Alone Mount Nebo's harsh foreshadow is miss'd."
+
+The impressive group of sculptures and buildings on the
+Campidoglio--where once the shrine of Jupiter Capitolinus stood--owes
+its present picturesque scheme largely to Michael Angelo. The
+fascination of the long flights of steps leading from the Piazza
+Aracöeli to the Capitoline, where the ancient bronze equestrian statue
+of Marcus Aurelius forever keeps guard, is indescribable. The historic
+statues of Castor and Pollux mark the portals; on either hand there are
+seen the Muses of ancient sculpture, the Palazzo Senatoriale and the
+Palazzo dei Conservatori. There is in the entire world no more classic
+ground than is found in this impressive grouping of art and
+architecture.
+
+The genius of Raphael has recorded itself in those brilliant and
+imperishable works that enthrall the student of art in the Raphael
+stanze in the Vatican. He was imbued with the spirit of Greek art, and
+while Titian is a greater colorist, while Correggio, Botticelli,
+Perugino, and other artists that could be named equal or exceed Raphael
+in certain lines, yet as the interpreter of the profoundest thought, and
+for his philosophic grasp and his power to endow his conceptions with
+the most brilliant animation, he stands alone. The religious exaltation
+of "The Transfiguration" reveals the supreme degree of the divine genius
+of Raphael. That this painting was the last work of his life, that it
+was placed above his body as it lay in state, and was carried in his
+funeral procession, invests it with peculiar interest.
+
+As a draftsman Raphael was second only to Michael Angelo, with whom he
+must forever share the immortality of fame. The Academy in Venice holds
+some of his choicest drawings, and in the Venetian sketch-book in the
+National Gallery in London are many of his small pictures, including
+that of the "Knight's Dream."
+
+It was in the autumn of 1508, when Raphael was in his twenty-fifth year,
+that he was called to Rome in the service of the Pope. The Pontiff at
+this time was Pope Julius II, whose successor was Leo X, and under their
+pontificates (from 1508 to 1520) Raphael produced these masterpieces
+which stand unrivalled in the world save by the creations of Michael
+Angelo in the Capella Sistina. The celebrated "Four Sibyls" of Raphael
+are not, however, in the stanze of the Vatican, but in the Church of San
+Maria della Pace. In the Palazzo Vaticano these four wonderful stanze
+entrance the visitor; the Stanza della Signatura, the Stanza d'Eliodoro,
+the Stanza dell'Incendio and the Sala di Constantino.
+
+For the decoration of these stanze several painters from Umbria had been
+summoned,--Perugino, Sodoma, Signorelli, and others; but when Raphael
+had produced the "Disputa" in the Sala della Signatura, Pope Julius II
+recognized the work as so transcendent that he ordered the other artists
+to cease and even had some of their paintings obliterated that there
+might be more space for the exercise of Raphael's genius. In the
+"Disputa" are glorified the highest expressions of the human
+intellect--the domain portrayed being that of Theology, Philosophy,
+Poetry, and Justice. The splendor of this creation transcends all
+attempts of interpretation in language. Against a background of gold
+mosaic are portrayed these typical figures enthroned on clouds where
+genii flit to and fro bearing tablets with inscriptions. Theology holds
+in the left hand a book, while the other points to the vision of angels;
+Poetry, laurel-crowned, is seen seated on a throne with books and lyre;
+Philosophy wears a diadem, and Justice, with her balance and her sword,
+is also crowned. The title of this marvellous work is misleading. Its
+message is not that of disputation but of beatitude. At the altar are
+grouped the congregation; the mystic spell of heavenly enthusiasm
+enfolds the scene as an atmosphere, as above the heavens open and the
+glorified Christ, surrounded by the saints who have kept the faith, is
+disclosed to the devotees kneeling below, while a choir of listening
+angels bend over them from the distant clouds in the background.
+
+Under Poetry are grouped Apollo and the Muses, and the figures of Homer,
+Dante and Virgil, of Petrarcha, Anacreon and Sappho, of Pindar and of
+Horace are recognized. The great scholars seen in the Philosophy include
+Plato and Aristotle, while in the groups under Justice, Moses and Solon
+are seen.
+
+"Raphael seems to have never known despair," remarked Franklin Simmons
+of the work of this divine genius. "His paintings reveal no struggle,
+but seem to have been produced without effort, as if brought into
+existence by an enchanter's wand."
+
+No observation could more vividly interpret the wonderful effect
+produced on the student by Raphael, and he cannot but recall the truth
+expressed in these lines of Festus:--
+
+ "All aspiration is a toil;
+ But inspiration cometh from above
+ And is no labor."
+
+The inspiration of Raphael was of the noblest order. His genius, his
+kindling enthusiasm, his ecstasy of religious devotion, have left an
+imperishable heritage to art. By his transcendent gifts he represents
+the highest manifestation of the art of painting in the Renaissance. For
+the true note in art lies in spiritual perception. Not so brilliant a
+colorist as Titian, he was more the interpreter of the extension of
+human activity into that realm of the life more abundant, and with his
+extraordinary facility of execution he united exquisite refinement and
+unerring sense of beauty and the masterly power in composition that
+fairly created for the spectator the visions that his soul beheld. "I
+say to you," said Mr. Bryce recently in a press interview,--"I say to
+you, each oncoming tide of life requires and needs men of lofty thought
+who shall dream for it, sing for it, who shall gather up its tendencies,
+formulate its ideals and voice its spirit." One of those men of lofty
+thought who thus dream for the ages was Raphael, and his power and glory
+have left an ineffaceable impress upon human life. He was the divinely
+appointed messenger of beauty, and he was never disobedient to the
+heavenly vision.
+
+ "Time hath no tide but must abide
+ The servant of Thy will;
+ Tide hath no time, for to Thy rhyme
+ The ranging stars stand still."
+
+The decline of art after Michael Angelo and Raphael was marked. The very
+splendor and power of their creations, instead of inspiring those who
+immediately followed them, produced almost the inertia of despair. In
+the reverence and awe and admiration with which these transcendent
+masterpieces were approached any power to originate seemed futile by
+contrast. Imitation rather than creation became the method adopted,
+resulting in an increased poverty of design and feeble execution. The
+art of the sixteenth century deteriorated rapidly till the baroco style
+was in evidence. One reason, too, for the decline was in that art was no
+longer so exclusively dedicated to the high service of religion, but
+aimed, instead, to please and to procure patrons, and thus were all
+worthy standards lowered to pernicious levels.
+
+A sculptor who left his impress upon the sixteenth-century art was
+Lorenzo Bernini, a Neapolitan (born in 1598) who died in Rome in 1685.
+The work of Bernini has a certain fascination and airy touch that, while
+it sometimes degenerates into the merely fantastic and even into tawdry
+and puerile affectations, has at its best a refinement and grace that
+lend to his sculptures an enduring charm, as seen in his "Apollo and
+Daphne" (a work executed in his eighteenth year) which is now in the
+Casino of the Villa Borghese. Bernini's name is perpetuated in the
+colossal statues on the colonnade of St. Peter's, the great bronze
+angels with their draperies streaming to the winds on the Ponte San
+Angelo, and in the vast fountain in the Piazza Navona. In the court of
+the Palazzo Bernini is one of the most interesting of his works--a
+colossal figure, allegorical in significance, illustrating "Truth
+Brought to Light by Time." One of the most important works of
+Bernini--now placed in the Museo Nazionale--is the group of "Pluto and
+Proserpine."
+
+ [Illustration: TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII, ST. PETER'S, ROME
+ Antonio Canova
+ _Page 42_]
+
+The influence that was to reform and regenerate the art of sculpture in
+the sixteenth century came with the great and good Canova, with which
+was united that of Flaxman and of Thorwaldsen. The heavenly messengers
+are always sent and appear at the time they are most needed. Neither
+Truth nor Art is ever left without a witness.
+
+ "God sends his teachers unto every age,
+ To every clime, and every race of men,
+ With revelations fitted to their growth
+ And shape of mind; nor gives the realm of truth
+ Into the selfish rule of one sole race."
+
+Canova's genius and services were widely recognized. In 1719 he was made
+a Senator; he was ennobled with the title of Marchese of Ischia and
+granted a yearly allowance of three thousand scudi; and his noble and
+generous enthusiasms, not less than his genius, have left their record
+on life as well as on art. When he died (in Venice, Oct. 3, 1822) his
+work included fifty-nine statues, fourteen groups, twenty-two monuments,
+and fifty-four busts. The statue of Pius V and the tomb of Clement XIII
+are his greatest works, and the latter is perhaps even increasingly
+held as a masterpiece of the ages.
+
+Canova, warned by the fatal influence of imitation in art in the
+sixteenth century, frequently counselled his pupils against copying his
+own style and constantly urged them to study from the Greeks. He advised
+them to visit frequently the studios of other artists, "and especially,"
+he would add, "the studios of Thorwaldsen, who is a very great artist."
+
+In the early part of the nineteenth century contemporary sculpture in
+Rome was led by the three great artists,--Canova, Thorwaldsen, and
+Gibson. In 1829 Gibson had the honor of being elected a member of the
+Accadémia di San Luca in place of the sculptor Massimiliano, who had
+then just died. Cammuccini, the historical painter, proposed Gibson, and
+with the ardent assistance of Thorwaldsen he was elected resident
+Academician of merit. "Like Canova, Thorwaldsen was most generous to
+young artists," says Gibson of the great Danish master, "and he freely
+visited all who required his advice. I profited greatly by the knowledge
+which this splendid sculptor had of his art. On every occasion when I
+was modelling a new work he came to me, and corrected whatever he
+thought amiss. I also often went to his studio and contemplated his
+glorious works, always in the noblest style, full of pure and severe
+simplicity. His studio was a safe school for the young, and was the
+resort of artists and lovers of art from all nations. The old man's
+person can never be forgotten by those who saw him. Tall and strong,--he
+never lost a tooth in his life,--he was most venerable looking. His kind
+countenance was marked with hard thinking, his eyes were gray, and his
+white locks lay upon his broad shoulders. At great assemblies his breast
+was covered with orders."
+
+Thorwaldsen (born in Copenhagen, Nov. 19, 1770) went to Rome in
+1797--sent by the government of Denmark as a pensioner. It is said that,
+in his enthusiasm for Rome, Thorwaldsen dated his birth from the hour he
+entered the Eternal City. "Before that day," he exclaimed, "I existed; I
+did not live." For nearly fifty years--until his death in 1844--he lived
+and worked in Rome, occupying at one time the studio in Via Babuino that
+had formerly been that of Flaxman.
+
+John Gibson, who went to Rome in 1817,--twenty years after Thorwaldsen
+first arrived,--had the good fortune to be for five years a pupil of
+Canova, whose death in 1822 terminated this inestimable privilege. The
+elevation of purpose that characterized the young English student made
+his progress and development a matter of peculiar interest to the
+master. Gibson, also, bears his testimony to the stimulus of the Roman
+environment. "Rome above all other cities," he says, "has a peculiar
+influence upon and charm for the real student; he feels himself in the
+very university of art, where it is the one thing talked about and
+thought about. Constantly did I feel the presence of this influence.
+Every morning I rose with the sun, my soul gladdened by a new day of a
+happy and delightful pursuit; and as I walked to my breakfast at the
+Caffè Greco and watched with new pleasure the tops of the churches and
+palaces gilt by the morning sun, I was inspired with a sense of daily
+renovated youth, and fresh enthusiasm, and returned joyfully to the
+combat, to the invigorating strife with the difficulties of art. Nor did
+the worm of envy creep round my heart whenever I saw a beautiful idea
+skilfully executed by any of my young rivals, but constantly spurred on
+by the talent around me I returned to my studio with fresh resolution."
+
+Again to a friend Gibson writes:--
+
+ "I renewed my visits to the Vatican, refreshing my spirits in that
+ Pantheon of the gods, demigods, and heroes of Hellas.... In the art
+ of sculpture the Greeks were gods.... In the Vatican we go from
+ statue to statue, from fragment to fragment, like the bee from
+ flower to flower."
+
+These five years in which Canova, Thorwaldsen, and Gibson lived and
+wrought together--although the youngest of this trio was still in his
+student life--form a definite period in the history of modern art in
+Rome. The dreams, the enthusiasm, the devotion to ideal beauty which
+characterized their work left its impress and its vitality of
+influence--a mystic power ready to incarnate itself again through the
+facility of expression of the artists yet to come. To the young men
+whose steps were turned toward Rome in these early years of the century
+just passed, how great was the privilege of coming into close range of
+the influence of such artists as these; to study their methods; to hear
+the expression of their views on art in familiar meeting and
+conversation! These artists were closely in touch with that "lovely and
+faithful dream which came with Italian Renaissance in the works of
+Pisani, Mino di Fiesole, Donatello, Michael Angelo, and Giovanni da
+Bologna--all who caught the spirit of Greek art." Artistic truth was the
+keynote of the hour, and it is this truth which is the basis of the
+highest conception of life.
+
+ "Art's a service,--mark:
+ A silver key is given to thy clasp
+ And thou shalt stand unwearied night and day,
+ And fix it in the hard, slow-turning wards
+ To open, so that intermediate door
+ Betwixt the different planes of sensuous form
+ And form insensuous, that inferior men
+ May learn to feel on still through these to those,
+ And bless thy ministration. The world waits for help."
+
+In their true relation art and ethics meet in their ministry to
+humanity, for only in their union can they best serve man. All the
+nobler culture has its responsibility in service. "Many a man has a
+blind notion of stewardship about his property, but very few have it
+about their knowledge," said Bishop Phillips Brooks, and he added: "One
+grows tired of seeing cultivated people with all their culture cursed by
+selfishness." To the true idealist--as distinct from the mere
+emotionalist with æsthetic tastes--selfishness is an impossible prison.
+The only spiritual freedom lies in the perpetual sharing of the fuller
+life. The gift shared is the gift doubled. Art is the spiritual glory of
+life; the supreme manifestation, the very influence of spiritual
+achievement. Mr. Stillman, discussing the revival of art, has
+questioned: "Does the world want art any longer? Has it, in the present
+state of human progress, any place which will justify devotion to it?"
+
+He questions as to whether man is still
+
+ "Apparelled in celestial light,"
+
+or whether he has lost "the glory and the freshness" of his dreams.
+
+ "No one can admit," continues Mr. Stillman, "that the human
+ intellect is weaker than it was five or twenty centuries ago; but
+ it is certain that if we take the pains to study what was done five
+ centuries ago in painting, or twenty centuries ago in sculpture,
+ and compare it with the best work of to-day, we shall find the
+ latter trivial and 'prentice work compared with the ordinary work
+ of men whose names are lost in the lustre of a school.
+
+ "Then, little men inspired by the Zeitgeist, painted greatly; now,
+ our great men fail to reach the technical achievement of the little
+ men of them. There is only one living painter who can treat a
+ portrait as a Venetian artist of 1550 A.D. would have done it, and
+ how differently in the mastery of his material! If we go to the
+ work of wider range, the Campo Santo of Pisa, the Stanze, the
+ Sistine Chapel, the distance becomes an abyss; the simplest
+ fragment of a Greek statue of 450 B.C. shows us that the best
+ sculpture of this century, even the French, is only a happy
+ child-work, not even to be put in sight of Donatello or Michael
+ Angelo. The reason is simple, and already indicated. The early men
+ grew up in a system in which the power of expression was taught
+ from childhood; they acquired method as the musician does now, and
+ the tendency of the opinion of their time was to keep them in the
+ good method."
+
+Is this not too narrow and sweeping a judgment? The art of portraiture
+certainly did not die with the Venetian painters of 1550, however great
+their work; and if there be but "one living painter" who can treat
+portrait art like the early Venetians, there are scores of artists who
+achieve signal success by other methods of treatment.
+
+At all events, these three men, Canova, Thorwaldsen, and Gibson, worked
+with the conviction that art is service. With Victor Hugo, Canova could
+have said: "Genius is not made for genius; it is made for men.... Let
+him have wings for the infinite provided he has feet for the earth, and
+that, after having been seen flying, he is seen walking. After he has
+been seen an archangel, let him be still more a brother.... To be the
+servant of God in the march of progress--such is the law which regulates
+the growth of genius."
+
+They worked and taught by this creed. Thorwaldsen, on first arriving in
+Rome, wandered for three years, it is said, among the statues of gods
+and heroes, like a man in a dream. The atmosphere of the earlier day
+when Titian was employed by the king of Portugal and Raphael by the Pope
+to create works of great public importance still lingered and exerted
+over Thorwaldsen, and over all artists susceptible to its subtle
+influence, a peculiar spell. Its power was revealed in his subsequent
+works--the "Christ;" the sculptured groups for tombs in St. Peter's and
+in other churches; the poetic reliefs symbolizing "Day" and "Night;"
+"Ganymede Watering the Eagle;" the "Three Graces," "Hebe," and many
+others.
+
+Among Canova's works his immortal masterpiece is the monumental memorial
+group for the tomb of Pope Clement XIII in St. Peter's. The Pope is
+represented as kneeling in prayer. The modelling of the entire figure is
+instinct with expression. The fine and beautiful hands express reverence
+and trust. The countenance is pervaded with that peace only known to the
+soul that is in complete harmony with the divine power. The Holy Father
+has taken the tiara from his head and it lies before him on the
+cushion on which he kneels. Although the entire portrayal of the figure
+reveals that devotion expressed in the solemn and searching words of the
+church service, "And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord,
+ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and living
+sacrifice unto thee,"--although it is the very utmost rendering of the
+soul to God, it is yet the deliberate, the joyful, the living acceptance
+of divine love and no mere trance of ecstasy. No more wonderful figure
+in all the range of sculpture has been created than the Clement XIII of
+Canova.
+
+ [Illustration: "THE GENIUS OF DEATH,"
+ DETAIL FROM TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII,
+ ST. PETER'S, ROME
+ Antonio Canova
+ _Page 43_]
+
+The group is completed by two symbolic figures representing Religion and
+Death. The former is personified as a female figure holding a cross; the
+latter sits with his torch reversed. Grief, but not hopeless and
+despairing sorrow, is portrayed; it is the grief companioned by faith
+which ever sees
+
+ "The stars shine through the cypress trees."
+
+The base of the monument represents a chapel guarded by lions.
+Pistolesi, the great Italian authority on the sculpture of St. Peter's
+and the Vatican galleries, notes that the lions typify the firmness and
+the force and the courage, "_la fortezza dell'anima_," that so signally
+characterized Clement XIII. There is probably no sacred monument in the
+realm of all modern art which can equal this creation in its delicacy,
+its lofty beauty, and the noble message that it conveys.
+
+The oldest art school, the Accadémia di San Luca, founded in 1507 by
+Sixtus, when he called to Rome all the leading artists of Europe to
+assist in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, is an organization that
+magically links the present with the days of Canova, Thorwaldsen, and
+Gibson, as it linked them, also, with the remote and historic past. The
+father of the present custodian of the Academy knew Thorwaldsen well.
+The grandfather of the gifted Italian sculptor, Tadolini (who has
+recently completed the tomb for Pope Leo XIII, placed in the Basilica of
+San Giovanni Laterano), modelled the bust of Thorwaldsen, and in one
+gallery hangs the great Danish sculptor's portrait, painted by himself.
+The first director of San Luca was Federigo Zuccaro. In the early years
+of the nineteenth century this Academy was a vital centre of art life,
+and it is still a school that draws students, although the visitor who
+does not loiter and linger in his Rome may fail to know of this most
+alluring place. The San Luca is in the Via Bonella, one of the old,
+dark, narrow, and gloomy streets of the oldest part of Rome,--a short
+street of hardly more than two blocks, running between the Via
+Alessandra and the Forum. Hawthorne vividly pictures all this old Rome
+when he speaks of the "narrow, crooked, intricate streets, so
+uncomfortably paved with little squares of lava that to tread over them
+is a penitential pilgrimage; so indescribably ugly, moreover; so cold,
+so alley-like, into which the sun never falls and where a chill wind
+forces its deadly breath into our lungs; the immense seven-storied,
+yellow-washed hovels, or call them palaces, where all that is dreary in
+domestic life seems magnified and multiplied; those staircases which
+ascend from a ground floor of cook shops and cobblers' stalls, stables
+and regiments of cavalry, to a middle region of princes, cardinals, and
+ambassadors, and an upper tier of artists just beneath the unattainable
+sky: ... in which the visitor becomes sick at heart of Italian
+trickery, which has uprooted whatever faith in man's integrity had till
+then endured;" the city "crushed down in spirit by the desolation of her
+ruin and the hopelessness of her future;" one recalls these words when
+passing through the unspeakable gloom and horror and desolation and
+squalor of ancient Rome. In these surroundings one's cab stops at "No.
+44," and ringing the bell the door is open, whether by super-normal
+agency or by some invisible terrestrial manipulation one is unable to
+determine; but in the semi-darkness of the narrow hall he discerns
+before him a flight of steep stairs, and, as no other vista opens, he
+reasons that, by the law of exclusion, this must be the appointed way.
+Along the wall are seen, here and there, some antique casts from
+Trajan's Column, and reliefs from Canova and Thorwaldsen. The galleries
+above hold only a small and a comparatively unimportant collection of
+pictures. There are marines from Vernet and Claude Lorraine; a "Venus
+Crowned by the Graces" from Rubens; Giulio Romano's copy of Raphael's
+"Galatea,"--the original of which (in the Villa Farnesina) represents
+Galatea surrounded by Nymphs, Cupids, and Tritons, being carried in a
+shell across the sea. There is a Cupid, and also the "Fortuna" of Guido
+Reni,--the latter a figure of ineffable grace floating in the air. One
+of Raphael's early works representing "St. Luke Painting the Madonna" is
+here. There are several works by Titian, but these have less than would
+be expected of the glory usually associated with his name; and a Vandyke
+representing the Virgin and Child, with two angels playing, the one on a
+lute, the other on the violin.
+
+ [Illustration: "LA FORTUNA," ACCADÉMIA DI SAN LUCA, ROME
+ Guido Reni
+ _Page 47_]
+
+One salon filled with portraits of artists is especially interesting,
+and that of Thorwaldsen is so feminine in its costume and the parting of
+the hair, that it is almost inevitably mistaken for that of a woman.
+Guido's graceful "Fortuna" is represented as a female figure flying
+through the air, her long hair streaming in the wind, and the picture
+recalls to one the Greek legend of Opportunity, as told by Kainos. The
+legend runs:--
+
+ "'Of what town is thy sculptor?'
+
+ "'Of Lukzon.'
+
+ "'What is his name?'
+
+ "'Lysippos.'
+
+ "'And thine?'
+
+ "'Opportunity, controller of all things.'
+
+ "'But why standest thou on tiptoe?'
+
+ "'I am always running.'
+
+ "'Why, then, hast thou wings on both feet?'
+
+ "'I fly like the wind.'
+
+ "'But wherefore bearest thou a razor in thy right hand?'
+
+ "'As a sign to men that I am sharper than any steel.'
+
+ "'And why wearest thou thy hair long in front?'
+
+ "'That I may be seized by him who approaches me.'
+
+ "'By Zeus! And thou art bald behind?'
+
+ "'Because once I have passed with my winged feet no one may seize
+ me then.'"
+
+From one landing, on the steep narrow staircase of San Luca, opens the
+Biblioteca Sarti, an art library of some fifteen thousand volumes. The
+sculpture gallery is now closed and can only be entered by special
+permission. This is the more to be regretted as it contains the
+principal collections in Rome of the original casts of the works of
+Thorwaldsen and Canova.
+
+The latter-day artists who have been setting up their Lares and Penates
+in Rome at various periods during the early and into the later years of
+the nineteenth century have found the Eternal City in strong contrast
+with its twentieth-century aspects, however it may have differed from
+the Rome of the Popes. The earlier American artists to seek the
+Seven-hilled City were painters; and Allston, Copley, and Stuart had
+already distinguished themselves in pictorial art before America had
+produced any sculptor who could read his title clear to fame. It is to
+Hiram Powers (born in Vermont in 1805) that America must look as her
+first sculptor, chronologically considered, closely followed by Thomas
+Crawford, who was but eight years his junior, and by Horatio Greenough,
+who was also born in the same year as Powers, and who preceded him in
+Italy, but whose work has less artistic value. Mr. Greenough has left a
+colossal (if not an artistic) monument to his gifts in stately shaft
+marking Bunker Hill which he designed. Problematic in their claim to
+artistic excellence as are his "Washington"--a seated figure in the
+grounds of the Capitol in Washington--and his group in relief called
+"The Rescue" in the portico of the Capitol, his name lives by his
+personality as a man of liberal culture and noble character, if not by
+his actual rank in art. First of the American group in Italy, he was
+followed by Powers, who sought the ineffable beauty and enchantment of
+Florence in 1837. Horatio Greenough died in comparatively early life,
+leaving perhaps the most interesting of his works in a relief (purchased
+by Professor George Ticknor, the distinguished historian of Spain)
+"representing in touching beauty and expression a sculptor in an
+attitude of dejection and discouragement before his work, while a hand
+from above pours oil into his dying lamp, an allegory illustrative of
+the struggles of genius and the relief which timely patronage may extend
+to it."
+
+Mr. Powers passed his entire life in Florence. His work attracted great
+attention and inspired ardent appreciation. In portrait busts Powers was
+especially successful; and his "Greek Slave," his "Fisher Boy," "Il
+Penseroso," and "Proserpine" impressed the art-loving public of the time
+as marked by strong artistic power and as entitled to permanent rank in
+sculpture.
+
+Mr. Crawford died young; but his name lives in the majestic bronze
+statue of "Beethoven" which is in the beautiful white and gold interior
+of Symphony Hall, in Boston; and his "Orpheus" and some other works
+claim high appreciation. Writing of Crawford, Mr. Hillard said:--
+
+ "Crawford's career was distinguished by energy, resolution, and
+ self-reliance. While yet a youth, he formed the determination to
+ make himself an artist; and with this view went to Rome--alone,
+ unfriended, and unknown--and there began a life of toil and
+ renunciation; resisting the approaches alike of indolence and
+ despondency. His strength of character and force of will would have
+ earned distinction for powers inferior to his. Nothing was given to
+ self-indulgence; nothing to vague dreams; nothing to unmanly
+ despair. He did not wait for the work that he would have, but
+ labored cheerfully upon that which he could have. Success came
+ gradually, but surely; and his powers as surely proved themselves
+ to be more than equal to the demand made upon them."
+
+On the death of Mr. Crawford, Thomas William Parsons wrote a memorial
+poem in which this stanza occurs:--
+
+ "O Rome! what memories awake,
+ When Crawford's name is said,
+ Of days and friends for whose dear sake
+ That path of Hades unto me
+ Will have no more of dread
+ Than his own Orpheus felt, seeking Eurydice!
+ O Crawford! husband, father, brother
+ Are in that name, that little word!
+ Let me no more my sorrow smother;
+ Grief stirs me, and I must be stirred."
+
+Thomas Ball, who went in early manhood to Florence, where he remained
+until when nearly at the age of fourscore he returned to his native
+land, still continues, at the age of eighty-five, to pursue the art he
+loves. He has created works, as his equestrian statue of "Washington" in
+the Public Gardens and his "Lincoln Freeing the Slave" in Park Square,
+both in Boston; his great Washington Memorial group in Methuen,
+Massachusetts; his "Christ Blessing Little Children," and many other
+historic and ideal sculptures, that seem endowed with his beautiful and
+winning spirit as well as with his rare gifts. Larkin G. Mead chose
+Florence rather than Rome for his home and work. His noble "River God,"
+placed at the head of the Mississippi near St. Paul, as well as other
+interesting creations, link his name with that of his native land.
+Randolph Rogers, a man of genius; Rinehart, Paul Akers, and Thompson all
+died before the full maturity of their powers; Akers at the early age of
+thirty-six, leaving, as his bride of a year, the poet, Elizabeth Akers
+Allen, who, under the _nom de plume_ of "Florence Percy," has endeared
+herself to all lovers of lyric art. In a monograph on Paul Akers,
+written after his death, the writer says of his studio in Rome:--
+
+ "Linked with this studio is Hawthorne's tale of 'The Marble Faun,'
+ as Kenyon's studio was none other than Paul Akers's. Though
+ Hawthorne in his romance saw fit to lay the scene in the rooms once
+ occupied by Canova, it was in the Via del Crecie that he wove the
+ thread of his Italian romance.
+
+ "Paul Akers's growing reputation and increase of work ere long made
+ it necessary for him to seek a more commodious studio, and he took
+ rooms once occupied by the famous Canova. Here he had made under
+ his supervision copies in marble of many of the famous works of the
+ Vatican and the Capitol. The largest collection of these was a
+ commission from Mr. Edward King of Newport, and among them were
+ busts of Ariadne, Demosthenes, and Cicero, and a facsimile of the
+ 'Dying Gladiator' which Mr. King presented to the Redwood Library
+ of Newport.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "During his first winter in Rome he was permitted by the
+ authorities to make a cast of a mutilated bust of Cicero which had
+ long lain in the Vatican. A critic writing from Rome in 1857 says
+ of this bust of Cicero: 'Mr. Akers obtained permission to take a
+ cast from it; he then restored the eye, brow, and ears, and
+ modelled a neck and bust for it in accordance with the temperament
+ shown by the nervous and rather thin face. He has succeeded
+ admirably. It is the very head of the Vatican, yet without the
+ scars of envious time, and sits gracefully on human shoulders,
+ instead of being rolled awkwardly back upon a shelf.' This bust is
+ unlike the portrait which so long passed for Cicero's, but has been
+ identified by means of a medal which was struck by the Magnesians
+ in honor of the great orator during his consulate, and is now the
+ authorized portrait of Cicero. The finest of Paul Akers's creations
+ executed during his stay in Rome are 'St. Elizabeth of Hungary,'
+ which represents the princess at the moment the roses have fallen
+ to the ground; 'Una and the Lion,' an illustration of the line in
+ Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,'--
+
+ 'Still while she slept he kept both watch and ward;'
+
+ the head of Milton and the 'Pearl Diver.' The 'Pearl Diver,' now
+ owned by the city of Portland, represents a youth stretched upon a
+ sea-worn rock and wrapped in eternal sleep. The arms are thrown
+ above the head, and about the waist is a net containing
+ pearl-bearing shells for which he has risked his life. There is no
+ trace of suffering; all is subdued to beauty. It is death
+ represented as the ancients conceived it, the act of the
+ torch-reverting god. This youth, who has lost his life at the
+ moment when all that for which he had dared was within his grasp,
+ suggests Paul Akers's own untimely death on the eve of his
+ triumph."
+
+It was from his Roman studio that Mr. Akers wrote to a friend:--
+
+ "Yesterday Browning called. He looked a long time at my Milton, and
+ said it was Milton, the man-angel. He praised the wealth of hair
+ which I had given the head, and then said that Mrs. Browning had a
+ lock of Milton's hair, the only one now in existence. This was
+ given her by Leigh Hunt, just before his death, who had the records
+ proving it to be genuine. The hair was, he said, like mine. He
+ invited me to visit him in Florence, where he would show me the
+ first edition of Milton's poems, marked to indicate the peculiar
+ accent which the poet sometimes adopted, a knowledge of which makes
+ clear somewhat that otherwise seems discordant. Milton was so great
+ a musician that there could have been no fault in sound in his
+ compositions. He looked over my books; said my edition of Shelley
+ was one which he had corrected for the press, not from a knowledge
+ of the original MS., but from his internal evidence that so it must
+ have been; said Poe was a wonderful man; spoke of Tennyson in the
+ warmest terms. Took up a copy of his own poems published in the
+ United States, and remarked that it was better than the English
+ edition, yet had some awful blunders, and wished me to allow him to
+ correct a copy for me. My head of the 'Drowned Girl' caught his eye
+ and interested him. I told him that I had thought of Hood's 'Bridge
+ of Sighs.' He then said that Hood wrote that on his deathbed, and
+ read it to him before any one else had seen it. Hood was doubtful
+ whether it was worth publishing. To-morrow Mrs. Browning is to
+ come; she has been quite ill since she came to Rome, and I have
+ seen her but once. I derive much comfort from the friendship of
+ Charlotte Cushman. She has just gone from here. She has frequent
+ breakfast parties; I have attended but one. Mr. and Mrs. James T.
+ Fields, Wild, the painter, and myself were the guests. Fields I
+ like much."
+
+The first works of Mr. Akers were two portrait busts, of Longfellow and
+of Samuel Appleton. Of his bust of Milton, Hawthorne in the "Marble
+Faun" has said:--
+
+ "In another style, there was the grand, calm head of Milton, not
+ copied from any one bust or picture, yet more authentic than any
+ of them, because all known representations of the poet had been
+ profoundly studied and solved in the artist's mind. The bust over
+ the tomb in Greyfriar's Church, the original miniatures and
+ pictures wherever to be found, had mingled each its special truth
+ in this one work--wherein likewise by long perusal and deep love of
+ 'Paradise Lost,' the 'Comus,' the 'Lycidas,' and 'L'Allegro,' the
+ sculptor had succeeded even better than he knew in spiritualizing
+ his marble with the poet's mighty genius. And this was a great
+ thing to have achieved, such a length of time after the dry bones
+ and dust of Milton were like those of any other dead man."
+
+Richard Greenough and the painter, Mr. Haseltine, were prominent figures
+among the early American group of the nineteenth-century artists in
+Rome. There came Emma Stebbins, who modelled a fine portrait bust of
+Charlotte Cushman; and Anne Whitney, whose statues of Samuel Adams and
+of Leif Ericson adorn public grounds in Boston; whose life-size statue
+of Harriet Martineau is the possession of Wellesley College; and whose
+"Chaldean Astronomer," "Lotus-Eater," and "Roma"--a figure personifying
+the Rome of Pio Nono--reveal her power in ideal creation.
+
+The name of Harriet Hosmer stands out in brilliant pre-eminence among
+those of all women who have followed the plastic art. Her infinite charm
+of personality seems to impart itself to her work, and she has the gift
+to make friends as well as to call forms out of clay--the success of
+friendship being one even more permanently satisfying. In her early life
+as a girl hardly more than twenty, she sought Rome, living with art as
+her chaperon. Her versatility, her picturesque individuality, and her
+imaginative power all combined to win sympathetic recognition. Gibson,
+whose guidance was particularly well adapted to develop her gifts,
+received her into his own studio and took a deep interest in her work.
+It was during the period of her early efforts that Hawthorne was in
+Rome, and she is graphically depicted in his notebooks in her boyish cap
+at work in the clay. Gibson was an artist, _con amore_, and Miss
+Hosmer's joyous abandon to her art captivated his sympathy. "In my art
+what do I find?" he questioned; "happiness; love which does not depress
+me; difficulties which I do not fear; resolution which never abates;
+flights which carry me above the ground; ambition which tramples no one
+down." Master and pupil were akin in their unwearied devotion to art. Of
+Gibson, whose absence of mind regarding all the details of life made him
+almost helpless in travel and affairs, Miss Hosmer used gleefully to say
+that he "was a god in his studio, but God help him out of it!" This
+glancing sprite of a girl, frightening her friends by her daring and
+venturous horseback riding; gravitating by instinct to offer some
+generous, tender aid to the sick, the destitute, or the helpless; the
+life and light of gay dinners and of social evenings; working from six
+in the morning till night in her studio, "with an absence of
+pretension," says Mrs. Browning, "and simplicity of manners which accord
+rather with the childish dimples in her rosy cheeks than with her broad
+forehead and high aims," had the magic gift that merged her visitors and
+patrons into enthusiastic friends; and Mrs. Browning has chronicled the
+pretty scene when Lady Marion Alford, the daughter of the Earl of
+Northumberland, knelt before the girl artist and slipped on her finger
+a ring--a precious ruby set with diamonds--as a token of her devotion.
+Reading Miss Hosmer's life still further backward, the reader is
+transported, as if on some magic carpet, to St. Louis, in the United
+States, where a noble and lofty man, Hon. Wayman Crow,--a generous
+friend, a liberal patron of the arts, a man of the most refined tastes
+and culture, whose great qualities were always used in high
+service,--first aided Miss Hosmer to the preliminary studies in her art,
+and whose accomplished and lovely daughters (now Mrs. Lucien Carr of
+Boston, Mrs. Edwin Cushman of Newport and Rome, and Mrs. Emmons of
+Leamington, England) were as a trio of sisters to the young artist. And
+"the flowing conditions of life" bear on this lifelong friendship until
+a fair young girl, Élise (the daughter of Mrs. Emmons), catches up this
+sweet tie and as an accomplished and lovely young woman in Roman
+society, when these "flowing conditions" had come down even into the
+season of 1906-7, Miss Emmons cherished the fame of Harriet Hosmer and
+enjoyed the privilege of a constant correspondence with the
+distinguished artist. So the past links itself again with the present;
+and who can tell where any story in life begins or ends in the constant
+evolutionary progress?
+
+Miss Hosmer's work attracted wide attention. Her majestic statue of
+"Zenobia;" the winsome "Puck;" the impressive statue of "Beatrice
+Cenci," representing her as she lay in her cell in Castel San Angelo the
+night before her execution,--these and other works of hers are of an
+interesting character and will hold their permanent rank in sculpture.
+
+Were all the muses present at the christening of William Wetmore
+Story--sculptor, musician, poet and painter, jurist and man of letters,
+and the friend whose social relationships made life a thing of beauty--
+
+ "To winds and waterfalls,
+ And autumn's sunlit festivals,
+ To music and to music's thoughts
+ Inextricably bound"?
+
+Mr. Story made his first visit to Italy in 1847; not at that time with
+any fixed purpose of exchanging his profession of the law for art. He
+loved literature, and his grace and ease in expression had already
+manifested his literary talent; he had an inclination toward
+modelling--it could hardly, at this time, have been called by a stronger
+name--and curiously enough with him the usual conditions were reversed
+and he received a commission for a statue of his father, Judge Story,
+before he had made any definite turning toward the art of sculpture. A
+young man of versatile gifts and accomplished scholarship, sculpture was
+to him one among the many attractive forms of art rather than the
+supreme attraction; and it was the stimulus of the given work that
+determined him as a sculptor, rather than his determination to be a
+sculptor that determined the work. Among the goddesses of life Destiny
+must, perhaps, be allowed a place. At all events, after Mr. Story's
+initial glance at Italy, he sought Rome again a year later, and this
+time it was his choice for life, however unrevealed to his eye were the
+resplendent years that lay before him. He had fallen under the spell of
+the Magic Land. In a letter to Lowell, Mr. Story had questioned how he
+should ever endure again "the restraint and bondage of Boston." It was
+the picturesque Rome of the Popes that he first knew. The years of
+1848-49 were those of revolutionary activities in Italy. Pio Nono, one
+of the most saintly and beloved of the Popes,--whose mortal form now
+rests in that richly decorated chapel in old San Lorenzo, _fuori le
+mura_, on the site of the church that Constantine founded on the burial
+place of St. Lawrence,--made his flight to Gaeta and the Roman republic
+was established. It was a dramatic scene when Pio Nono returned (April
+12, 1850), entering Rome by the Porta San Giovanni. The scene from this
+gate was then, as now, one of the most impressive in the Eternal City.
+
+It was in this vast Basilica of San Giovanni Laterano that Pio Nono
+entered that April day, leaving his carriage and walking alone to the
+altar, where he knelt in devotion. A splendid procession awaited without
+to accompany the Holy Father to the Papal Palace. The superb state
+carriages conveyed princes and foreign ambassadors and great nobles.
+From the Piazza San Giovanni to St. Peter's every house was illuminated,
+and the populace cheered and waved until the very air vibrated with
+sound and color. These were the days when the methods of government were
+a visible spectacle, a drama, making the life in Rome a daily
+illuminated missal.
+
+The Storys, on their return to Italy, located themselves for a time in
+Florence, where they met the Brownings, and that lifelong friendship
+between the poet and the sculptor was initiated. In these happy
+Florentine days Mr. Story worked in his studio while his wife read to
+him the life of Keats, then just issued, written by Monckton Milnes,
+later Lord Houghton. But the "flowing conditions" soon bore them onward
+to Rome, where they settled themselves in the Via Porta Pinciana, and
+met the Crawfords, who were domiciled in the Villa Negroni. In these
+Roman days, too, appeared Mr. Cropsey, of poetic landscape fame, and
+here, too, was Margaret Fuller. Mazzini was then a leading figure in the
+Chamber of Deputies,--"the prophet not only of modern Italy, but of the
+modern world." He found Italy "utilitarian and materialistic, permeated
+by French ideas, and weakened by her reliance on French initiative. He
+was filled with hope that Italy might not only achieve her own unity,
+but might once more accomplish, as she had in the Rome of the Cæsars and
+the Rome of the Church, the unity of the Western world. 'On my side I
+believe,' he says, 'that the great problem of the day was a religious
+problem, to which all other questions were but secondary.'" He was
+asserting that "we cannot relate ourselves to the Divine, but through
+collective humanity. It is not by isolated duty (which indeed the
+conditions of modern life render more and more impossible), nor by
+contemplation of mere Power as displayed in the material world, that we
+can develop our nature. It is rather by mingling with the universal
+life, and by carrying on the evolution of the never-ending work."
+
+The studios of Mr. Crawford in those days were in the Piazza delle
+Terme, near the Baths of Diocletian. William Page, the painter, was
+domiciled on the slope of the Quirinal where he painted a portrait of
+Charlotte Cushman which Mrs. Browning described as "a miracle"; one of
+Mrs. Crawford; the head of Mrs. Story, which he insisted upon presenting
+to her husband; and a magnificent portrait of Browning which the artist
+presented to Mrs. Browning. "Both of us," wrote Robert Browning of this
+gift, "would have fain escaped being the subjects of such princely
+generosity; but there was no withstanding his delicacy and
+noble-mindedness." Mrs. Jameson was much in Rome in the early years of
+the 1850-60 decade, living in the old port by the Tiber nearly opposite
+to the new and splendid building of the law courts. Near the Tarpeian
+Rock Frederika Bremer had perched, in a tiny room of which she took all
+the frugal care, even to washing the blue cups and plates when she
+invited the Hawthornes to a tea of a simplicity that suggested, indeed,
+the utmost degree of "light" housekeeping. Thomas Buchanan Read was one
+of the hosts and guests of this social group, and it was at a dinner he
+gave that Hawthorne met Gibson, whose conversational talents were
+evidently (upon that occasion) chiefly employed in contemning the
+pre-Raphaelite school of painters and emphasizing the need of sculptors
+to discover and to follow the principles of the Greeks,--"a fair
+doctrine, but one which Mr. Gibson fails to practise," observes
+Hawthorne. The Brownings were variously bestowed in Rome through
+succeeding winters,--in the Bocca di Leone, in the Via del Tritone and
+elsewhere. Mrs. Browning, as her "Casa Guida Windows" and many other
+poems attest, took always the deepest interest in Italian politics.
+American and English friends come and go, but the little group of
+residents and the more permanent sojourners, as the Hawthornes and the
+Brownings, continue their daily variations on life in the social dinners
+and teas, the excursions and the sight-seeing of the wonderful city.
+
+Only the magician could "call up the vanished past again" and summon
+into an undeniable materialization those charming figures to come forth
+out of the shadowy air of the rich, historic past, and stand before us
+in the full light of contemporary attention. Not alone this group of
+choice persons, but the environment of their time, the very atmosphere,
+are demanded of this necromancy. The figure of Adelaide Kemble (Mrs.
+Sartoris) is one of these, and the tradition still survives of a concert
+given in the splendid, spacious hall of the Palazzo Colonna where she
+was the prima donna of the occasion. There were also musicals at the
+house of Mrs. Sartoris, where the guests met her famous sister, Fanny
+Kemble. Mrs. Browning was fond of both the sisters, and said of them
+that their social brilliancy was their least distinction. She found
+them both "noble and sympathetic," and her "dear Mr. Page" and "Hatty"
+(Miss Hosmer) "an immense favorite with us both," she said of her
+husband and herself; these and the Storys made up the special circle for
+the Brownings in Rome. "The Sartoris house has the best society in
+Rome," writes Mrs. Browning to Miss Mitford, "and exquisite music, of
+course. We met Lockhart there and my husband sees a good deal of him....
+A little society," she says, "is good for soul and body, and on the
+Continent it is easy to get a handful of society without paying too dear
+for it. This is an advantage of Continental life."
+
+Mrs. Browning greatly admired the work of Mr. Page, whose portraits she
+found "like Titian's." But the tinted statues of Gibson seemed to her
+inartistic. His famous painted Venus she called "pretty," but only as a
+wax doll might be, not as a work of genuine art. Then Thackeray and his
+two daughters came; Miss Anne (now known to the world of literature as
+Anne Thackeray Ritchie) was a special favorite with Mrs. Browning.
+
+Coming to Rome at one time from Florence in midwinter, the Brownings
+found that the Storys had taken an apartment for them (in the Via Bocca
+di Leone), and they arrived to find lighted fires and lamps. Their
+journey had included a week's visit at Assisi, studying the rich art of
+Cimabue and Giotto in the church of the great Franciscan monastery. Mrs.
+Browning visited studios in Rome and found that of Mr. Crawford more
+interesting to her than Mr. Gibson's, but no artist is "as near" to her,
+as she herself says, as Mr. Page. The Storys left the Porta Pinciana to
+live at No. 93 in the Piazza di Spagna, and in the same house with the
+Brownings, in the Bocca di Leone, Mr. Page had his apartment. To Lowell,
+Mr. Story wrote of the Brownings:--
+
+ "The Brownings and we became great friends in Florence, and, of
+ course, we could not become friends without liking each other. He,
+ Emelyn says, is like you. He is of my size, but slighter, with
+ straight black hair, small eyes, a smooth face, and manner nervous
+ and rapid. He has great vivacity, but not the least humor; some
+ sarcasm, considerable critical faculty, and very great frankness
+ and friendliness of manner and mind. Mrs. Browning will sit buried
+ up in a large easy-chair listening and talking very quietly and
+ pleasantly. Very unaffected is she.... I have hundreds of statues
+ in my head, but they are in the future tense. Powers I knew very
+ well in Florence. He is a man of great mechanical talent and
+ natural strength of perception, but with no poetry in his
+ composition, and I think no creative power.... I have been to hear
+ Allegri's 'Miserere' in the Sistine Chapel, with the awful and
+ mighty figures of Michael Angelo looking down from the ceiling; to
+ hear Guglielmi's 'Miserere' in St. Peter's, while the gloom of
+ evening was gathering in the lofty aisles and shrouding the
+ frescoed domes, was a deeply affecting and solemnly beautiful
+ experience. Never can one forget the plaintive wailing of the
+ voices that seemed to implore pity and pardon."
+
+It was in 1856 that the Storys located themselves in Palazzo Barberini,
+which Bernini designed and which was built "out of the quarry of the
+Coliseum" by Urban VIII. It is one of the wonderful old palaces of
+Rome,--this mass of Barberini courts, gardens, terraces, and vast
+apartments, with the interminable winding stairs, where on one landing
+Thorwaldsen's lion lies before the great doors decorated with the arms
+of Popes and princes. Here the old Cardinal Barberini lived his stormy
+life; here are the gallery and the library,--the latter stored with
+infinite treasures of ancient documents, old maps whose portrayal of the
+earth bears little resemblance to the present, and famous manuscripts
+and volumes in old vellum, some fifty thousand in all. In the Barberini
+gallery are a few noted works,--Raphael's "Fornarina," Guido's "Beatrice
+Cenci," a "Holy Family" by Andrea del Sarto, and others.
+
+ [Illustration: SPANISH STEPS, PIAZZA TRINITÀ DEI MONTI, ROME
+ _Page 72_]
+
+The Via delle Quattro Fontane, on which the Palazzo Barberini stands,
+might well be known as the street of the wonderful vista. One strolls
+down it to the Via Sistina and to Piazza Trinità de' Monti at the head
+of the Spanish steps (the Scala di Spagna), pausing for the loveliness
+of the view. Across the city rises the opposite height of Monte Mario,
+and to the left the Janiculum, now crowned with the magnificent
+equestrian statue of Garibaldi, which is in evidence from almost every
+part of Rome. As far as the eye can see the Campagna stretches away,
+infinite as the sea--a very Campagna Mystica. The luminous air, the
+faint, misty blue of the distance, the deep purple shadows on the hills,
+make up a landscape of color. At the foot of the Spanish steps the
+flower venders spread out their wares,--great bunches of the
+flame-colored roses peculiar to Italy, the fragrant white hyacinths,
+golden jonquils, baskets of violets, and masses of lilies of the valley.
+
+On many a night of brilliant moonlit glory the artistic sojourners in
+Rome lingered on the parapet of the Pincian Hill watching the moonlight
+flood the Eternal City until churches and palaces seemed to swim in a
+sea of silver. Or in the morning, when the rose-red of dawn was aglow,
+there seemed to hover over the city that wraith of mist whose secret
+Claude Lorraine surprises in his landscapes. These dawn visions of
+mysterious, incredible beauty are a part of the very identity of Rome.
+
+There were mornings when the Hawthornes with Mrs. Jameson or some other
+friend would drive out to the old San Lorenzo (_fuori le mura_), the
+church founded by Constantine in 330 on the site where the body of St.
+Lawrence was buried. At various periods the church was enlarged and
+finally, as recently as in 1864, Pio Nono had great improvements made
+under the architect Vespignani. In the piazza in front was placed an
+immense column of red granite, some sixty feet high, with the statue of
+St. Lawrence, a standing figure, at the top. It is most impressive. The
+colonnade at the entrance of the church is decorated with frescoes and
+contains two immense sarcophagi, whose sides are beautifully sculptured
+with reliefs. The roof is supported by six Ionic columns. Entering the
+church one finds an interior of three aisles divided by colossal columns
+of Oriental granite. In the middle aisle, on both sides the galleries,
+are fresco paintings illustrating the martyrdom of St. Lawrence and of
+St. Stephen, one series on the right and the other on the left. One of
+these paintings, especially, of the life of St. Lawrence, is strangely
+haunting to the imagination. It represents the youthful, slender figure,
+nude, save for slight drapery, laid on the gridiron while the fire is
+being kindled under it and the fagots shovelled in. The physical
+shrinking of the flesh--of every nerve--from the torture, the spiritual
+strength and invincible energy of the countenance, are wonderfully
+depicted. The great aisle was painted by order of Pius IX by Cesare
+Fracassini; in it are two pulpits of marble. A double staircase of
+marble conducts to that part of the Basilica of Constantine which by
+Honorius III was converted into the presbytery. It is decorated at the
+upper end by twelve columns of violet marble which rise from the level
+of the primitive basilica beneath. At the end is the ancient pontifical
+seat, adorned with mosaic and precious marbles. The papal altar is under
+a canopy in the Byzantine style. The pavement of this presbytery is
+worthy of particular attention. Descending to the confessional which is
+under the high altar the tomb of the martyred saints, Lawrence, Stephen,
+and Justin, is found.
+
+ [Illustration: TOMB OF PIO NONO, SAN LORENZO (FUORI LE MURA), ROME
+ _Page 75_]
+
+It was the request of Pio Nono that his mortal body should rest here,
+where it is placed in a simple tomb, according to his own instructions;
+but the chapel is very rich in decoration which was paid for by money
+sent from all parts of the world.
+
+The chapel walls are entirely encrusted in mother-of-pearl, gilt bronze,
+and beautiful marbles. The mosaic paintings are formed of gold and
+precious stones of fabulous value. This interior is perhaps the richest
+in the world in its decoration. San Lorenzo is a patriarchal church, and
+one of the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome. Near San Lorenzo is the
+Campo Verano, a cemetery containing many beautiful memorial sculptures.
+
+In those days, half a century ago, the entrance most often used by
+visitors to Rome was through the Via Flaminia and the Porta del Popolo,
+opening on the Piazza del Popolo, rather the most picturesque and
+impressive place in all Rome. On the left is the Pincian Hill (Monte
+Pincio), with its rich terraces, balustrades, its beautiful porticos
+filled with statuary, its groves of cypress and ilex trees; a classic
+vision rising on the sight and enchanting the imagination. On the side
+opposite the Porta three roads diverge in fan shape--the Via Babuino,
+the Corso, and the Ripetta, with the "twin churches" side by side; one
+between the Babuino and the Corso, the other between the Corso and the
+Ripetta.
+
+The Corso (which was the ancient Flaminian Way) runs straight to the
+Piazza Venezia at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. This Piazza del
+Popolo was widened and decorated by Pius VII. It is formed by two
+semicircles, adorned with fountains and statues, and terminated by four
+symmetrical edifices. In the semicircles are colossal groups in marble,
+and a road opposite the Pincio leads to the Ponte Margherita and the
+Prati di Castello.
+
+The obelisk in the centre of the piazza was brought to Rome from
+Heliopolis by Cæsar Augustus and originally stood in the Circus Maximus.
+It was erected here by Pope Sixtus V, and it is nearly a hundred feet in
+height. It is formed of red granite, and while it has been broken in
+three places, the hieroglyphics are still legible. This obelisk was
+first erected in Egypt as a part of the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis,
+in a period preceding that of Rameses II. After the battle of Actium,
+Augustus transported it to Rome, and it was first placed in the Circus
+Maximus, but during the reign of Valentinian it fell from its pedestal
+and lay buried in the earth, until in the sixteenth century Pope Sixtus
+V had it placed in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo, and consecrated
+it to the cross. The two inscriptions are on opposite sides. One thus
+reads:--
+
+ "The Emperor Cæsar, son of the divine Cæsar Augustus, Sovereign
+ Pontiff, twelve times Emperor, eleven times Consul, fourteen times
+ Tribune, having conquered Egypt, consecrated this gift to the Sun."
+
+The other inscription is as follows:--
+
+ "Sixtus V, Sovereign Pontiff, excavated, transported, and restored
+ this obelisk, sacrilegiously consecrated to the Sun by the great
+ Augustus, in the great Circus, where it lay in ruins, and dedicated
+ it to the cross triumphant in the fourth year of his pontificate."
+
+The Church of Santa Maria del Popolo is built into the very wall of
+Monte Pincio on the site of Nero's tomb. It dates back to 1099, and
+consists of three naves and several chapels. In the first chapel is a
+"Nativity" by Pinturicchio, who also painted the lunettes. Another
+chapel belongs to the Cibo family, and is rich in marbles and adorned
+with sixteen columns of Sicilian jasper. The "Conception" is by Maratta,
+the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" by Morandi, and the "St. Catherine" by
+Volterra. The "Visitation" was sculptured by Bernini in 1679. The third
+chapel is painted by Pinturicchio (1513), and the fourth has an
+interesting bas-relief of the fifteenth century. The picture of the
+Virgin, on the high altar, is one of those attributed to St. Luke; the
+paintings on the vault of the choir are by Pinturicchio. The two marble
+monuments are, from their perfection of design and execution, reckoned
+among the best modern works. They are by Cantucci da S. Savino. In the
+chapel following is an "Assumption" by Annibale Carracci; the side
+pictures are by Caravaggio. The last chapel but one in the small nave is
+the Chigi chapel, and is one of the most celebrated in Rome.
+
+Raphael gave the designs for the dome, the paintings of the frieze, and
+the altar picture. This latter was begun by Del Piombo and finished by
+Salviati. The statue of Daniel is by Bernini. The front of the altar and
+the statues of Jonah and Elijah were done by Lorenzetto (1541), from
+designs by Raphael. Outside this chapel is the monument of Princess
+Odescalchi Chigi (1771), by Paolo Posi. The stained windows of the choir
+belong to the fourteenth century, and in the sacristy and the vestibule
+are monuments also of the fourteenth century and of the fifteenth.
+Luther resided in the convent attached to this church when he was in
+Rome.
+
+There is a legend that a large walnut tree grew on the site of Nero's
+tomb in whose branches innumerable crows had their home, and that they
+devastated all that part of Rome. An appeal was made to the Virgin, who
+declared that the crows were demons who kept watch over the ashes of
+Nero, and ordered the tree to be cut down and burned, the ashes being
+scattered to the air, and that, on the spot, a church should be built to
+her honor. This was accomplished, and the crows no more troubled the
+Eternal City.
+
+The gardens of Lucullus were on the Monte Pincio. The view of the
+terraced hillside from the Piazza del Popolo is one of the most
+impressive in Rome.
+
+The Hawthornes left Rome in 1859; and the death of Mrs. Browning in June
+of 1861 left the little circle of the Roman winters irreparably broken.
+"Returning to Rome," wrote Story to Charles Eliot Norton, "I have not
+one single intimate ... no one with whom I can walk any of the higher
+ranges of art and philosophy." Mr. Story had modelled the busts of both
+Mr. and Mrs. Browning during their sojourns in Rome; in 1853 Harriet
+Hosmer had made the cast of the "clasped hands" of the poets, the model
+having since been cast in bronze; Mr. Page had, as already noted,
+painted a portrait of Robert Browning; and Mr. Leighton (afterward Sir
+Frederick) had made a beautiful portrait sketch of Mrs. Browning. In
+later years all these memorials, with other paintings or plastic
+sketches of the wedded poets, were grouped in Mr. Barrett Browning's
+palace in Venice.
+
+At this time Mr. Story had completed his "Cleopatra," which Hawthorne
+had embalmed in literary mention in "The Marble Faun;" and beside his
+"Judith," "Sappho," and other lesser works, he had achieved one of his
+finest successes in the "Libyan Sibyl." Both the "Cleopatra" and the
+"Sibyl" became famous. Whether they would produce so strong an effect at
+the present stage of twentieth-century life is a problem, but one that
+need not press for solution. Mr. Story was singularly fortunate in
+certain conditions that grouped themselves about his life and combined
+to establish his fame. These conditions, of course, were largely the
+outer reflection of inner qualities, as our conditions are apt to be;
+still, the "lack of favoring gales" not infrequently foredooms some
+gallant bark to a disastrous course.
+
+ "Man is his own star....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Our acts, our angels, are, for good or ill,
+ Our fatal shadows that walk by us still,"
+
+it is true; yet has not Edith Thomas embodied something of that
+overruling destiny that every thoughtful observer must discern in life
+in these lines?--
+
+ "You may blame the wind or no,
+ But it ever hath been so--
+ Something bravest of its kind
+ Leads a frustrate life and blind,
+ For the lack of favoring gales
+ Blowing blithe on other sails."
+
+Only occasionally have we
+
+ "... the time, and the place,
+ And the loved one all together."
+
+Mr. Story's nature was eminently sympathetic with the other arts; he was
+himself almost as much a literary man as he was a sculptor; he was the
+friend and companion of literary men, and to the fact that art in the
+middle years of the nineteenth century was far more a literary topic
+than a matter of critical scrutiny, Mr. Story owed an incalculable
+degree of his fame. He was an extremely interesting figure with his
+social grace, his liberal culture, and his versatile gifts. His life was
+centred in choice and refined associations. If not dowered with lofty
+and immortal original genius, he had a singular combination of talent,
+of fastidious taste, and of the intellectual appreciation that enabled
+him to select interesting ideal subjects to portray in the plastic art.
+These appealed to the special interest of his literary friends and were
+widely discussed in the press and periodicals of the day. It is a
+_bonmot_ of contemporary studio life that Hawthorne rather than Story
+created the "Cleopatra," and one ingenious spirit suggests that as Mr.
+Story put nothing of expression or significance into his statues, the
+beholder could read into them anything he pleased; finding an empty
+mould, so to speak, into which to pour whatever image or embodiment he
+might conjure up from the infinite realm of imagination. One of the
+latest of these contemporary critics declares that "Story declined
+appreciably, year by year, falling away from his own standard; haunted
+to the point of obsession by visions of mournful female figures,
+generally seated, wrapped in gloom. It seems strange," this critic
+continues, "that so active a mind should dream of nothing but brooding,
+sinister souls, of bodies bowed in grief, or tense with rage. Never
+once, apparently, did there come to him a vision of buoyancy and grace;
+of a beauty that one could love; of good cheer and joy of very living;
+always these unwholesome creatures born of that belated Byronic
+romanticism."
+
+This criticism, while it has as little appreciation of Mr. Story's
+exquisite culture and of the taste and refinement of his art as the
+general rush of the motor car and telephonic conversational life of the
+first decade of the twentieth century has of the thoughtful, the poetic,
+the leisurely atmosphere of Mr. Story's time, is yet not without a keen
+flashlight of truth. Painting had its reactionary crisis from the
+pre-Raphaelite ideals and the _intransigeants_ have had their own
+conflicts in which they survived, or disappeared, according to the
+degree of artistic vitality within. Sculpture and literature must also
+meet the series of tests to which the onward progress of life persists
+in subjecting them, and those who are submerged and perish can only
+encourage the survivors as did the Greeks, as sung by Theocritus:--
+
+ "A shipwrecked sailor, buried on this coast,
+ Bids you set sail.
+ Full many a gallant ship, when we were lost,
+ Weathered the gale."
+
+"As we refine, our checks grow finer," said Emerson. As life becomes
+more elaborate and ambitious, the critical tests increase. Contemporary
+fame can be created for the artist by favorable contemporary comment;
+but it rests with himself, after all; it rests in the abiding
+significance of his work--or the lack of it--as to whether this fame is
+perpetuated. That of Mr. Story does not hold within itself all the
+qualities that insure the appreciation of the present day. It is, as the
+critic of the hour expresses himself, "too literary,"--too largely a
+question of classic titles which appealed to the mid-nineteenth-century
+authors whose judgment of art the twentieth century finds particularly
+amusing. Henry James has somewhere held up to ridicule the early Beacon
+Hill Boston for its impassioned devotion to the "attenuated outlines" of
+Flaxman's art. But the work of Story will survive all transient
+variations of opinion, even of the present realistic age; for is not
+true realism, after all, to be found in the eternal ideals of truth,
+grace, dignity, refinement, significance, and beauty? These qualities
+have a message to convey; and no one can study with sympathetic
+appreciation any sculpture of William Wetmore Story without feeling that
+the work has something to say; that it is not a mere reproduction of
+some form, but is, rather, an idea impersonated, and therefore it has
+life, it has significance. The criticism of the immediate hour is not
+necessarily infallible because it is contemporary. What does William
+Watson say?
+
+ "A deft musician does the breeze become
+ Whenever an Æolian harp it finds;
+ Hornpipe and hurdy-gurdy both are dumb
+ Unto the most musicianly of winds."
+
+It is an irretrievable loss if, in the passion for the _vita nuova_, a
+generation, or a century, shall substitute for the Æolian harp the mere
+hornpipe and hurdy-gurdy of the hour. In another of his keenly critical
+quatrains William Watson embodies this signal truth:--
+
+ "His rhymes the poet flings at all men's feet,
+ And whoso will may trample on his rhymes.
+ Should Time let die a song that's pure and sweet,
+ The singer's loss were more than matched by Time's."
+
+Art is progressive, and the present is always the "heir of all the ages"
+preceding; but it cannot be affirmed that it invariably makes the best
+use of its rich inheritance.
+
+There are latter-day sculptors who excel in certain excellences that
+Story lacked; still, it would not be his loss, but our own, if we fail
+in a due recognition of that in his art which may appeal to the
+imagination; for, whatever the enthusiasms of other cults may be, there
+are qualities of beauty, strength, and profound significance in the art
+of Story that must insure their permanent recognition. Still, it remains
+true that Mr. Story owes his fame in an incalculable degree to the
+friendly pens of Hawthorne and others of his immediate circle,--Lowell,
+Motley, Charles Eliot Norton, Thackeray, Browning,--friends who,
+according to the latest standards of art criticism, were not unqualified
+nor absolute judges of art, but who were in sympathy with ideal
+expression and recognized this as embodied in the statues of Story.
+
+Browning wrote to the London _Times_ an article on Mr. Story's work, in
+which he conjured up most of the superlative phrases of commendation
+that the limits of the English language allow to praise his work, none
+of whose marshalled force was too poor to do him reverence. The
+versatile gifts of Story's personality drew around him friends whose
+influence was potent and, indeed, authoritative in their time.
+
+Still, any analysis of these conditions brings the searcher back to the
+primary truth that without the gifts and grace to attract about him an
+eminent circle of choice spirits he could not have enjoyed this potent
+aid and inspiration; and thus, that
+
+ "Man is his own star,"
+
+is an assertion that life, as well as poetry, justifies. In the full
+blaze of this fundamental truth, it is, not unfrequently, the
+mysterious spiritual tragedy of life that many an one as fine of fibre
+and with lofty ideals
+
+ "Leads a frustrate life and blind,
+ For the lack of favoring gales
+ Blowing blithe on other sails."
+
+Mr. Story was himself of too fine an order not to divine this truth.
+With what unrivalled power and pathos has he expressed it in his
+poem--one far too little known--the "Io Victis":--
+
+ "I sing the song of the Conquered, who fell in the Battle of
+ Life,--
+ The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died overwhelmed
+ in the strife;
+ Not the jubilant song of the victors, for whom the resounding
+ acclaim
+ Of nations was lifted in chorus, whose brows wore the chaplet
+ of fame,
+ But the hymn of the low and the humble, the weary, the
+ broken in heart,
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Whose youth bore no flower on its branches, whose hopes
+ burned in ashes away,
+ From whose hands slipped the prize they had grasped at, who stood
+ at the dying of day
+ With the wreck of their life all around them...."
+
+In this poem Mr. Story touched the highest note of his life,--as poet,
+sculptor, painter, or writer of prose; in no other form of expression
+has he equalled the sublimity of sentiment in these lines:--
+
+ "... I stand on the field of defeat,
+ In the shadow, with those who are fallen, and wounded, and
+ dying, and there
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Hold the hand that is helpless, and whisper, 'They only the
+ victory win
+ Who have fought the good fight, and have vanquished the
+ demon that tempts us within;
+ Who have held to their faith unseduced by the prize that the
+ world holds on high;
+ Who have dared for a high cause to suffer, resist, fight,--if
+ need be, to die.'"
+
+Such a poem must have its own immortality in lyric literature.
+
+For a period of forty years the home of the Storys in Palazzo Barberini
+was a noted centre of the most charming social life. Mr. Story's
+literary work--in his contributions of essays and poems to the _Atlantic
+Monthly_; in his published works, the "Roba di Roma," "Conversations in
+a Studio," his collected "Poems," and others--gave him a not transitory
+rank in literature which rivals, if it does not exceed, his rank in
+art.
+
+Meantime other artists were to take up their permanent abode in the
+Seven-hilled City,--Elihu Vedder in 1866; Franklin Simmons two years
+later; Waldo and Julian Story, the two sons of William Wetmore Story,
+though claiming Rome as their home, are American by parentage and
+ancestry; and Mr. Waldo Story succeeds his father in pursuing the art of
+sculpture in the beautiful studios in the Via San Martino built by the
+elder Story. In 1902 Charles Walter Stetson, with his gifted wife, known
+to the contemporary literary world by her maiden name, Grace Ellery
+Channing, set up their household gods and lighted their altar fires in
+the city by the Tiber, ready, it may be, to exclaim with Ovid:--
+
+ "Four times happy is he, and times without number is happy,
+ Who the city of Rome uninterdicted enjoys."
+
+ [Illustration: "THE DANCE OF THE PLEIADES"
+ Elihu Vedder
+ _Page 92_]
+
+If art is a corner of the universe seen through a temperament, the
+temperament of Mr. Vedder must offer an enthralling study, for it seems
+to be a lens whose power of refraction defies prophecy because it deals
+with the incalculable forces. His art concerns itself little with the
+æsthetic, but is chiefly the art of the intellect and the imagination.
+All manner of symbols and analogies; the laws of the universe that
+prevail beyond the stars; the celestial figures; the undreamed
+significance in prophecy or in destiny; omens, signs, and wonders; the
+world forces, advancing stealthily in the shadows of a dusky twilight;
+the Fates, under brilliant skies, gathering in the stars; oracles and
+supernatural coincidences that lurk in undreamed-of days; the Pleiades
+dancing in a light that never was on sea or land; unknown Shapes that
+meet outside space and time and question each other's identity; the dead
+that come forth from their graves and glide, silent and spectral,
+through a crowd, unseen by any one; the prayer of the celestial powers
+poured forth in the utter solitude of the vast desert,--it is these that
+are the realm of Vedder's art, and what has the normal world of portrait
+and landscape to do with such art as this? Can it only be relegated to a
+class, an order, of its own, and considered as being--Vedderesque? It
+seems to stand alone and unparalleled. In his work lies the
+transfiguration of all mystery. Vedder never paints nature, in the
+sense of landscapes, and yet one often feels that he has the key to the
+very creation of nature; that he has supped with gods and surprised the
+secrets of the stars. Do the winds whisper to him?--
+
+ "The Muse can knit
+ What is past, what is done,
+ With the web that's just begun."
+
+How can he find the design to phrase his thought--this painter of ideas?
+
+ "Can blaze be done in cochineal,
+ Or noon in mazarin?"
+
+Whatever the Roman environment may have done for Allston, Page, and
+Story, there is no question but that to Vedder it has been as his soul's
+native air. For him the sirens sing again on the coast; the sorceress
+works her spell; the Cumæan Sibyl again flies, wraithlike, over the
+plain, clasping her rejected leaves of destiny which Tarquin in his
+blindness has refused to buy. The Rome that lies buried under the ages
+rises for Vedder. His art cannot be catalogued under any known division
+of portrait, landscape, marine, or genre, but it is simply--the art of
+Vedder. It stands alone and absolutely unrivalled. The pictorial
+creations of Vedder are as wholly without precedent or comparison as if
+they were the sole pictorial treasures of the world. The visitor may
+care for them, or not care, according to his own ability to comprehend
+and to recognize the inscrutable genius there manifested; but in either
+case he will find nowhere else, in either ancient or contemporary art,
+any parallel to these works.
+
+One could well fancy that to any interrogation of his conceptions the
+artist might reply:--
+
+ "I am seeker of the stone,
+ Living gem of Solomon.
+ But what is land, or what is wave,
+ To me, who only jewels crave?
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ I'm all-knowing, yet unknowing;
+ Stand not, pause not in my going."
+
+In the rich, weird realm of Omar Khayyam's Persian poem, the Rubaiyat,
+Mr. Vedder found the opportunity of his life for translating its thought
+into strange, mystic symbolism. Never were artist and poet so blended
+in one as in Vedder's wonderful illustrations for this poem. It has
+nothing in common with what we ordinarily call an illustrated work. It
+is a great treasure of art for all the ages. It is a very fount of
+inspiration for painter and poet. An exquisite sonnet suggested by "The
+Angel of the Darker Cup" is the following by Louise Chandler Moulton:--
+
+ "She bends her lovely head to taste thy draught,
+ O thou stern Angel of the Darker Cup!
+ With thee to-night in the dim shades to sup,
+ Where all they be who from that cup have quaffed.
+ She had been glad in her own loveliness, and laughed
+ At Life's strong enemies who lie in wait;
+ Had kept with golden youth her queenly state,
+ All unafraid of Sorrow's threat'ning shaft.
+
+ "Then human Grief found out her human heart,
+ And she was fain to go where pain is dumb;
+ So Thou wert welcome, Angel dread to see,
+ And she fares onward with thee, willingly,
+ To dwell where no man loves, no lovers part,--
+ Thus Grief that is, makes welcome Death to come."
+
+The sonnet, the stanza, and the pictorial interpretation all form one
+beautiful trio in poetic and graphic art.
+
+Writing of Mr. Vedder, Mr. W. C. Brownell speaks of the personal force
+in a picture and says that with Vedder this personal force is
+imagination,--"the imagination of a man whose natural expression is
+pictorial, but who is a man as well as a painter; who has lived as well
+as painted, who has speculated, pondered, and felt much.... It is this,"
+he continues, "that places Vedder in the front rank of the imaginative
+painters of the day." Of Mr. Vedder's painting called "The Enemy Sowing
+Tares," Mr. Brownell writes:--
+
+ "... Here you note a dozen phases of significance. The theme is
+ unconventional; the man has become the archenemy; the night is
+ weird and awe-inspiring; the tares represent the foe of the
+ church--money; they are sown at the foot of the cross--the symbol
+ of the church.... Mr. Vedder has not passed his life in Rome for
+ nothing. His attitude is in harmony with the spirit of the Sistine
+ and the Stanze."
+
+One of the interesting and mystical works of Vedder is "The Soul between
+Doubt and Faith,"--three heads, that of the Soul hooded and draped,
+looking before her with eyes that seem to discern things not seen by
+mortals; the sinister face of Doubt at the left, the serene, inspiring
+countenance of Faith at the right. It is a magical picture to have
+before one with its profoundly significant message. The works of Mr.
+Vedder will grow more priceless as the years pass by. They are pictures
+for the ages.
+
+In Mr. Ezekiel, another American artist whose almost lifelong home has
+been in Rome, is a sculptor whose touch and technique have won
+recognition. In a recumbent figure of Christ is seen one of the best
+examples of his art. It is pervaded by the classic influences in which
+he has lived. The studios of Mr. Ezekiel, in the ruins of the old Baths
+of Caracalla, are very picturesque and his salon, with its music, its
+wealth of books including many rare and beautiful copies, and its old
+pictures and bric-a-brac, is one of the fascinating interiors of the
+Eternal City.
+
+The visitor who is privileged to see the Story studios in the Via San
+Martino finds Mr. Waldo Story occupying these spacious rooms where the
+flash of a fountain in the court, a view of the garden, green-walled by
+vines, with flowers and shrubs and broken statues, make the place
+alluring to dreamer and poet. In these rooms may be seen many of the
+elder Story's finest statues in cast or marble, the "Libyan Sibyl,"
+"Nemesis," "Sappho," the "Christ," "Into the Silent Land," and others,
+with many portrait busts, among which are those of Browning, Shelley,
+Keats, Theodore Parker, Mrs. Browning, Marchesa Peruzzi de Medici (Edith
+Story), John Lothrop Motley, one of Story's nearer friends, and Lord
+Houghton.
+
+In the work of Mr. Waldo Story one admirable portrait bust is of Cecil
+Rhodes. A decorative work, a fountain for the Rothschild country estate
+in England, is charmingly designed as a Galatea (in bronze), standing in
+a marble shell that is drawn by Nereids and attended by Cupids. The
+happy blending of marble and bronze gives to this work a pleasing
+variety of color. Another decorative design is that of "Nymphs Drinking
+at the Fountain of Love." These studios are among the most interesting
+in Rome.
+
+It was in 1868 that Franklin Simmons, then a young artist from Maine,
+turned to Rome as his artistic Mecca. Since then the Eternal City has
+always been his home, but his frequent and prolonged sojourns in America
+have kept him closely in touch with its national life. Mr. Simmons is
+the idealist who translates his vision into the actuality of the hour
+and who also exalts this actuality of the hour to the universality of
+the vision. In the creation of portrait busts and of the statues and
+monumental memorials of great men he infuses into them the indefinable
+quality of extended relation which relegates his work to the realm of
+the universal and, therefore, to the immortality of art, rather than
+restricting it to the temporal locality. Louis Gorse observes that it is
+not the absence of faults that constitutes a masterpiece, but that it is
+flame, it is life, it is emotion, it is sincerity. Under the touch of
+Mr. Simmons the personal accent speaks; to his creative power flame and
+life respond, and to no sculptor is the truth so admirably stated by M.
+Gorse more applicable.
+
+Mr. Simmons has been singularly fortunate in a wide American
+recognition, having received a liberal share of the more important
+commissions for great public works of sculpture. The splendid statue,
+_al fresco_, of the poet Longfellow for his native city, Portland, was
+appropriately the work of Mr. Simmons as a native of the same state; the
+portrait statues of General Grant, Gov. William King, Roger Williams,
+and Francis H. Pierrepont, all in Statuary Hall in the Capitol in
+Washington; the portrait busts of Grant, Sheridan, Porter, Hooker,
+Thomas, and other heroes of the Civil War; the colossal group of the
+Naval Monument at the head of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington,--are
+all among the works of Mr. Simmons.
+
+Like all artists who, like the poet, are born and not made, Mr. Simmons
+gave evidence of his artistic bent in his early childhood. After
+graduating from Bates College he modelled a bust of its president, and a
+little later, going to Washington (in the winter of 1865-66), many of
+the noted men of the time gave him sittings, and in a series of portrait
+busts his genius impressed itself by its dignity of conception and an
+unusual power of sympathetic interpretation. He modelled the bust of
+Grant while he was the General's guest in camp, taking advantage of
+whatever spare minutes General Grant could give for sittings in the
+midst of his pressing responsibilities; and it is perhaps due to this
+unusually intimate intercourse with the great hero, and the _rapport_,
+not difficult of establishment, between two men whose natures were akin
+in a certain noble sincerity and lofty devotion to the purest ideals,
+that Mr. Simmons owes the power with which he has absolutely interpreted
+the essential characteristics of General Grant in that immortal portrait
+statue in the Capitol.
+
+Washington is, indeed, the place to especially study the earlier work of
+Franklin Simmons. An important one is the Logan memorial,--an equestrian
+statue which is considered the finest work in sculpture in the capital,
+and which is the only statue in the United States in which both the
+group and the pedestal are of bronze. The visitor in Washington who
+should be ignorant of the relative rank of the great men commemorated by
+the equestrian memorial monuments of the city might be justified in
+believing that General Logan was the most important man of his time, if
+he judged from the relative greatness of his statue. When Congress
+decided upon this group, Mr. Simmons was requested to prepare a model.
+This proving eminently acceptable, Mr. Simmons found himself, quite to
+his own surprise, fairly launched on this arduous work, involving years
+of intense concentration and labor. For this monumental work was to be
+not merely that of the brave and gallant military leader,--a single idea
+embodied, as in those of Generals Scott, Sheridan, Thomas, and
+others,--but it was to be a permanent interpretation of the
+soldier-statesman, mounted on his battle-horse; it was to be, in the
+comprehensive grasp of Mr. Simmons, the vital representation of the
+complex life and individuality of General Logan and, even more, it must
+reflect and suggest the complex spirit of his age. In this martial
+figure was thus embodied a manifold and mysterious relation, as one of
+the potent leaders and directive powers in an age of tumultuous
+activities; an age of strife and carnage, whose goal was peace; of
+adverse conditions and reactions, whose manifest outcome was yet
+prosperity and national greatness and splendid moral triumph. All these
+must be suggested in the atmosphere, so to speak, of the artist's work;
+and no sculptor who was not also an American--not merely by ancestry and
+activity, but one in mind and heart only; one who was an intense
+patriot and identified with national ideas--could ever have produced
+such a work as that of the Logan monument. So unrivalled does it stand,
+unique among all the equestrian art of this country, that it enchants
+the art student and lover with its indefinable spell. When this colossal
+work was cast in bronze, in Rome, the event was considered important.
+The king and the Royal family visited the studio of Mr. Simmons to see
+the great group, and so powerfully did its excellence appeal to King
+Umberto that he knighted Mr. Simmons, making him Cavaliere of the Crown
+of Italy. Nor was Mr. Simmons the prophet who was not without honor save
+in his own country, for his _alma mater_ gave him the degree of M.A. in
+1867; Colby College honored him with the Master's degree in 1885, and in
+1888 Bowdoin bestowed upon this eminent Maine artist the same degree. In
+1892 Mr. Simmons married the Baroness von Jeinsen, a brilliant and
+beautiful woman who, though a lady of foreign title, was an American by
+birth. An accomplished musician, a critical lover of art, and the most
+delightful of hostesses and friends, Mrs. Simmons drew around her a
+remarkable circle of charming people and made their home in the Palazzo
+Tamagno a notable centre of social life. No woman in the American colony
+of the Seven-hilled City was ever more beloved; and it was frequently
+noted by guests at her weekly receptions that Mrs. Simmons was as
+solicitous for the enjoyment of the most unknown stranger as for those
+of rank and title who frequented her house. Her grace and loveliness
+were fully equalled by her graciousness and that charm of personality
+peculiarly her own. Her death in Rome, on Christmas of 1905, left a
+vacant place, indeed, in many a home which had been gladdened by her
+radiant presence. One of the most beautiful works of Mr. Simmons is a
+portrait of his wife in bas-relief, representing her standing just at
+the opening of parted curtains, as if she were about to step behind and
+vanish. It is a very poetic conception. A bust of Mrs. Simmons, also, in
+his studio, is fairly a speaking likeness of this beautiful and
+distinguished woman. It is over her grave in the Protestant cemetery
+that Mr. Simmons has placed one of his noblest ideal statues, "The Angel
+of the Resurrection,"--a memorial monument that is one of the art
+features of Rome to the visitor in the Eternal City.
+
+ [Illustration: "GRIEF AND HISTORY," DETAIL FROM NAVAL MONUMENT,
+ WASHINGTON
+ Franklin Simmons
+ _Page 105_]
+
+The brilliant and impressive Naval Monument, or Monument of Peace, as it
+is known in Washington, placed at the foot of Capitol Hill on
+Pennsylvania Avenue, is eloquent with the power of heroic suggestion
+that Mr. Simmons has imparted to it. The work breathes that exaltation
+of final triumph that follows temporary defeat. Those who died that the
+nation might live, are seen in the perpetual illumination of
+immortality. Not only has Mr. Simmons here perpetuated the suffering,
+the sacrifices of the Civil War, but that sublime and eternal truth of
+victory after defeat, of peace and serene exaltation after conflict, and
+the triumph of life after death, are all immortally embodied in this
+group crowned with those impressive and haunting figures, "Grief" and
+"History," which are considered as among the most classically beautiful
+and significant in the range of modern sculpture.
+
+In the early winter of 1907 Mr. Simmons was invited by the American
+Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Hon. Whitelaw Reid, to send
+for Dorchester House, London, three busts of distinguished
+Americans,--those of Alexander Hamilton, Chief Justice Chase, and Hon.
+James G. Blaine, which Mr. Reid, in visiting the Roman studios of Mr.
+Simmons, had seen and greatly admired. The Ambassador observed that he
+"would like a few Americans, as well as so many Roman Emperors," about
+him.
+
+These portrait busts all reveal an amazing force and mastery of work.
+The fine sculptural effect of the Hamilton and the wonderful blending of
+subtle delicacy of touch and vigor of treatment with which the nobility
+of character is expressed, mark this bust as something exceptional in
+portrait art. It has a matchless dignity and serene poise. The bust of
+Chief Justice Chase is a faithful and speaking reproduction of the very
+presence of its subject, instinct with vitality; and the fire and force
+and brilliancy of the bust of Hon. James G. Blaine fairly sweeps the
+visitor off his feet. The modelling is done with an apparent
+instantaneousness of power that is the highest realization of creative
+art. It is the magnetic Blaine, the impassioned and eloquent statesman,
+that rises before the gazer.
+
+Mr. Simmons has long been a commanding figure in plastic art. No
+American sculptor abroad has, perhaps, received so many important public
+commissions as have been given to him. He has created nearly a score of
+memorial groups; he has modelled over one hundred portrait busts and
+statues. His industry has kept step with his genius. The latest success
+of Mr. Simmons in the line of monumental art is the statue (in bronze)
+of Alexander Hamilton, which was unveiled at Paterson, N. J., in May of
+1907. The splendidly poised figure, the dignity, the serene strength and
+yet the intense energy of the expression and of the entire pose are a
+revelation in the art of the portrait statue.
+
+It is not, however, true that Mr. Simmons has ever resigned himself to
+the necessity of producing portrait and memorial sculpture exclusively.
+In the realm of the purely ideal Mr. Simmons finds his most felicitous
+field for creative work. A bas-relief entitled "The Genius of Progress
+Leading the Nations," with all its splendid fire and action, the _motif_
+being that of the spirits Life and Light beating down and driving out
+the spirits of darkness and evil; "The Angel of the Resurrection," with
+its glad, triumphant assertion of the power of the immortal life; the
+poetry and sacredness of maternity as typified in the "Mother of Moses;"
+the statues of the "Galatea" and the "Medusa," and other ideal
+creations, indicate "the vision and the faculty divine" of Mr. Simmons.
+To a very great degree his art is that which the French describe as the
+grand manner, and to this is added a spiritual quality, a power of
+radiating the intellectual purpose, the profounder thought and the
+aspiration of the subject represented.
+
+ [Illustration: "MOTHER OF MOSES"
+ Franklin Simmons
+ _Page 108_]
+
+One of the most charming of these ideal works is a statue of "Penelope,"
+represented seated in the chair, her rich robe falling in graceful
+folds, and the little Greek fillet binding her hair. The face bears a
+meditative expression, into which has entered a hint of pathos and
+wistfulness in the dawning wonder as to whether, after all, Ulysses will
+return. The classic beauty of the pose; the exquisite modelling of the
+bust and arms and hands, every curve and contour so ideally lovely; the
+distinction of the figure in its noble and refined patrician elegance,
+are combined to render this work one that well deserves immortality in
+art, and to rank as a masterpiece in modern sculpture.
+
+ [Illustration: "THE GENIUS OF PROGRESS LEADING THE NATIONS"
+ Franklin Simmons
+ _Page 107_]
+
+Another of his ideal figures, "The Promised Land," is a work of great
+spiritual exaltation and beauty. An Israelite woman has just arrived at
+the point when before her vision gleams the "Promised Land"; the face
+tells its own story of all she has passed through,--the trials, the
+sadness, the obstacles to be overcome; but now she sees the fulfilment
+of her hopes and dreams. It is a most interesting creation, and one in
+which is portrayed the artist's spiritual insight and susceptibility to
+poetic exaltation. To one visitor to Mr. Simmons's studio this statue
+suggested the following lines:--
+
+ Fair on her sight it gleams,--the Promised Land!
+ The rose of dawn sifts through the azure air,
+ And all her weariness and toil and care
+ Vanish, as if from her some tender hand
+ Lifted the burden, and transformed the hour
+ To this undreamed-of sense of joy and power!
+ The rapture and the ecstasy divine
+ Are deep realities that only wait
+ Their hour to dawn, nor ever rise too late
+ To draw the soul to its immortal shrine.
+
+ O Sculptor! thy great gift has shaped this clay,
+ To image the profoundest truth, and stand
+ As witness of the spirit power that may
+ Achieve the vision of the Promised Land!
+
+ [Illustration: "VALLEY FORGE"
+ Franklin Simmons
+ _Page 110_]
+
+In a statuette in bronze called "Valley Forge," Mr. Simmons has fairly
+incarnated the entire spirit of the Revolutionary period in that
+mysterious way recognized only in its result; all that unparalleled
+epoch of tragic intensity and sublime triumph lives again in this work.
+The fidelity to a lofty ideal which essentially characterizes Mr.
+Simmons is as unswerving as that of Merlin, who followed "The Gleam."
+
+ "Great the Master
+ And sweet the Magic
+ When over the valley
+ In early summers,
+ Over the mountain,
+ On human faces,
+ And all around me
+ Moving to melody,
+ Floated the Gleam."
+
+This American sculptor who, in his early youth, sought the artistic
+atmosphere of Rome as the environment most stimulating to his dawning
+power, who accepted with unfailing courage the incidental privations of
+art life in a foreign land more renowned for beauty than for comfort,
+who
+
+ "... never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
+ Never doubted clouds would break,"
+
+has expressed his message in many purely ideal works,--the message that
+the true artist must always give to the world and that leads humanity to
+the crowning truth of life, that of the ceaseless progress of the soul
+in its immortality.
+
+For the brief and significant assertion of the apostle condenses the
+most profound truth of life when he says:--
+
+ "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is
+ life and peace."
+
+In these words are imaged the supreme purpose of all the experiences of
+the life on earth; and to the artist whose works bear this lofty message
+of the triumph of spirituality, his reward shall appear, not in the
+praise of men, but in the effect on character that his efforts have
+aided to exalt; in the train of nobler influences that his work shall
+perpetually inspire and create.
+
+Mr. Simmons has always found Rome potent in fascination. One may not
+want to go to St. Peter's every day, but one knows it is there, and
+there is some inexplicable satisfaction in being where it is possible to
+easily enter this impressive interior. One may not go near the Forum
+for a month, or even a season, but the knowledge that one may find it
+and the wonderful Palatine Hill any hour of any day is a perpetual
+delight. The Vatican galleries, with their great masterpieces; the
+Sistine Chapel, the stately, splendid impressiveness of San Giovanni
+Laterano; the wanderings in Villa Borghese, and the picturesque climbing
+of the Spanish steps, even all the inconveniences and deprivations,
+become a part of the story of Rome which the artist absorbs and loves.
+
+The studios of Mr. Simmons in the Via San Nicolo da Tolentino are a
+centre of artistic resort, and his personal life is one of distinction
+amid the picturesque beauty and enchantment of the Eternal City.
+
+For many years (until the death of Mrs. Simmons in 1905) the sculptor
+and his wife had their home in the beautiful Palazzo Tamagno in the Via
+Agostino Depretis, where one of those spacious apartments of twenty to
+thirty rooms, only to be found in a Roman palace, was made by them a
+brilliant centre of social life. Mrs. Simmons was herself a musical
+artist, with impassioned devotion to music; and her rare personal charm
+and distinction of presence drew around her a most interesting
+circle. Her receptions were for many years a noted feature of Roman
+society. The social life in Rome is very brilliant, interesting, and
+fascinating. The sight-seeing is a kind of attendant atmosphere,--the
+perpetual environment offering, but not intruding itself. People come to
+Rome for reasons quite disconnected with the Golden House of Nero or the
+latest archæological discoveries in the Forum. The present, rather than
+the past, calls to them, and the present, too, is resplendent and
+alluring.
+
+Of the foreign painters in Rome, Charles Walter Stetson, whose work
+recalls the glory of the old Italian masters, is especially
+distinguished for his genius as a colorist. No visitor in Rome can
+afford to miss the studio of one of the most imaginative of modern
+artists. A wonderful picture still in process is a genre work with
+several figures, called "Music." An idyllic scene of a festa amid the
+ilex trees--with the Italian sky and the golden sunshine pervading a
+luminous atmosphere, while the joyous abandon of the dancers appeals to
+all who love Italy--is one of the many beautiful pictorial scenes of Mr.
+Stetson which enchant the eye and haunt the imagination. Another
+picture is called "Beggars,"--a name that illy suggests its splendor.
+There is the façade of a church to which a long flight of steps leads
+up, a procession of cardinals and friars in their rich robes, while at
+one side the groups of beggars shrink into the darkness. It is an
+impressive commentary upon life.
+
+For a long period, through the early and middle years of the nineteenth
+century, Rome held her place as the world centre of modern artistic
+activity. Great works of poetic and ideal sculpture elevated the general
+public taste to a high degree of appreciation. The standards were not
+ingeniously adjusted to mere spectacular methods whose sole appeal was
+to the crude fancy of possible patrons. Art held her absolute and
+inviolate ideals, and the spirit of her votaries might well have been
+interpreted in Mrs. Browning's words:--
+
+ "I, who love my art,
+ Would never wish it lower to suit my stature."
+
+The tone of public appreciation is raised to a high quality only when
+the artist refuses to sell his soul for a mess of pottage. He may, to
+be sure, need the pottage, but the price is too great. Rather will he
+find his attitude expressed in these wonderful lines:--
+
+ "I can live
+ At least my soul's life without alms from men.
+ And if it be in heaven instead of earth,
+ Let heaven look to it--I am not afraid."
+
+All art that has within itself true vitality must ever be the leader and
+the creator of the popular taste; only when it falls into decadence does
+it become the servile follower.
+
+It is a serious question as to the degree in which the art of to-day
+keeps faith with the eternal ideals. The great expositions of the past
+quarter of a century, while they have contributed immeasurably to the
+popularization of art and to the familiarization of the public with the
+work of individual painters and sculptors, have yet, in many ways, been
+a demoralizing influence in their insidious temptation to produce
+pictures or plastic art calculated to arrest immediate attention, thus
+putting a premium on the spectacular, the sensational, on that which
+makes the most immediate and direct appeal to the senses. The work
+becomes fairly a personal document wrought with perhaps an almost
+amazing finesse, but utterly failing in power to inspire joyous
+sensibility to beauty or to impart to the gazer that glow of radiant
+energy which lofty art invariably communicates to all who respond to its
+infinite exaltation.
+
+All great art is inspired by religious ideals. Painting and sculpture
+give to these a presence. Under their creative power are these ideals
+manifested. To embody them in living form becomes the absolute
+responsibility of the artist. In Greece all the fortunate conditions to
+produce great art were curiously combined and pre-eminently supported by
+the conjunction of events and by the prevailing sentiment of the time.
+The artist drew his inspiration from the most exalted conception of life
+embodied in gods rather than in men. Art, too, was an affair of the
+state. It was the supreme interest and held national importance. The
+temple was erected to form an inclosure for the statue, rather than that
+the statue was created as an adornment for the temple. The greatest
+gifts were consecrated to the service of art, and under these
+stimulating influences it is little wonder that artistic creation
+achieved that vital potency which has thrilled all succeeding
+centuries and has communicated to them something of the divine air of
+that remote period. With the Renaissance in Italy art culminated in the
+immortal work of Raphael and Michael Angelo. In the Sistine Chapel,
+where that sublime grouping of prophets and sibyls speaks of the very
+miracle of art in their impassioned fire and glow; where the figures,
+the pose, the draperies are so grandly noble and infused with dignity
+and presence,--the very atmosphere is vocal with the language of the
+spirit and the expressions of religious reverence. These marvellous
+shapes of grandeur and sublime intimations carry the soul into a
+conscious communion with the divine. In these stupendous works Michael
+Angelo has given to all the ages the message of the highest exaltation
+of art. In the technique, in the marvellous dignity of the sentiment, in
+the depth of the feeling involved, in the grace and power of the
+composition, these works embody the artistic possibilities of painting.
+
+Are such works as those of Canova and Thorwaldsen no longer created?
+
+Can it be that art is no longer of national importance? In our own
+country vast appropriations are made for internal improvements of all
+kinds, while art that kindles and re-enforces life is almost ignored.
+Our government--the government of the richest country in the
+world--appropriated $200,000 for a memorial monument to General Grant to
+be placed in Washington, while Italy--whose resources are so slender in
+comparison--appropriates seven million dollars--thirty-five times the
+amount--for her great monument to Victor Emmanuel which is now being
+erected in Rome to stand near the Capitol and the Palace of the
+Quirinale. Great art has always been closely associated with great
+devotion to religious ideals. The artist was the servant of the Lord,
+and it was his supreme purpose to embody the aspirations of the age and
+render his works a full and complete symbol of those true realities of
+life which have their being in the spiritual universe rather than in the
+changing temporal world of the outer universe. The so-called realism of
+the day is based on a false interpretation. "The things that are seen
+are temporal, while the things that are not seen are eternal." True
+realism is in spiritual qualities, not in physical attributes. True
+realism is found in such works as Canova's sublime group, where the
+figures of Religion and of Death forever impress all who stand before
+this magnificent monument; it is found in Thorwaldsen's "Christ;" in
+Franklin Simmons's "Angel of the Resurrection,"--in such works as those
+that have a language for the soul, rather than in a "Saturnalia."
+
+Again, another fatal rock on which art must inevitably make shipwreck is
+the theory that it is good to perpetuate ugliness, in either painting or
+in sculpture. The permanent reality of life is beauty. So far as any
+person or object departs from this enduring reality, so far it is the
+result of distortion and deformity, and these, being the temporary, the
+accidental, the deficient, should not be perpetuated in ideal creation.
+It is an Apollo who embodies the permanent ideal of manhood--not a
+cripple or a hunchback. Still further: art should not only refuse to
+embody the defective, which is a mere negative; it should not only give
+form to the utmost perfection it beholds in nature or in humanity, but
+beyond this the responsibility is upon the artist to penetrate into
+loftier realms, to catch the vision not revealed to mortals. The artist
+is, by virtue of his high calling, a co-worker with God. An English wit
+has declared that life copies art rather than that art copies life. In
+this he expresses a truth rather than a merely clever epigram. It is the
+artist's business to lead, not to follow. Only as he leads does he
+fulfil his divinely appointed destiny. "I maintain that life is not a
+form of energy," writes Sir Oliver Lodge; "that it is not included in
+our present physical categories; that its explanation is still to be
+sought. And it appears to me to belong to a separate order of existence,
+which interacts with this material frame of things, and while here
+exerts guidance and control on the energy which already here exists; for
+although they alter the quantity of energy no whit, and though they
+merely utilize available energy like any other machine, live things are
+able to direct inorganic terrestrial energy along new and special paths,
+so as to achieve results without which such living agency could not have
+occurred." Does it for an instant seem that a great scientist's
+theoretical speculations of the laws of the universe and of organic life
+have no connection with the province of art? On the contrary. Truly does
+Balzac exclaim: "Is not God the whole of science, the all of love,
+the source of poetry?" The artist is he who enters into the divine
+realm; who discerns the divine creations as the true ideals of humanity,
+and who interprets to the world the sublime significance of the divine
+thought. Shall such an artist degrade his power by portraying
+ugliness--the mere defects of negations and distortions? Shall he
+degrade life by calling these the realities?
+
+ [Illustration: "LA PIETA," ST. PETER'S, ROME
+ Michael Angelo
+ _Page 117_]
+
+The painter or sculptor who holds that it is as truly art to represent
+distortion and repulsiveness as it is to represent beauty is as false to
+his high calling as would be the poet who should insist that doggerel
+and mere commonplace truisms expressed in rhyme are poetry. Compare, for
+example, two statues, Cecioni's "_La Madre_," in which a woman's utter
+lack of personal attraction is so complete as to make her fairly
+repulsive to the gazer, and the "Mother of Moses," by Franklin Simmons,
+in which the mystic beauty, the very ideal of maternity, is embodied.
+Which of these statues is calculated to uplift and to exalt all who come
+near? This marvellously beautiful creation of Mr. Simmons shows a woman
+of exquisite delicacy and loveliness sitting, slightly bending forward,
+holding her baby to her breast. The modelling of the draped figure with
+the bare arms and neck revealing the tender curves, the yielding
+delicacy of the flesh and that inscrutable light upon the beautiful
+countenance, whose expression suggests that she is looking far into the
+future of the infant whom she holds in her arms, are a wonderful
+portrayal of the mystery and the sacredness of motherhood. The one
+statue degrades maternity; the other ennobles and exalts. The one
+embodies a pernicious and a false ideal; the other embodies the ideal
+that must appeal to all that is noble and divine in human life, and it
+thus ministers to moral progress by its contribution to the elevation of
+the social tone. For indeed, life follows art. It is art that exerts
+this powerful influence upon life which it may lead to loftier heights
+or drag down to the moral abyss. The artist is not merely the portrayer
+of existing types; he is the inspirer of those ideal types which human
+life should recognize as its pattern, its model to be followed and
+ultimately achieved. The world needs ideal and poetic art to minister to
+the attainment of the true social life and to the full and complete
+expression of man himself.
+
+Do not the visions of Fra Angelico and Botticelli still inspire the
+artist of to-day with the absolute realization of all the deep
+significance of the past?
+
+ "Is there never a retroscope mirror,
+ In the realms and corners of space,
+ That can give us a glimpse of the battle,
+ And the soldiers face to face?"
+
+Religion and art are inseparably united. In its true significance
+religion takes precedence of all else in that its influence is felt in
+every department and in every direction and expression of man's
+activity. It is the inexhaustible fountain of that lofty energy which
+communicates itself to every channel that carries inspiration to life
+and to art. Religion is the influence that redeems the mere shallow,
+surface presentation,--the petty trick to capture popularity, and holds
+art true to its real purpose. The glory of the mediæval art of Italy
+owed its greatness to religion. Cimabue and Giotto were directly
+inspired by that spring of a diviner life given to Italy and later to
+the world of that "sweet saint," Francis of Assisi. In an age of cruelty
+and terror he brought the new message that man is dear to God; that the
+soul is ceaselessly joyful; that man, created in the divine image, is a
+part of the divine life, and that only when he lives in this response
+and recognition does he truly live at all. In this restatement of the
+truth that Jesus came to proclaim, St. Francis opened the way for a
+revival of art, and opened the gates of that infinite and divine energy
+which has immortally recorded itself for all ages in the "Divina
+Comedia" of Dante. The irresistible wave of power which resulted from
+that liberating of thought, feeling, and emotion by the work of St.
+Francis expressed itself in the sublimest poem of all the ages, and in
+that glorious triumph of art that is still the treasure and the source
+of artistic inspiration.
+
+It is only when the world is lifted out of the limitations of the
+material by a period of great art that humanity is brought into close
+and inspiring relation with the living Christ.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
+
+
+
+
+ _Men and women make the world,
+ As head and heart make human life._
+
+ MRS. BROWNING.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ _Alas, our memories may retrace
+ Each circumstance of time and place;
+ Season and scene come back again,
+ And outward things unchanged remain;
+ The rest we cannot reinstate,
+ Ourselves we cannot re-create,
+ Nor set our souls to the same key
+ Of the remembered harmony._
+
+ LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+
+
+ _And as, after the lapse of a thousand years, you stand upon that
+ hallowed spot, the yellow Tiber flowing sluggishly beneath you, the
+ ruins of the Eternal City all around you speaking of fallen
+ greatness, the mighty Basilica of St. Peter rising before you like
+ some modern tower of Babel that would monopolize the road to
+ heaven, the eye rests upon the figure of the Archangel sheathing
+ his glittering sword upon the summit of the Castle of St. Angelo,
+ and the heart asks, Why should that be a legend? Why should that be
+ a projection of a morbid and devout imagination? Why should it not
+ have been the clairvoyance of supernatural ecstasy opening the
+ world of spirits? It was no unreality when the angel of God, with
+ his sword drawn in his hand, withstood the prophet Balaam. It was
+ no morbid imagination when the angel of God smote with the edge of
+ the sword the first-born of the land of Egypt. It was no imposture
+ when the shining hosts of the army of the Almighty smote the
+ Assyrians. It was no deception when Gabriel, the King's messenger
+ from the court of heaven, was sent to comfort Daniel by the river
+ Hiddekel; or when he announced to the maiden, whom all generations
+ have called blessed, that she was to be the mother of the Divine
+ Redeemer.... The written Word from first to last is full of the
+ holy angels. It begins with angels, it ends with angels._
+
+ THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE,
+ Westminster Abbey.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SOCIAL LIFE IN THE ETERNAL CITY
+
+ And others came,--Desires and Adorations,
+ Winged Persuasions and Veiled Destinies!
+
+ SHELLEY.
+
+ In what ethereal dances!
+ By what eternal streams!
+
+ POE.
+
+
+Social life in Rome is no misnomer. From the most stately and beautiful
+ceremonials of balls at the court of the Quirinale, in ducal palaces, or
+at the embassies; of dinners whose every detail suggests stage pictures
+in their magnificence, to the simple afternoon tea, where conversation
+and music enchant the hours; the morning call _en tête-à-tête_, and the
+morning stroll, or the late afternoon drive,--a season in Rome
+prefigures itself, by the necromancy of retrospective vision, as a
+resplendent panorama of pictorial scenes. There rise before one those
+mornings, all gold and azure, of loitering over the stone parapet on
+Monte Pincio, gazing down on the city in her most alluring mood. The
+new bridge that is to connect the Pincio with the Villa Borghese is a
+picturesque feature in its unfinished state; but the vision traverses
+the deep ravine and revels in the scene of the Borghese grounds carpeted
+with flowers. Its picturesque slopes under the great trees, with a view
+of Michael Angelo's dome in the near distance, are the resort of morning
+strollers, who find that lovely picture of Charles Walter Stetson's--a
+stretch of landscape under the ilex trees, the scarlet gowns of the
+divinity students giving vivid accents of color here and there--fairly
+reproduced in nature before their vision. One should never be in haste
+as the bewildering beauty of the Roman spring weaves its emerald
+fantasies on grass and trees, and touches into magical bloom the scarlet
+poppies that flame over all the meadows, and caress roses and hyacinths
+and lilies of the valley into delicate bloom and floating fragrance
+until the Eternal City is no more Rome, but Arcady, instead--one should
+never be in haste to toss his penny into the _Fontane de Trevi_. Yet in
+another way it may work for him an immediate spell that defies all other
+necromancy. Judiciously thrown in, on the very eve of departure, it is
+the conjurer that insures his return; but at any time prior to this it
+may even weave the irresistible enchantment that falls upon him and may
+prevent his leaving at all. Nor can he summon up the moral courage to
+regret even the missing of all other engagements, and the failure to
+keep faith with his plans. For in the May days Rome falls upon him anew,
+like a revelation, and he is ready to confess that he has never seen her
+who sees her not in her springtime loveliness. The Italian winter by no
+means lives up to its reputation. It is not the chill of any one special
+day that discourages one from any further effort to continue in this
+vale of tears, but the cold that has, apparently, the chill and dampness
+and cold of all those two thousand and two hundred and sixty winters
+that have gone before which concentrate themselves in the atmosphere.
+One could presumably endure with some degree of courage, if not
+equanimity, the chill in the air of any _one_ winter; but when all the
+chill and cold that has ever existed in more than the two thousand
+winters of the past concentrates itself in the winter, say, of 1906-7,
+why, patience ceases to be a virtue although one that the sojourner in
+Rome is particularly called upon to practise if he fares forth to visit
+churches and galleries in the winter.
+
+Torrents of rain pour down, rivalling the cloud-bursts of Arizona.
+Virgil's cave of the winds apparently lets loose its sharpest blasts.
+Tramontana and sirocco alternate, and each is more unendurable than the
+other.
+
+The encircling mountains are white with snow. The streets are a sea of
+mud, for they are paved with small stones, and except in the new Villa
+Ludovisi quarter and along the Via Nazionale and a few other of the
+newer thoroughfares there are no sidewalks, the foot passengers (in all
+old Rome) pressing close to the wall to avoid the dangerously near
+proximity of carts and cabs. This rough pavement makes all driving hard
+and walking difficult. The Roman lady, indeed, does not walk; and the
+visitors who cannot forego the joy of daily promenades enter into the
+feelings of that nation which is said to take its pleasures sadly. But
+spring works a transformation scene. The air is filled with the most
+transparent shining haze; the sky lacks little of that intense, melting
+blue that characterizes the ineffable beauty of the skies in Arizona;
+and ruins and fragments and strange relics--ghosts of the historic
+past--are all enshrined in trailing green and riotous blossoms. To drive
+on the terraced roads of Monte Mario with all Rome and the emerald-green
+Campagna before one; through the romantic "Lovers' Lane," walled in by
+roses and myrtle; to enjoy the local life, full of gayety and
+brilliancy, is to know Rome in her most gracious aspects. One goes for
+strolls in the old Colonna Gardens, where still remain the ruins of the
+Temple of the Sun and of the Baths of Constantine. The terraces offer
+lovely views over the city. The old palace is occupied by the present
+Prince Colonna, and it is not unfrequently the scene of most elaborate
+and gorgeous receptions where the traditional Roman splendor is to be
+found. A series of arched bridges over the narrow street of the Via
+della Pilotta connect the Gardens with the Colonna Palace in the Piazza
+San Apostoli. Very fine old sarcophagi are half buried in trailing vines
+on the slope of the hill, dark with magnificent cypress trees. The
+Colonna Gardens are a very dream of the past, in their ruins of old
+temples, their shattered statues, their strange old tablets and
+inscriptions, and their grand view of the Capitol.
+
+In one's retrospective vision of a Roman season all the inconveniences
+and discomforts of the winter disappear, leaving only the beauty and the
+enjoyment to be "developed," as the photographer would say, on the
+sensitive plate of memory.
+
+No one really knows Rome until he has watched the transcendent
+loveliness of spring investing every nook and corner of the Eternal
+City. The picturesque Spanish steps are a very garden of fragrance, the
+lower steps of the terraced flight being taken possession of by the
+flower venders who display their wares,--masses of white lilac,
+flame-colored roses, rose and purple hyacinths and baskets of violets
+and carnations. Did all this fragrance and beauty send up its incense to
+Keats as he lay in the house adjoining, with the musical plash of
+Bernini's fountain under his window? It is pleasant to know that by the
+appreciation of American and English authors, the movement effectively
+directed by Robert Underwood Johnson, this house consecrated to a poet's
+memory has been purchased to be a permanent memorial to Keats and to
+Shelley. A library of their works will be arranged in it; and portraits,
+busts, and all mementos that can be collected of these poets will render
+this memorial one of the beautiful features of Rome.
+
+From the flower venders and the circulating libraries in the Piazza di
+Spagna that allure one in the morning, from the fascinating glitter of
+the little Via Condotti which is, in its way, the rue de la Paix of
+Rome, one leisurely climbs the steps to where the great obelisk looms up
+in front of the Convent Church of the Trinità di Monti and on, across
+the Piazza di Trinità, toward the Pincian, one wanders along the brow of
+the hill surmounted by the low stone parapet. The view is a dream of
+beauty. Over the valley lies Monte Mario, crowned with the Villa Madama,
+silhouetted against the blue Roman sky; and the commanding dome of St.
+Peter's, the splendid new white marble buildings of the Law Courts, the
+domes of other churches, all make up a picturesque panorama, while on
+the Janiculum the great equestrian statue of Garibaldi can be descried.
+Strolling on, one turns into the gardens of the Villa Medici, the
+French Academy of Art, in which the present director, the great Carolus
+Duran, is domiciled and in which twenty-four students--of painting,
+sculpture, music, and architecture--are maintained at the expense of the
+French government for several years, the twenty four being chosen from
+those who have given signal proof of their ability. The Villa Medici
+has, perhaps, a more beautiful site than any other building in Rome.
+Facing the west, with the Janiculum and Monte Mario forever before it,
+while below lies the Piazza di Spagna and the Piazza del Popolo, and all
+the changing splendors of the sunset sky as a perpetual picture gallery,
+the situation is, indeed, magnificent. It is still conceivable, however,
+that Monsieur Carolus Duran must have many quarters of an hour when he
+longs for the brilliancy and the movement and the stimulus of his Paris.
+The gardens of the Villa Medici are large, but they are laid out with
+narrow paths bordered with box, forming a wall as impervious as if of
+stone, and dark and damp by the shade of foliage. These walks are paved
+with gravel, and are always damp. These formal rectangles and alleys are
+utterly shut in, so that in any one part one can see only the two
+dense green walls of box that inclose him and the glimpse of sky
+overhead,--not precisely a cheering promenade. This is the Italian idea
+of a garden. Much broken sculpture, weather-stained and defective, is
+placed all along the way, and the perpetual Roman fountain is always
+gushing somewhere.
+
+ [Illustration: VILLA MEDICI, ROME
+ _Page 134_]
+
+Another phase of the Roman season may rise before one in the stately
+beauty of any old historic palace, where the hostess, all grace and
+sweetness, receives her guests in the apartment in which Galileo had
+been confined when imprisoned in Rome. The approach to this _piano
+nobile_ was up a flight of easily graded marble stairs, where in
+frequent niches stood old statues. The large windows in the corridor on
+the landing were curtained with pale yellow, thus creating a golden
+light to fall on the old sculptured marbles. One salon was decorated
+with Flaxman's drawings on the wall, in their classical outlines. From a
+steep, dark stone stairway, down which one descended (at the imminent
+risk of a broken neck in the darkness and from the irregular stairs
+rudely carved in the stone), one emerged on a landing, where a little
+door opened into the balcony of the chapel, a curious, gloomy place,
+with tombs and altar and shrine, and some very poor old paintings. One's
+progress to it recalled the lines from Poe's "Ulalume":--
+
+ "By a route, obscure and lonely,
+ Haunted by ill angels only."
+
+Then, sitting in one of the richly decorated salons at afternoon tea in
+this same old palace one day, while an accomplished harpist was
+discoursing delicate music from its vibrating chords, flights of birds
+kept passing a window, making a scene like that of a Wagner opera. The
+groups present, largely of the Roman nobility, the titled aristocracy,
+resembling so closely some of the old portraits in the palazzo that it
+was easy to recognize that they were all one people, descendants of the
+same race.
+
+Many of the guests looked, indeed, as if they had stepped from out the
+sumptuously carved frames on the wall. At these pretty festas one meets
+much of the resident Roman world. The guests assembled seem to be
+speaking in all the romance languages. There are Russian and Spanish as
+well as Italian, French, German, and English at these alluring teas.
+All the salons of the spacious apartments are thrown open, and the men
+in their picturesque court dress or military costume, and the women and
+girls in dainty gowns, make up an alluring scene. The salons are richly
+furnished and abound in works of art, old pictures, inlaid cabinets,
+carvings, rich vases, busts, and statuettes. The library, with its
+wealth of books; the music room; the salon for dancing; the supper room,
+and the quiet rooms where groups gather before the blazing open fires,
+grateful in these lofty rooms whose temperature suggests the frozen
+circles of Dante,--all make up a delightful picture. One meets the most
+varying individualities. A Russian lady of title may confide her
+conviction that her country is ruined, and that she never desires to
+return to it. Italy is the country that attracts not only political
+refugees from other European countries, but many who are out of sympathy
+with conditions elsewhere and who find the cosmopolitan society and the
+varied interests of this land of sunshine their most enjoyable
+environment.
+
+One pleasant feature of a Roman winter is that of the usual course of
+lectures given by Professor Lanciani. The celebrated archæologist is a
+man of special personal charm, and his conversation, as well as his
+public lectures, is full of interest and value. The lectures are given
+under the auspices of the Società Archeologica, and a special subject
+recently discussed was the celebration to be held in 1911 in Rome. One
+project for this celebration includes the plan to lay out a carriage
+road around the Forum and the Palatine, and also around the Baths of
+Titus and of Caracalla, extending the drive to all those places included
+between the Appian and the Latin Way, the Villa Celimontana and the
+Circus Maximus.
+
+Professor Lanciani discussed the artistic history of Rome and the
+different appearances the city took on in different periods; the
+regulation plan drawn up by Julius Cæsar and accepted and carried out by
+Augustus, by which one-fifth of the total area of the city was reserved
+for public parks. In the third century of the empire the city was
+inclosed by parks and crossed from end to end by delightful portico
+gardens, where valuable works of art were collected. During the period
+of the Renaissance there were the famous villas and the Cesarini Park
+on the slopes of the Esquiline, and after regretting the many
+unnecessary acts of vandalism committed since 1870 in Rome, Professor
+Lanciani suggested that a complete reconstruction of the Baths of
+Caracalla should be made, to serve in 1911 as the Exhibition Building.
+He believed no artistic difficulties would present themselves, as in the
+fifteenth century different architects took plaster casts of the
+decorations of the statues and of every detail of the Baths. The
+archæological exhibition would be arranged in the two large halls,
+another hall would be for concerts, another for lectures, the others for
+different congresses to be held.
+
+In this way Rome would inaugurate for 1911 the Mediæval Museum in Castel
+Sant'Angelo, the mediæval collections in the Torre degli Anguillara, and
+the grand archæological exhibition in the reconstructed Baths of
+Caracalla.
+
+Italian women are by no means behind the age in their organizations to
+aid in social progress. The most important one in Italy is that of the
+leading women of the nobility and aristocracy, called "The Society for
+Women's Work," which holds annual meetings, over which Lady Aberdeen,
+the president of the International Council, and the Contessa Spalletti,
+the president of the National Council of Italy, preside. Many of the
+prominent women of the Italian nobility are taking active part in the
+larger outlook for women; and in this movement Margherita, _la Regina
+Madre_, leads the way, supported by a large following of the titled
+nobility.
+
+"Margherita holds the hearts of the people," remarked Cora, Contessa di
+Brazzá Savorgnan, at a brilliant little dinner one night, and no
+expression could more admirably represent the feeling of the nation
+toward the Queen Mother.
+
+Queen Elena as the reigning sovereign has, of course, her exclusive
+royal prerogatives, and she has youth and initiative and precedence; but
+Margherita is a most attractive woman, with learning and accomplishments
+galore, and she has an art of conversation that allures and fascinates
+visiting foreigners of learning and wit, as well as of rank. Roman
+society is not large numerically, and the same people are constantly
+meeting and consolidating their many points of contact and interest.
+Social life in these Italian cities is the supreme occupation of the
+residents, and one must concede that in proportion as one meets the same
+people constantly does society gain in dramatic interest. With each
+person who is in any sense an individual the play of life begins. It
+gains in dramatic sequence as it proceeds. The Eternal City is a
+wonderful scenic setting for the human drama.
+
+Local gossip suggests perceptible rivalry between the stately palace of
+the King and the pink palace on the hill, in which Margherita holds her
+state with not less ceremony than that observed at the Court of the
+Quirinale. It is a beautiful thing for a country to have in it a woman
+of high position, of leisure and of culture, who is so admirably fitted
+to be the friend of the people as is Margherita. She is a connoisseur in
+art; she has a most intelligent interest in science; she is a critical
+lover of literature; she is a wise and judicious and deeply sympathetic
+leader in all philanthropic work and purposes. One can hardly visit
+painter or poet or artist in any line, or school, institute, or
+association, but that he hears of the personal sympathy and
+encouragement bestowed by this noble and beautiful Italian Queen,--the
+_Regina Madre_.
+
+Practically there are, indeed, two courts in Rome; that of the Palazzo
+Margherita seeming to quite rival that held at the Palazzo Quirinale.
+The palace of the Queen Mother is an imposing three-story structure of
+pink-hued marble, with beautiful gardens and terraces, and adjoining it,
+in the palace grounds, is a marble villa, used for the entertainment of
+royal guests. This palace has been the residence of Margherita when in
+Rome since the tragic death of King Umberto, in 1900. It is in the
+Ludovisi quarter, and stands on the very site of the Gardens of Sallust.
+The Queen Mother receives noted visitors constantly, and entertains
+visiting royalties and members of the aristocracy. No great man of
+science, literature, and art visits Rome without seeking a presentation
+to the liberal-minded and accomplished _Regina Madre_, who is one of the
+most winning and attractive of all the royal women of Europe.
+
+It has become quite a feature in introducing young girls to present them
+first in private audience to Margherita, and then later to Queen Elena
+at the Court of the Quirinale. Surely no girl could be given a lovelier
+idea of womanhood than that embodied in the Dowager Queen. When the poet
+Carducci died in the early months of 1907, Margherita sent beautiful
+messages of consolation to his family, and, later, to his home city of
+Bologna she sent the following letter:--
+
+ "I announce that I make a free gift to the city of Bologna of the
+ house where Giosuè Carducci passed the last years of his life, and
+ the library he collected there.
+
+ "Bologna, that showed such affectionate hospitality for Giosuè
+ Carducci for so many years, and surrounded him with so much
+ devotion, will know, I feel sure, how to carefully preserve this
+ remembrance of the greatest poet of modern Italy.
+
+ MARGHERITA."
+
+The Syndic replied in a letter hardly less fine in its expression of
+Bologna's appreciation, and with assurances that the name of the first
+Queen of Italy will in future be forever associated with Italy's
+greatest modern poet.
+
+The Regio Palazzo del Quirinale is near the Capitol, in the older part
+of the city, and only a small part of this is shown to visitors when
+the King and Queen are in residence. The Sala Regia may be seen, the
+chapel in which are preserved a large number of the wreaths and the
+addresses sent from all parts of the civilized world on the occasion of
+the death of Victor Emmanuel II, and a suite of reception rooms, the
+throne room with many historic portraits, the Sala des Ambassadeurs, and
+the audience chamber, containing Thorwaldsen's "Triumphal Procession of
+Alexander the Great," a gift from Napoleon I. In the small chapel of the
+Annunciation is an altar piece by Guido Reni.
+
+To artists the Queen Mother is most generously kind. One of the younger
+Italian sculptors, Turillo Sindoni, Cavaliere of the Crown of Italy,
+whose latest creation is a very beautiful statue of St. Agnes, has his
+studios in the Via del Babuino, and to especially favored visitors he
+sometimes exhibits a beautiful letter that he received from Margherita,
+who purchased two of his statues. With the letter expressing her warm
+appreciation of his art was an exquisite gift of jewelled sleeve-links.
+
+Notwithstanding the fascinating lectures of Professor Lanciani and the
+valuable and interesting work in the Forum that is being accomplished
+under the efficient directorship of Commendatore Boni, yet all the roads
+that traditionally lead to Rome do not converge to the palace on the
+Palatine. Modern Rome is only mildly archæological, and while it takes
+occasional recognition of the ancient monuments, and drives to the crypt
+of old St. Agnes, to the tomb of Cecilia Metella, and may manage a
+descent into the catacomb of St. Calixtus, it is far more actively
+interested in its dancing and dining and driving. As a scenic background
+for festivities Rome is a success, and as one comes into social touch
+with the titled nobility, and the resident life, by birth or adoption,
+one finds a city of infinite human interest and picturesque
+possibilities.
+
+Between the "Whites" (the loyal followers of the Palazzo Quirinale and
+the King) and the "Blacks" (the devoted followers of the Palazzo
+Vaticano and the Pope) a great gulf is fixed over which no one may
+cross.
+
+Pope Pius X is wonderfully accessible, considering the great
+responsibilities and duties he has on him, and his generous goodness,
+his gracious tact and the beauty of his spirit endear him to all,
+Catholic or Protestant alike, for every one recognizes in him the
+Christian gentleman, whose ideals of gentleness and inspiring
+helpfulness impress themselves on all who are so fortunate as to meet
+him.
+
+The most impressive ceremonial receptions of the "Blacks" are those
+given at the Spanish Embassy in the Piazza di Spagna. At the Embassy or
+in the private palace of any Roman noble which a Cardinal honors by
+accepting an invitation, he is received according to a most picturesque
+old Roman custom. At the foot of the stairs two servants bearing lighted
+torches meet his Eminence, and, making a profound obeisance, escort him
+to the portals of the grand reception salon and await, in the corridor,
+his return. On his departure they escort him in the same way down the
+staircase.
+
+In the College of Cardinals and among the many interesting
+individualities of the Vatican, the most marked figure is that of the
+Cardinal Secretary of State, Merry del Val. He occupies the Borgia
+apartments, which are hung with tapestry and ornamented with the most
+unique and valuable articles _de vertu_,--wonderful vases, inlaid
+cabinets, old tapestries, paintings, statues, busts, and ivories. These
+Borgia apartments are one of the most interesting features of the
+Palazzo Vaticano, and may be seen now and then by special permission
+when the Cardinal secretary is out, or when he may be pleased to retire
+into his more private salons in the apartment while the others are
+shown. Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val is an impressive personality, whose
+life seems strangely determined by destiny. His father was an _attaché_
+of the Spanish embassy to the Court of St. James when the future
+Cardinal was born in 1865. In 1904, at the early age of thirty-nine, he
+was advanced from the soutane violet of the bishop to the mantelletta
+scarlet of the cardinal, and after the accession of the present Pope,
+Pius X, he was appointed to the highest office in the Vatican, that of
+Secretary of State, the Pope paying him the high tribute because of his
+"devotion to work, his capability and absolute self-negation."
+
+Cardinal Merry del Val has had a wonderful training of experience and
+circumstances. At the early age of twenty-two he was a member of the
+papal embassy commissioned to the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. He
+was also appointed a member of the embassy from the Vatican to attend
+the funeral of Emperor William I; and at the jubilee of Francis Joseph,
+Emperor of Austria, Cardinal (then Bishop) Merry del Val was the sole
+and accredited representative of the Holy See, as he was also at the
+coronation of King Edward. The Spanish Cardinal is the special trusted
+counsellor of the royal family of Spain.
+
+In Rome, Cardinal Merry del Val is an impressive figure. He is always
+attended by his _gentiluomo_, who is gorgeously arrayed in knee
+breeches, military hat and sword. This gentleman in waiting walks behind
+him on a promenade, sits in his carriage and stands near him in all
+religious ceremonies. His equipage is well known in the Eternal City,--a
+stately black carriage drawn by two massive black horses with luxurious
+flowing manes.
+
+It is freely prophesied in Rome that the Cardinal secretary is destined
+to yet exchange the mantelletta scarlet for the zucchetta white, when
+Pius X shall have gone the way of all his predecessors in the papal
+chair. He is the Cardinal especially favored by Austria and Spain.
+Although the conflict with France was at first ascribed to Cardinal
+Merry del Val, he has of late been completely exonerated from blame,
+even by the French prelates and clergy.
+
+Cardinal Merry del Val represents the most advanced and progressive
+thought of the day. He is an enthusiastic admirer of Marconi and the
+marvels of wireless telegraphy; he is an advocate of telephonic service,
+electric motors, electric lights, and of phonographs and typewriters for
+the Vatican service. He is a great linguist, speaking English, French,
+and German as well as Spanish, which is his native tongue, and Italian,
+which has become second nature. He is a good Greek scholar and a
+profound Latin scholar, and he speaks the ancient Latin with the fluency
+and the force of the modern languages. He is, indeed, a remarkable
+twentieth-century personality and one who has apparently a very
+interesting life yet to come in his future.
+
+At the Villa Pamphilia Doria, built by a former Prince Doria, the
+largest villa in the Roman environs and the finest now remaining, the
+Cardinal enjoys his game of golf, of which he is very fond. The Doria
+family rendered the villa magnificent in every respect. Besides the
+spacious avenues, woods, fountains, a lake, and cascades, are various
+edifices, among which is one in the form of a triumphal arch, decorated
+with ancient statues; the casino of the villa in which are preserved
+some ancient marbles and several pictures; the beautiful circular
+chapel, adorned with eight columns of marble and other stately
+ornaments. There is a monument erected by the present Prince Doria to
+the memory of the French soldiers who were killed there during the siege
+of 1849. From the terrace of the palace there is a magnificent view of
+the environs of Rome, as far as the sea. In consequence of excavations,
+some columbaria, sepulchres, inscriptions, and other relics have been
+found, which have attracted much attention from archæologists.
+
+It is near these grounds that the "Arcadians" still hold their _al
+fresco_ meetings. The society dates back to 1690, and the first _custos_
+(whose duty was to open and close the meetings) was Crescimbeni. The
+"Arcadians" organized themselves to protest against the degeneracy of
+Italian poetry that marked the seventeenth century. To keep their
+meetings a secret from the populace the "Arcadians" held their meetings
+in an open garden on the slope below San Pietro in Montorio,--a terrace
+still known as "Bosco Parrasio degli Arcadi."
+
+One of the enchanting views in Rome is from the Piazza San Giovanni. One
+looks far away past the Coliseum in its ruined grandeur and the _casa_
+where Lucrezia Borgia lived, and in the near distance is the colossal
+pile of San Giovanni di Laterano, its beautiful and impressive façade
+crowned with the statues of the apostles silhouetted against the western
+sky. In the piazza formed by the church, the museums, and the Baptistery
+of San Giovanni and the Scala Santa is one of the most remarkable
+obelisks in Rome, ninety-nine feet in height, formed of red granite and
+carved with hieroglyphics. This shaft is placed on a pedestal which
+makes it in all some 115 feet in height. It was placed in 1568 by Sixtus
+V. The museums of the San Giovanni are the "Museo Sacro" and the "Museo
+Profano,"--the latter founded by Pope Gregory XVI, and very rich in
+sculptures and mosaics. The "Museo Sacro" was founded by Pio Nono, and
+is rich in the antiquities of the Christian era. Within San Giovanni
+the visitor finds himself in a vast interior divided by columns of
+verd-antique into three aisles, each of which is as wide as, and far
+longer than, the interior of an ordinary church. Statues fill the
+niches, and the chapels and confessionals are all beautifully decorated.
+The Corsini Chapel is the richest and was executed by order of Clement
+XII, in honor of St. Andrew Corsini, who is represented in a rich mosaic
+painting copied from Guido. Two sculptured figures, "Innocence" and
+"Penitence," stand before the altar, and above is a relief depicting St.
+Andrew protecting the Florentine army at the battle of Anghiari.
+
+The tomb of Pope Clement XII (who himself belonged to the Corsini family
+and who was an uncle of Cardinal Corsini) is in a niche between two
+columns of porphyry, and there is a bronze statue of the Pope. On the
+opposite side is a statue of Cardinal Corsini, and in the crypt below
+are tombs of the Corsini family. On the altar--always lighted--is a
+"Pieta" by Bernini, of which the face of the Christ is very beautiful.
+
+Near the centre of the Basilica is a rich tabernacle of precious stones,
+defined by four columns of _verde antico_, and it is said that the
+heads of St. Peter and St. Paul are preserved here. The table upon which
+Christ celebrated the Last Supper is placed here, above the altar of the
+Holy Sacrament, a sacred relic that thrills the visitors. In one chapel
+is a curious and grotesque group of sculpture,--a skeleton holding up a
+medallion portrait, while an angel with outstretched wings hovers over
+it.
+
+San Giovanni has the reputation of being absolutely the coldest church
+in all Rome, which--it is needless to remark--means a great deal, for
+they all in winter have the temperature of the arctic regions. In all
+these great churches there is never any heat; no apparatus for heating
+has ever been introduced, and the twentieth century finds them just as
+cold as they were in the centuries of a thousand years ago. This
+colossal Basilica is considered the most important church in the world,
+as it is the cathedral of the Pontiff. It was founded in the third
+century by Constantine, destroyed by fire in 1308, and rebuilt by Pope
+Clement V, and every succeeding Pope has added to it. The façade is of
+travertine, with four gigantic columns and six pilasters, and the
+cornice is decorated with colossal figures of Jesus and a number of the
+saints. There are five balconies, the middle one being always used for
+papal benedictions. In the portico is the colossal statue of Constantine
+the Great. Within the columns are of _verde antico_; the ceiling was
+designed by Michael Angelo; the interior is very rich in sculpture, and
+there are some fine paintings and the chapels are most beautiful, one of
+them containing a tabernacle comprised wholly of precious stones. Above
+the altar of the Holy Sacrament the table upon which Christ celebrated
+the Last Supper with the disciples is preserved. It is wonderful to look
+upon this most sacred and significant relic.
+
+It is in this church that the tomb of Leo XIII has been constructed by
+the eminent Italian sculptor, Tadolini, opposite the tomb of Innocent
+III. The work was completed in the spring of 1907, the design being a
+life-size portrait statue of the Pope with two figures, one on either
+side, representing the church and the workman-pilgrim, forming part of
+the group. This is one of the most memorable monuments of all Rome, and
+the tomb of the great Leo XIII will form a new shrine for Christian
+pilgrimage.
+
+Included in the group of structures that form the great Basilica of San
+Giovanni is the Scala Santa, which offers a strange picture whenever one
+approaches it. These twenty-eight marble steps that belonged to Pilate's
+house in Jerusalem are said to have been once trodden by Jesus and may
+be ascended only on one's knees. At no hour of the day can one visit the
+Scala Santa without finding the most motley and incongruous throng thus
+ascending, pausing on each step for meditation and prayer. These stairs
+were transported from Jerusalem to Rome under the auspices of St.
+Helena, the Empress, about 326 A.D., and in 1589 they were placed by
+Pope Sixtus V in this portico built for them with a chapel at the top of
+the stairs called the "Sancta Sanctorum," formerly the private chapel of
+the Popes. In this sanctuary is preserved a wonderful portrait of the
+Saviour, painted on wood, which is said to have been partly the work of
+St. Luke but finished by unseen hands. The legend runs that St. Luke
+prepared to undertake the work by three days' fasting and prayer, and
+that, having drawn it in outline, the painting was done by angelic
+ministry, the colors being filled in by invisible hands. In ancient
+times--the custom being abolished by Pius V in 1566--this picture was
+borne through Rome on the Feast of the Assumption and the bearer halted
+with it in the Forum, when the "Kyrie Eleison" would be chanted by
+hundreds of voices.
+
+Myth and legend invest every turn and footfall of the Eternal City, and
+there are few that are not founded on what the church has always called
+supernatural manifestations, but which the new age is learning to
+recognize as occurrences under natural law.
+
+The story of Luther's ascent of the Scala Santa is thus told:--
+
+ "Brother Martin Luther went to accomplish the ascent of the Scala
+ Santa--the Holy Staircase--which once, they say, formed part of
+ Pilate's house. He slowly mounted step after step of the hard
+ stone, worn into hollows by the knees of penitents and pilgrims.
+ Patiently he crept halfway up the staircase, when he suddenly stood
+ erect, lifted his face heavenward, and in another moment turned
+ and walked slowly down again.
+
+ "He said that as he was toiling up a voice as if from heaven spoke
+ to him and said, 'The just shall live by faith.' He awoke as if
+ from a nightmare, restored to himself. He dared not creep up
+ another step; but rising from his knees he stood upright like a man
+ suddenly loosed from bonds and fetters, and with the firm step of a
+ free man he descended the staircase and walked from the place."
+
+The entire legendary as well as sacred history is almost made up of
+instances of the interpenetration of the two worlds; the response of
+those in the spiritual world to the needs of those in the natural world.
+Pope Paschal recorded that he fell asleep in his chair at St. Peter's
+(somewhere about 8.20 A.M.) with a prayer on his lips that he might find
+the burial place of St. Cecilia, and in his dream she appeared to him
+and showed him the spot where her body lay, in the catacombs of
+Calixtus. The next day he went to the spot and found all as had been
+revealed to him. The miraculous preservation of St. Agnes is familiar to
+all students of legendary art. Throughout all Rome, shrine and niche
+and sculpture, picture, monument, arch and column, speak perpetually of
+some interposition of unseen forces with events and circumstances in
+this part of life. The Eternal City in its rich and poetic symbolism is
+one great object lesson of the interblending of the two worlds, the
+natural and the spiritual. The first stage regarding all this marvellous
+panorama was entire and unquestioning acceptance; the succeeding stage
+was doubt, disbelief; the third, into which we are now entering, is that
+of an enlightened understanding and a growing knowledge and grasp of the
+laws under which these special interpositions and interventions occur.
+
+For that "according to thy faith be it unto thee," is as true now in the
+twentieth century as it was in the first. The one central truth that is
+the very foundation of all religious philosophy is the continuity of
+life and the persistence of intercourse and communion, spirit to spirit,
+across the gulf we call death. The evidences of this truth have been
+always in the world. The earliest records of the Bible are replete with
+them. The gospels of the New Testament record an unbroken succession
+of occurrences and of testimony to this interpenetration of life in the
+Unseen with that in the Seen. Secular history is full of its narrations
+of instances of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and of communications in a
+variety of ways; and the sacred and legendary art of Rome, largely
+founded on story and myth and legend, when seen in the light of
+latter-day science is judged anew, and the literal truth of much that
+has before been considered purely legendary is revealed and realized.
+One reads new meanings into Rome when testing it by this consciousness.
+It is a city of spiritual symbolism. It is a great object lesson
+extending over all the centuries. Making due allowance for the
+distortion and exaggeration of ages of testimony, there yet remains a
+residuum indisputable. The Past and the Present both teem with record
+and incident and experience proving that life is twofold, even now and
+here; that all the motives and acts of the life which we see are
+variously incited, modified, strengthened, or annulled by those in the
+realm of the Unseen.
+
+ [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO VILLA PAMPHILIA-DORIA, ROME
+ _Page 159_]
+
+The intelligent recognition of this truth changes the entire conduct of
+life. It entirely alters the point of view. It extends the horizon line
+infinitely. Instead of conceiving of life as a whole, as comprised
+between the cradle and the grave, it will be regarded in its larger and
+truer scope as a series of experiences and achievements, infinite in
+length and in their possibilities and unbroken by the change we call
+death. This will impart to humanity a new motor spring in that greater
+hope which puts man in a working mood, which makes him believe in the
+value of that which he undertakes, which encourages him to press on amid
+all difficulties and against all obstacles. Increasing hope, all
+activity is proportionately increased. It was an event of incalculable
+importance to the progress of humanity when the swift communication by
+cable was established between America and Europe. It is one of
+infinitely greater importance to establish the truth and enlarge the
+possibility of direct communication with the world of higher forces and
+larger attainment and scope than our own. This communication exists and
+has always existed, but it has been regarded as myth and legend and
+phenomenon rather than as a fact of nature whose laws were to be
+ascertained and understood. It must be made clear as an absolute
+scientific demonstration that the change of form by the process we call
+death does not put an end to intelligent and rational intercourse, but
+that, indeed, instead of setting up a barrier, it removes barriers and
+renders mutual comprehension far clearer and more direct than before.
+This realization alters the entire perspective of life, and is the new
+Glad Tidings of great joy.
+
+It is something of all this that the Eternal City suggests to one as he
+makes his pilgrimages to shrine and cloister and chapel and Basilica.
+The mighty Past is eloquent with a thousand voices, and they blend into
+a choral harmony of promise and prophecy for the nobler future of
+humanity.
+
+At the foot of the Scala Santa, on either side, are statues of Christ
+and Judas, and of Christ and Pilate, very interesting groups by
+Jacometti, and there is also a kneeling statue of Pio Nono.
+
+The statue of Judas is considered one of the most notable of the late
+modern Italian sculpture.
+
+The Rome of to-day is in strange contrast even to the city that Page and
+Hawthorne knew, in the comparatively recent past; and the Rome of the
+ancients is traced only in the churches and the ruins. It is a _mot_
+that one hears every language spoken in Rome, except the Italian! So
+largely has the Seven-hilled City become the pleasure ground of foreign
+residents. The contrast between the ordinary breakfast-table talk in
+Rome and in--Boston, for instance, or Washington, is amusing. In the
+Puritan capital it usually includes the topic of weather predictions and
+the news in the morning paper, with whatever other of local or personal
+matters of interest. In Washington, where the very actors and the events
+that make the nation's history are fairly before one's eyes, the
+breakfast-table conversation is apt to turn on matters that have not yet
+got into the papers,--the evening session of the previous night,
+perhaps, when too long prolonged under the vast dome to admit of its
+having been noted in the morning press. But in Rome the breakfast-table
+talk is apt to be of the new excavations just taken from the bed of the
+Tiber; the question as to whether the head of St. Paul could have
+touched (at the tragic scene of his execution) at three places so far
+apart as the tri-fontanes; or a discussion of the marvellous freshness
+of the mosaics in the interior of the Palace of the Cæsars; or, again,
+of the last night's balls or dinners, and matters most frankly
+_mondaine_, and of contemporary life.
+
+The American Embassy, whose location depends on the individual choice of
+the Ambassador of the time, is now in the old Palazzo del Drago on the
+corner of the Via Venti Settembre and the Via delle Quattro Fontane. The
+street floor, like all the old palaces, is not used for living purposes.
+The portiere, the guards, the corridors, and approaches to the
+staircases monopolize this space. The piano nobile is the residence of
+the beautiful and lovely Principessa d'Antuni, the youthful widow of the
+Principe who was himself a grandson of Marie Christine, the Queen of
+Spain. The young Princess who was married to him at the age of
+seventeen, ten years ago, is left with three little children, of whom
+the only daughter bears the name of her great-grandmother, the Spanish
+Queen. Perfectly at home in all the romance languages, an accomplished
+musician, a thinker, a scholar, a student, a lovely figure in life, a
+beautiful and sympathetic friend is the Princess d'Antuni. She is "of a
+simplicity," as they say in Italy, investing the dignity of her rank
+with indescribable grace and sweetness. The two long flights of stairs
+that lead up to the secundo piano in the Palazzo del Drago--the floor
+occupied by the American Embassy--have at least a hundred steps to each
+staircase, yet so broad and easy of ascent as hardly to fatigue one.
+These flights are carpeted in glowing red, while along the wall are
+niches in each of which stands an old statue, making the ascent of the
+guest seem a classic progress.
+
+The Palazzo del Drago has an elevator, but elevator service in Rome is a
+thing apart, something considered quite too good for human nature's
+daily food, and the slight power is far too little to permit any number
+of people to be accommodated, so on any ceremonial occasion the elevator
+is closed and the guests walk up the two long flights. The total lack of
+any mastery of mechanical conditions in Italy is very curious.
+
+The grand ball given at the American Embassy just before Ash Wednesday
+in the winter of 1907 was a very pretty affair. Up the rose-red carpeted
+stairs the guests walked, the statues looking silently on, but
+apparently there was no Galatea to step down from her niche and join the
+happy throng. In the antechamber each guest was asked to write his name
+in the large autograph books kept for that purpose, and then, passing
+on, was received by the Ambassador and Ambassadress in the first of the
+splendid series of salons thrown open for the occasion. At this time it
+was Mr. and Mrs. Henry White who represented the United States, and won
+the hearts of all Rome as well, and assisted by their charming daughter,
+Miss Muriel White, they made this ball an affair to leave its lovely
+pictures in memory. The scenic setting of an old Roman palace captivates
+the stranger. It may not impress him as especially comfortable, but it
+is certainly picturesque, and who would not prefer--at least for the
+"one night only" of the traditional _prima donna_ announcements--the
+pictorially picturesque and magnificent to the merely comfortable? The
+lofty ceilings, painted by artists who have long since vanished from
+mortal sight, make it impossible to attain the temperature that the
+American regards as essential to his terrestrial well-being, and as the
+only sources of heat were the open fireplaces the guests hovered around
+these and their radii of comfortable warmth were limited. In one salon
+there was one especially beautiful effect of a great jar of white lilacs
+placed before a vast mirror at sufficient distance to give the mirror
+reflection an individuality as a thing apart, and the effect was that of
+a very garden of paradise. The music was fascinating, the decorations
+all in good taste, and the occasion was most brilliant,--_très
+charmante_ indeed. The American ambassadress was ablaze with her famous
+diamonds, her corsage being literally covered with them, and her
+coiffure adorned with a coronet, but the temperature soon forced the
+ambassadress to partially eclipse her splendor with the little ermine
+shoulder cape that is an indispensable article for evening dress in
+Rome. The temperature does not admit the possibility of _décolleté_
+gowns without some protection, when these resplendent glittering robes
+that seem woven of the stars are worn. Among the more distinguished
+guests, aside from the _corps diplomatique_ and the titled nobility of
+Rome and visiting foreigners, were M. Carolus Duran, the celebrated
+portrait artist of Paris, and among other interesting people were Miss
+Elise Emmons of Leamington, England, a grand-niece of Charlotte Cushman.
+M. Carolus Duran was very magnificent, his breast covered with jewelled
+orders and decorations from the various societies, academies, and
+governments that have honored him. He is a short man and has grown quite
+stout, but he carries himself with inimitable grace and dignity, and in
+his luminous eyes one still surprises that far-away look which Sargent
+so wonderfully caught in his portrait of the great French artist,
+painted in his earlier life.
+
+The number of spacious salons with their easy-chairs and sofas enabled
+all guests who desired to ensconce themselves luxuriously to do so, and
+watch the glittering scene. The supper room and the salon for dancing
+were not more alluring than the salons wherein one could study this
+brilliant throng of diplomates, titled nobility, distinguished artists,
+social celebrities, and those who were, in various ways, each _persona
+grata_ in Rome. Among those at this particular festivity were the
+American novelist, Frank Hamilton Spearman, with Mrs. Spearman. In late
+American fiction Mr. Spearman has made for himself a distinctive place
+as the novelist whose artistic eye has discerned the romance in the new
+phases of life created by the extensive systems of mountain railroading,
+and the great irrigation schemes of the far West, which have not only
+opened up new territory, but have called into evidence new combinations
+of the qualities most potent in human life,--love, sacrifice, heroism,
+devotion to duty, and tragedy and comedy as well. In his novels, "The
+Daughter of a Magnate" and "Whispering Smith," in such vivid and
+delightful short stories as "The Ghost at Point of Rocks," which
+appeared in _Scribner's Magazine_ for August of 1907, Mr. Spearman has
+dramatized the pathos, the wit, the vast and marvellous spirit of
+enterprise, the desolation of isolated regions, the all-pervading
+potency and one may almost say intimacy of modern life made possible by
+the Arabian Nights' dream of wireless telegraphy, "soaring" cars,
+long-distance telephoning, and lightning express train service in cars
+that climb the mountains beyond the clouds, or dash through tunnels with
+ten thousand feet of mountains above them. Mr. Spearman is the novelist
+_par excellence_ of this intense _vie modernité_.
+
+On Washington's Birthday, again, the stately salons of the American
+Embassy in the old Palazzo del Drago were well filled from four to six
+with an assemblage which expressed its patriotism and devotion to
+Washington by appearing in its most faultless raiment and in an apparent
+appreciation of the refreshment tables, from which cake and ices, tea
+and various other delicacies, were served.
+
+The informal weekly receptions at the Embassy are always delightful, and
+the dinners and ceremonial entertainments are given with that faultless
+grace which characterizes the American ambassadress.
+
+The American consulate is always a charming centre in Rome, and in the
+present residence of Consul-General and Mrs. De Castro, who have
+domiciled themselves on a lofty floor of a palace in the Via Venti
+Settembre, commanding beautiful views that make a picture of every
+window, the consulate is one of the favorite social centres for
+Americans and other nationalities as well, who enjoy the charming
+welcome of Mrs. De Castro.
+
+Professor and Mrs. Jesse Benedict Carter, in their lovely home in the
+Via Gregoriana, add another to the pleasant American centres in the
+Eternal City, Professor Carter having succeeded Professor Norton as the
+principal of the American Classical School.
+
+Mrs. Elihu Vedder, assisted by her accomplished daughter, Miss Anita
+Vedder, has a pretty fashion of receiving weekly in Mr. Vedder's studio
+in the Via Flaminia, and these Saturday receptions at the Vedders' are a
+feature of social life in Rome which are greatly sought. The
+distinguished artist reserves these afternoons for leisurely
+conversation, and pictures and sketches are enjoyed the more that they
+may be enjoyed in the presence of their creator. Miss Vedder has called
+to life again the almost lost art of tapestry, and her productions of
+wonderful beauty are considered as among the most desirable in modern
+decorative art. Among these tapestries are "The Lover's Song," "Salome
+Dancing before Herod," "The Annunciation," "The Legend of the Unicorn,"
+"The Lovers' Picnic," and "The Lovers." The tapestries were painted in
+Rome and in the Vedder villa, _Torre Quattro Venti_ on Capri, where the
+artist and his wife and daughter pass their summers. The established
+English Church has two chapels in Rome, one the Holy Trinity, of which
+Rev. Dr. Baldwin is the rector, and the other English chapel in Via del
+Babuino has for its chaplain Rev. Dr. Nutcombe Oxenham, whose ministry
+is one of the most helpful factors in Rome. Dr. and Mrs. Oxenham occupy
+a charming apartment in the Piazza del Popolo, the most picturesque
+piazza in Rome, with the terraced Pincion hillside crowned by the Villa
+di Medici on one side, and the "twin churches" on another; and the
+beautiful salon of Mrs. Oxenham, with its wealth of books and classic
+engravings and gems of pictures, is one of the homelike interiors in
+Rome. Mr. and Mrs. Oxenham receive on Wednesdays, and an hour with them
+and their guests is always a privileged one.
+
+The work of this church, largely through the active co-operation of Mrs.
+Oxenham, extends into wide charities which are without discrimination as
+to sect or race,--the only consideration being the human need to be met
+in the name of Him whose care and love are for each and all.
+
+Among the delightful hostesses of Rome is the American wife of Cavaliere
+Cortesi, an Italian man of letters, and in their apartment, in one of
+the notable palaces in the Corso, some of the most brilliant musicals
+and receptions are given, the "All'Illustrissima Signora" being assisted
+in the informal serving of tea by the two little fairy daughters,
+Annunziata and Elizabetta, whose childish loveliness lingers with the
+_habitués_ of this pleasant home.
+
+In the Palazzo Senni, in the old part of Rome, looking out on Castel San
+Angelo and the Ponte d'Angelo, across to the dome of St. Peter's, the
+Listers had their home; and though Mrs. Lister, one of the most
+distinguished English ladies of Rome, has gone on into the fairer world
+beyond, her daughter, Miss Roma Lister, sustains the charming
+hospitalities for which her mother was famous. Her salons on the piano
+nobile of the palace are rich in souvenirs and rare objects of art. Mrs.
+Lister, who was of a noted English house, was evidently a favorite with
+Queen Victoria and the royal family; and her marriage gifts included two
+drawings by the Queen, both autographed, and a crayon portrait of the
+Empress Frederick with autographic inscription to Mrs. Lister. Another
+personal gift was a portrait of Cardinal Newman, with his autograph. A
+bust of Lady Paget of Florence, the widow of Sir Augustus Paget,
+formerly the English Ambassador to Italy, is another of the interesting
+treasures which include, indeed, gifts and offerings from a large number
+of those eminent in state, in art, in literature, or in the church. The
+gracious hospitality of Miss Lister is dispensed to groups of
+cosmopolitan guests, and her dinners and other entertainments are among
+the most brilliant in Rome.
+
+The Eternal City is not as hospitable to various phases of modern
+thought as is Florence, in which Theosophy, Christian Science, and
+psychic investigation flourish with rapidly increasing ardor; but Rome
+has a Theosophical Society, among whose leaders is the Baroness
+Rosenkrans, the mother of the distinguished young Danish novelist, and
+the aunt of Miss Roma Lister. The society has its rooms in the very
+heart of old Rome, and holds weekly meetings, often with an English
+lecturer as the speaker of the hour. A Theosophical library, in both
+English and Italian, is easily accessible, and the meetings are
+conducted in either language as it chances at the time. The accession of
+Annie Besant to the presidency of the Theosophical Society, succeeding
+Colonel Olcott, whose death occurred early in 1907, was most
+satisfactory to the Roman members. Mrs. Besant is one of the most
+remarkable women of the day. She is in no sense allied with any fads
+or freaks; she is essentially a woman of scholarship and poise, of
+genuine grasp of significant thought and of brilliant eloquence.
+Theosophy, rightly interpreted, is in no sense antagonistic, but,
+rather, supplemental to Christianity. It offers the intellectual
+explanation--the details, so to speak--of the great spiritual truths of
+the Bible.
+
+Rome seems fairly on its way to become an English-speaking city, so
+numerous are the Americans and English who throng to Rome in the winter.
+
+There are now at least a dozen large new hotels on the scale of the best
+modern hotels in New York and Paris, beside the multitude of the older
+ones which are comfortable and retain all their popularity; yet this
+increase in accommodation does not equal the increase in demand. In
+February the tide of travel sets in toward Rome, and from that date
+until after Easter every nook and niche are filled to overflowing. The
+demand for apartments in Rome is greater than the supply, although the
+city is being constantly extended and new buildings are rapidly being
+erected. It would seem as if, with the present increasingly large number
+of Americans and English, it might be an admirable financial enterprise
+for capitalists to come and build comfortable modern apartment hotels.
+There seems to be no adequate reason why, in this age, people should be
+compelled to live in these gloomy, dreary, cold, old stone palaces,
+without elevator service and with no adequate heating, lighting, and
+running-water facilities. There would seem to be no conceivable reason
+why these conveniences should not be at hand in Rome as well as in New
+York. As for the climate, with warm houses to live in, it would be
+charmingly comfortable, for the deadly cold is not in the temperature
+out of doors, but only in the interiors. One is warm in the sunshine in
+the streets, when he is fairly frozen in the house. Mentioning this,
+however, with wonder that some enterprising American did not begin such
+building operations, a friend who has lived for sixteen years in Rome
+replied that the Italians would never permit it; that no foreigner is
+allowed to come in here and initiate business operations. And the
+Italians continue building after the old and clumsy fashion of five
+hundred years ago.
+
+Italy has a curiously pervasive and general suspicion of any latter-day
+comfort. The new apartment houses of from four to seven stories are
+largely without any elevator; if there is one it usually only ascends
+about halfway, and it is so clumsy and slow in its methods, so poorly
+supported by power, that half the time it does not run at all. The
+streets of Rome are paved with rough stones; the sidewalks are very
+narrow; the lighting is inadequate. Bathrooms are rare and insufficient
+in number, and all interior lighting and heating arrangements lack much
+that is desirable according to American ideas of comfort.
+
+Still the Eternal City is so impressive in and of itself that sunshine
+or storm, comfort or the reverse, can hardly affect one's intensity of
+joy and wonder and mysterious, unanalyzable rapture in it. The
+twentieth-century Rome is a very different affair from the Rome on which
+Hawthorne entered one dark, cold, stormy winter night more than half a
+century ago. In the best modern hotels one may be as comfortable as he
+likes, with all the fascinations of life added besides. No wonder that
+Rome is one of the great winter centres, with some of the most
+interesting people in the world always to be found under the spell of
+its enchantment.
+
+The Rome of to-day is a curious mixture of ruins and of modern buildings
+which are neither modern nor mediæval in their structure, but many of
+which combine the most picturesque features of the latter with the
+latest beauty of French and American architectural art. The classic
+buildings are now largely in unpleasant surroundings; as, for instance,
+the Pantheon, which is surrounded by a fish market, with unspeakable
+odors and other repulsive features. "But the portico, with its sixteen
+Corinthian columns, is forever majestic; the interior, a vast circular
+cell surmounted by a dome through which alone it is lighted, there being
+no windows in the walls, is massive and grim, but the magical
+illumination, the eye constantly revealing the sky above, gives it
+wonderful beauty. Over the outer portals is the inscription of its
+erection by Agrippa twenty-seven years before Christ, so it has stood
+for nearly two thousand years. Colossal statues of Augustus and Agrippa
+fill niches. In diameter the interior of the Pantheon is one hundred and
+thirty-two feet, and it is the same in height, which insures the
+singularly harmonious proportions. The tribune of the High-Altar is cut
+in the thickness of the wall in the form of a semicircle, and is
+ornamented, like the door, with four pilasters and two columns of violet
+marble. The six chapels are also cut in the wall and ornamented by two
+columns and two pilasters. The columns and the pilasters support the
+beautiful cornice of white marble; the frieze is of porphyry, and goes
+round the whole temple. Above this order there is a species of attic
+with fourteen niches, and the great cornice from which rises the
+majestic dome. Eight other niches are between the chapels, and these are
+also with a pediment supported by two Corinthian columns. They are now
+converted into altars. In this temple are buried several artists, among
+whom are Raphael, Giovanni da Udine, Baldassare Peruzzi, and Annibale
+Carracci. Raphael is buried beneath the base of the statue called la
+Madonna del Sasso, sculptured by Lorenzetti. This church is, however,
+without paintings or sculptures of much interest. Victor Emmanuel was
+entombed here on the 20th of January, 1878, and King Umberto on the 9th
+of August, 1900." One of the imposing ceremonies of Rome is that always
+celebrated in the Pantheon on March 14, in memory of King Umberto Primo.
+
+A grand catafalque, surmounted by the royal crown, and surrounded by
+tall candelabra with wax candles, is erected in the centre of the
+temple, draped with black velvet and gold lace, and lighted with
+electric lamps. The mass is for a chorus of voices only. All the civil
+and military authorities, the state dignitaries, and the _corps
+diplomatique_ to the court of Italy are present. The troops, in full
+dress uniform, file in the Piazza of the Collegio Romano, Via Piè di
+Marmo, and the Piazza della Minerva, enclosing thus a large square in
+the Piazza del Pantheon. The spectacle is one of the most imposing of
+all Roman ceremonies.
+
+The King, and Queen Elena, and the Dowager Queen Margherita, accompanied
+by their respective civil and military households, assist at the requiem
+mass celebrated in the Pantheon, and at a commemoration service, on the
+same day, in the Royal Chapel of the Sudario, where also assemble the
+ladies and gentlemen of the Order of the Annunziata.
+
+On the same morning the feast of St. Gregory, Pope and Doctor of the
+church, is celebrated at his church on the Cælian Hill. He was born of a
+noble family, and was Prefect of Rome in 573. Pope Pelagius II made him
+regionary deacon of Rome, and sent him as legate to Constantinople in
+578, where he remained till the death of Pelagius, when he was elected
+Pope (590). He introduced the Gregorian chant. His first great act was
+to send St. Augustine to convert the Saxons of England to the Christian
+faith. An inscription in the Church of San Gregorio Magno states that
+St. Augustine was educated in the abbey which was erected on the site of
+the present church by Gregory, and that many early archbishops of York
+and Canterbury were also educated there. It was on the steps of this
+church that Augustine and his forty monks took leave of Gregory, when
+setting out for England. He died in 604, after a pontificate of thirteen
+years and six months. He was buried in the portico of the Vatican
+Basilica, and his body lies under the altar dedicated to him in this
+same church. His church, on the Cælian Hill, was built on the site of
+the monastery founded by him. In the chapel of the triclinium, near the
+church, the table on which he served the poor is shown. Near the church
+also is seen his cell, where his marble chair and one of his arms are
+exhibited.
+
+During the Lenten season of 1907 one of the privileges of Rome was to
+hear the sermons of Monsignor Vaughn, in the English Catholic Church of
+San Silvestre. Monsignor Vaughn is the private chaplain of the Pope. His
+discourses attracted increasing throngs of both Catholic and Protestant
+hearers. This celebrated prelate is a brother of the late English
+Cardinal. He is a man of great distinction of presence, of beautiful
+voice and fascination of manner. One discourse had for its theme the
+joys of the life that is to come. The spiritual body, he said, has many
+qualities not pertaining to the physical body. It is immured from all
+disease and accidents; it is subtle and can pass through any substance
+which is (apparently) solid to us, as, for instance, when Jesus appeared
+in the midst of his disciples, "the doors being shut." It is not a clog
+on the soul, continued Monsignor Vaughn; the spiritual body is the
+vehicle of the soul and can waft its way through the air; it can walk
+the air as the physical body walks the earth. It is not--as is the
+physical body--the prison of the soul, but the companion of the soul.
+This is all a very enlightened presentation of spiritual truth, and it
+is little wonder that such preaching attracts large congregations. Holy
+Week in Rome bears little resemblance now to that of the past. The Pope
+is not visible in any of the ceremonials in any of the churches; and the
+impressiveness of former Catholic ceremonials is greatly lessened.
+Indeed, with the passing of the temporal power of the Pope, the
+picturesqueness of Rome largely vanished.
+
+Not, assuredly, from any lack of reverence for the colossal cathedral of
+St. Peter's is that Basilica a resort for Sunday afternoons; it suggests
+a social reunion, where every one goes, listens as he will to the music
+of the Papal choir in the Chapel of the Sacrament, and strolls about the
+vast interior where the promenade of the multitude does not yet disturb
+in the least the vesper service in the chapel. Here one meets
+everybody; the general news of the day is exchanged; greeting and
+salutation and pleasant little conversational interludes mark the
+afternoon, while the sun sinks behind the splendid pile of the Palazzo
+Vaticano, and the golden light through the window of the tribune fades
+into dusk. Can one ever lose out of memory the indescribable charm of
+this leisurely sauntering, in social enjoyment, in the wonderful
+interior of St. Peter's?
+
+In the way of the regulation sight-seeing the visitor to Rome compasses
+most of his duty in this respect on his initial sojourn and goes the
+rounds that no one ever need dream of repeating. Once for all the
+visitor to Rome goes down into the Catacombs; makes his appallingly hard
+journey over Castel San Angelo, into its cells and dungeons, and to the
+colossal salon in which is Hadrian's tomb; once for a lifetime he climbs
+St. Peter's dome; drives out to old St. Agnes and descends into the
+crypt; visits the Church of the Capucines and beholds the ghastly
+spectacle of the monks' skulls; drives in the Appian Way; visits the
+Palace of the Cæsars, the Baths of Caracalla--a mass of ruins; the
+Forum; the Temples of Vesta and Isis; the Coliseum, and the classic old
+Pantheon. These form a kind of skeleton for the regulation sight-seeing
+of the Eternal City; things which, once done, are checked off with the
+feeling that the entire duty of the tourist has been fulfilled, and
+that, henceforth in Rome, there is laid up for him the crown of
+enjoyment, if not rejoicing; that he may go again and again to study the
+marvellous treasures of the Vatican galleries, the masterpieces of art
+in the Raphael stanze in the Vatican, the interesting pictures and
+sculpture in the many rich churches and galleries. The deadly chill of
+most of these galleries and churches in the winter is beyond words to
+describe. It is as if the gloom and chill and darkness of a thousand
+centuries were there concentrated.
+
+One of the regulation places for the devout sight-seer, who feels
+responsible to his conscience for improving his privileges, is the Museo
+Nazionale, or the Tiberine Museum, a large proportion of whose treasures
+have been excavated in making the new embankments of the Tiber. It is
+located on the site of the Baths of Diocletian, the great ruins of which
+surround it in the most uncanny way. Built around a large court, the
+salons of the museum are entered from the inner cloisters. In the centre
+of the court is a fountain, and around it are antique fragments of
+statues, columns, and statuettes found in many places. The famous
+Ludovisi collection of antique statuary is now permanently placed in
+this museum,--a collection that includes the "Ludovisi Mars;"
+"Hercules," with a cornucopia; the "Hermes of Theseus," the "Discobolus
+Hermes;" the "Venus of Gnidus" as copied by Praxiteles; the "Dying
+Medusa;" the "Ludovisi Juno," which Winckelmann declares to be the
+finest head of Juno extant, a Greek work of the fourth century; a "Cupid
+and Psyche;" the two "Muses of Astronomy" and of "Epic Poetry," "Urania
+and Calliope;" "an Antoninus;" the largest sarcophagus known; a "Tragic
+Mask" (colossal) in rosso antico; a bust of "Marcus Aurelius" in bronze,
+and many other priceless works.
+
+The splendor of scenic setting for art in the magnificent salons of the
+Casino Borghese has never been surpassed. They are, perhaps, the most
+impressive of any Roman interior, with lofty, splendidly decorated
+ceilings and walls, where recess and niche hold priceless sculptures.
+The splendor of these salons, indeed, quite exceeds description. In the
+principal one is a group on one wall--a colossal relief--representing
+Marcus Curtius plunging into the gulf in the Forum. There are busts of
+the twelve Cæsars; there are busts of all the Roman Emperors, with
+alabaster draperies, placed on pedestals of red granite. There are
+Bernini's "Apollo and Daphne;" Canova's celebrated statue of Princess
+Pauline Borghese (the sister of Napoleon I); Bernini's "David" and
+"Æneas and Anchises;" Thorwaldsen's "Faun;" "Diana," "Isis," "Juno," and
+many other celebrated classic statues. All the great paintings which
+were formerly in the Palazzo Borghese--over six hundred in all--are now
+in this casino. The great work in this collection is Raphael's
+"Entombment of Christ," painted in his twenty-fourth year. Titian's
+"Divine and Human Love;" Raphael's portrait of "Cæsar Borgia;"
+Correggio's "Danaë;" Domenichino's "Cumæan Sibyl" and "Diana;" Peruzzi's
+"Venus Leaving the Bath;" Van Dyck's "Crucifixion;" Titian's "Venus and
+Cupid;" and "Annunciation," by Paul Veronese; Vasari's "Lucrezia
+Borgia;" Botticelli's "Holy Family and Angels;" Van Dyck's "Entombment;"
+Carlo Dolce's "Mater Dolorosa," and Sassoferrato's "Three Ages of Man"
+are among the great masterpieces in this museum.
+
+The Villa Borghese (by which is meant the park) is some three miles in
+extent, and was laid out some two hundred years ago by Cardinal
+Borghese. As recently as 1902 it was purchased by the government for
+three million francs, and its official name is now "Villa Comunale
+Umberto Primo." These grounds contain fountains, antique statues,
+tablets, small temples and many inscriptions, with statues of Æsculapius
+and Apollo, and an Egyptian gateway. They are open all day to every one
+freely and are one of the great attractions of Rome.
+
+The great palaces of Rome are of later date than those of Florence.
+There are some eighty principal ones, of which the Palazzos Veneziano,
+Farnese, Doria, Barberini, Colonna, and the Rospigliosi (containing
+Guido's famous "Aurora") are the most important. The Farnesina Palace
+contains some of the most interesting pictures in Rome, and the
+traditions of the residence of Agostino Chigi, during the pontificate
+of Leo X, are still found in Rome,--traditions of the lavish
+magnificence of the entertainments given here to the Pope and the
+Cardinals.
+
+The Monte Pincio is the famous drive of Roman society, and the promenade
+around the brow of the hill offers one of the most enchanting views of
+the world. Near the Trinità di Monti stands the historic Villa Medici,
+the French Academy of which the great Carolus Duran is now the director.
+The view across the valley in which lies the Piazza di Spagna, the river
+to St. Peter's, from the Villa Medici, is one of the finest in Rome.
+
+The architecture of the garden façade is attributed to Michael Angelo.
+These gardens have a circuit of more than a mile, laid out in the formal
+rectangles and densely bordered walks of the Italian custom. All manner
+of old fragments of sculpture are scattered through them,--a torso, a
+broken bust, a ruined statue, an old and partly broken fountain,--and
+entablatures and reliefs are seen in the walls on every hand. No sound
+of the city ever penetrates into this dense foliage which secludes the
+gardens of the famous Villa Medici.
+
+One of the features of Roman life is the fashionable drive on Monte
+Pincio in the late afternoons. An hour or two before sunset the terrace
+of the Piazza Trinità di Monti begins to be thronged with pedestrians,
+who lean over the marble balustrade, gazing at the incomparable pictured
+panorama where the vast dome of St. Peter's, the dense pines of the
+Villa Pamphilia-Doria on the Janiculum, and the dark cypress groves on
+Monte Mario loom up against the golden western sky.
+
+Compared with the extensive parks of modern cities the Monte Pincio
+would prefigure itself as a drive for fairies alone. It comprises a few
+acres only, thickly decorated with trees and shrubbery, with a casino
+for the orchestra that plays every afternoon, and a circular carriage
+drive so limited in extent that the same carriage comes in view every
+few minutes.
+
+The Eternal City has had so many birthdays that one would fancy them to
+have become negligible; but it was announced on April 21 of 1907 that
+the date was a special anniversary, and she took on aspects of
+festivity. The municipal palaces and museums were hung with tapestries,
+flags were flying from the Capitol, the municipal guards were all in
+full dress uniform and the municipal orchestra played in the Piazza
+Colonna. The historic bell began ringing at eight in the morning in
+peals that were well calculated to call the Cæsars from their tombs and
+which might, indeed, have been mistaken for the final trumpet calls of
+Gabriel. But the Romans take their pleasures rather sadly and
+sternly,--not like the light-hearted Florentines in song and laughter,
+or with the joyous abandon of the Neapolitans,--so there was no special
+manifestation on the part of the populace, and the day, cold, gloomy,
+and cheerless, did not inspire gayety.
+
+When the Republic of Rome was established (on Feb. 9, 1849) a
+provisional government was appointed. In March of that year Mazzini
+proposed that the assembly should appoint a Committee of War, and it was
+decided to send troops to Piedmont. Later a triumvirate, consisting of
+Mazzini, Saffi, and Armellini, was formed, but disaster was near. In
+April the French troops landed at Cività Vecchia, and the Italians
+prepared to defend their country from the control of Louis Napoleon.
+Mazzini is said to have been "the life and the soul" of this defence.
+But the Republic was doomed, and when it had fallen the Pope returned,
+only under the protection of the French. But the French Empire, too, was
+doomed to fall; and when Garibaldi transferred his successes to Victor
+Emmanuel, the monarchy was consolidated by the union of Rome with Italy,
+and the present "Via Venti Settembre" in Rome--the street named to
+commemorate that 20th of September, 1870, on which the Italian troops
+entered the city and the Papal reign ended--perpetuates the story of
+those eventful days. "Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, and Garibaldi have been
+designated, along with Mazzini, as the founders of the modern Italy,"
+said Dr. William Clarke, "but a broad line divides Mazzini from the
+others." Dr. Clarke sees between Cavour and Mazzini "the everlasting
+conflict between the idealist and the man of the world. The former," he
+continues, "stands by the intellect and the conscience; the latter by
+the limitations of actual fact and the practical difficulties of the
+case," and Dr. Clarke notes further:--
+
+ "It was pre-eminently Mazzini who gave to Italy the breath of a new
+ life, who taught her people constancy in devotion to an ideal
+ good. Prophets are rarely successful in their own day, and so it
+ has been with the prophet of modern Italy. The making of Italy has
+ not proceeded in the way he hoped it would; for the Italians, who
+ are an eminently subtle and diplomatic people, have apparently
+ thought it best to bend to the hard facts by which they have been
+ surrounded. But if, as Emerson teaches, facts are fluid to thought,
+ we may believe that the ideas of Mazzini will yet prevail in the
+ nation of his birth, and that he may yet be regarded as the
+ spiritual father of the future Italian commonwealth. For of him, if
+ of any modern man, we may say that he
+
+ 'Saw distant gates of Eden gleam,
+ And did not dream it was a dream.'"
+
+ [Illustration: STATUE OF CHRIST, ANCIENT CHURCH OF SAN MARTINA, ROME
+ _From the Artist's Original Cast_
+ Albert Bertel Thorwaldsen
+ _Page 193_]
+
+Between the period of the establishment of the Roman Republic in 1849
+and the consummation of United Italy in 1870 the years were rich to the
+artist, whatever they may have been to philosopher and patriot. The way
+for the painter and the sculptor seems to have been a flowery and a
+pictorial one,--a very _via buona fortuna_, through a golden,
+artistic atmosphere. The perpetual excursions may lead the serious
+spectator to wonder where working hours come in, but, at all events,
+those days are rich in color. Friends grouped together by the unerring
+law of elective affinities loitered in galleries and churches. San
+Martina, near the Mamertine prisons, was a point of interest because of
+Thorwaldsen's bequest to it of the original cast of his beautiful statue
+of "Christ" which is in Copenhagen. This is, perhaps, the finest work
+ever conceived by the Danish sculptor, and is one that no visitor of
+to-day can behold unmoved. Both Canova and Bernini are also represented
+in this church,--the former by a statue of "Religion" and the latter by
+a bust of Pietro da Cortona. Beneath the present Church of San Martina
+is the ancient one containing the shrine of the martyr, under a superb
+bronze altar. Of this church, Mrs. Jameson says in her "Sacred and
+Legendary Art":--
+
+ "At the foot of the Capitoline Hill, on the left hand as we descend
+ from the Ara Coeli into the Forum, there stood in very ancient
+ times a small chapel, dedicated to St. Martina, a Roman virgin. The
+ veneration paid to her was of very early date, and the Roman people
+ were accustomed to assemble there on the first day of the year.
+ This observance was, however, confined to the people, and was not
+ very general till 1634, an era which connects her in rather an
+ interesting manner with the history of art. In this year, as they
+ were about to repair her chapel, they discovered, walled into the
+ foundations, a sarcophagus of terra cotta, in which was the body of
+ a young female, whose severed head reposed in a separate casket.
+ These remains were very naturally supposed to be those of the saint
+ who had been so long venerated on that spot. The discovery was
+ hailed with the utmost exultation, not by the people only, but by
+ those who led the minds and consciences of the people. The Pope
+ himself, Urban VIII, composed hymns in her praise; and Cardinal
+ Francesco Barberini undertook to rebuild her church."
+
+The painter, Pietro da Cortona, entered into this feeling and at his own
+expense built the chapel and painted for its altar piece the picture
+representing the saint in triumph, while the temple in which she has
+gone to sacrifice falls in ruins from a raging tempest.
+
+In any stray ramble in Rome the sojourner might chance, at any moment,
+upon obelisk, a pedestal or inscription linked with the great names of
+the historic past. Hawthorne has recorded how, by mere chance, he turned
+from the Via delle Quattro Fontane into the Via Quirinale and was thus
+lured on to an obelisk and a fountain on the pedestal of which on one
+side was the inscription, "Opus Phidias," and on the other, "Opus
+Praxiteles," and he exclaims:--
+
+ "What a city is this, when one may stumble, by mere chance--at a
+ street corner as it were--on the works of two such sculptors! I do
+ not know the authority," he continues, "on which these statues
+ (Castor and Pollux I presume) are attributed to Phidias and
+ Praxiteles; but they impressed me as noble and godlike, and I feel
+ inclined to take them for what they purport to be."
+
+While the Papal ceremonies are neither so frequent nor so magnificent as
+in former days, still any hotel guest in Rome is liable, any morning,
+on coming down to the _salle-à-manger_ for coffee, to find every woman
+(who is taking her Rome seriously) arrayed in a black robe with a black
+lace veil on her head. One would fancy they were all a procession of
+nuns, about to retire from the world into the strict seclusion of the
+cloister. But it is nothing so momentous. It is only that every lady,
+with the devotion to spectacles which every visitor in Rome feels, as a
+matter of course, has secured the pink ticket entitling her to admission
+to the Vatican Palace to see the "passage" of the Pope, as he makes his
+way, attended by the Cardinals of the Sacred College, to the Sistine
+Chapel where his Holiness "creates" new Cardinals. Although rumored that
+the spectacle will be a gorgeous one, that the Pope will be carried
+aloft preceded by the silver trumpeters and attended by the Cardinals
+and the ambassadors and other dignitaries in the full dress of their
+ceremonial costumes and their orders, the reality is less impressive.
+Some feminine enthusiasts fare forth at the heroic hour of eight,
+although the procession is not announced to pass until a quarter after
+ten (which in Italy should be translated as a quarter after eleven, at
+the earliest, if not after twelve, which would be the more probable), in
+order to secure good standing room. For everybody is to stand--of
+course, comfort being a thing conspicuous only by its absence in Italy!
+Those of us too well aware by the experiences of previous visits to
+Italy that no Italian function was ever on time, from the starting of a
+railway train to the crowning of a king, only betake ourselves to the
+glories of the Palazzo Vaticano at the hour named, and we have then--as
+one's prophetic soul or his commonplace memory warned him--to wait more
+than an hour wedged into a dense crowd of all nationalities, none of
+whom seem at this particular juncture, at least, to be at all
+overburdened with good manners. And what went they out for to seek?
+Instead of an impressive spectacle--a thing to remember for a
+lifetime--one merely sees Pius X walking, surrounded by his Cardinals in
+a group,--not a procession,--he alone in the centre with his mitre on
+his head,--the whole scene hardly lasting over a minute, and as his
+Holiness is not as tall as most of his Cardinals, he is almost hidden
+from view. It had been rumored that the Pope was to be borne aloft in
+the Papal chair, preceded by the traditional white fan and the silver
+trumpets; but the present Pope is temperamentally inclined to minimize
+all the ceremonials investing his sacred office.
+
+Yet there is always a thrill in entering the Vatican. To ascend that
+splendid _Scala Regia_ designed by Bernini, with one of the most
+ingeniously treated perspective effects to be found, it may be, in the
+entire world; to cross this _Scala_ with its interesting frescoes by
+Salviati and others; to see at near range the picturesque Swiss
+Guard,--surely any pretext to enjoy such a morning is easily accepted of
+whatever occurrence one may grasp in order to obtain the hour.
+
+One curious feature of the past is to-day equally in evidence in Rome.
+Strolling at any time into the Church of San Agostino one beholds a
+curious spectacle. It is in this church that is placed the beautiful
+bronze statue of the Virgin and Child by Sansovino. It is approached by
+a platform on which is placed a stool that enables one to mount and thus
+reach the foot of the statue, which is kissed and the wish of the
+devotee is offered. This Madonna is believed to have the power to grant
+each wish and prayer; to heal the sick; restore the blind, the deaf, and
+the lame; to grant immunity from loss or illness; to grant success and
+prosperity. The poor Madonna must have her hands full with these
+avalanches of petitions, but she sits calmly in state and, if the
+striking testimony of votive offerings can be credited, she is most
+amiable in granting the prayers of her devotees. For she is hung with
+priceless jewels; necklaces, brooches, bracelets, diamond and ruby and
+sapphire rings on her fingers, she is a blaze of splendor. Around this
+statue there is a perpetual crowd, whatever hour of day one chances to
+wander in, and from prince to beggar the bronze foot is kissed, as each
+waits his turn to mount the stool and prefer his secret wish. The walls
+of the church are covered with the votive offerings to the Madonna for
+her aid,--rich jewels, orders, tablets,--offerings of all kinds. In this
+church is entombed the body of Santa Monica, the mother of St.
+Augustine, placed in an urn of verd-antique, in a special chapel
+beautifully decorated. After preferring one's secret wish to the Virgin
+one must wander on to the Fontane de Trevi and throw his penny into the
+water to insure his return to Rome, and then he may rest, _mens conscia
+recti_!
+
+Although Holy Week in Rome has less ceremonial observance in these
+latter days than those of the impressive scenes so vividly portrayed by
+Mme. de Staël in "Corinne," it still attracts a multitude of visitors
+and offers much to touch and thrill the life of the spirit, quite
+irrespective as to whether the visitor be of the Catholic or Protestant
+faith. In the great essentials of Christianity, all followers of Christ
+unite. The Pope does not now take part in public services on Easter, and
+that scene of the Pontifical blessing from the balcony of St. Peter's
+given to the multitude below who throng the piazza remains only in
+memory and in record. But the stately and solemn services of Good Friday
+in the vast and grand interior of St. Peter's are an experience to
+linger forever in memory. The three hours' service--the chanting of the
+Miserere--was a scene to impress the imagination. This service is held
+in the late afternoon of Good Friday, in the tribune of St. Peter's, the
+extreme end of the church where the vast window of yellow glass gives a
+perpetually golden light. The chair believed to have been that of St.
+Peter's is here placed, enclosed in ivory and supported by statues of
+four Fathers of the church, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom,
+and St. Athanasius, from a design of Bernini.
+
+In the tribune is the tomb of Urban VIII (who was Matteo Barberini), of
+which the redundant decoration tells the story that it is also Bernini's
+work. Opposite this tomb is that of Paul III, by della Porta, under the
+supervision of Michael Angelo, it is said, and the beauty and dignity of
+the bronze figure of the aged Pope, in the act of giving the
+benediction, quite confirm this tradition. On a tablet in the wall of
+the tribune are engraved the names of all the bishops and prelates who,
+in 1854, accepted the belief of the Immaculate Conception,--this tablet
+being placed by the order of Pio Nono.
+
+In this tribune on the late afternoon of the Good Friday of 1907 the
+seats were filled with worshippers to listen to the three hours' chant
+of the Miserere. Princes and peasants sat side by side, and an immense
+throng who could not find seats stood, often wandering away in the dim
+distances of the cathedral and ever and again returning. The high altar,
+where Canova's beautiful figure of the kneeling Pope always enchains the
+visitor, was, as usual, surrounded. The lights burned--these perpetual
+lamps--and the moving throng went and came. The scene grew mystic,
+dream-like, as the solemn music floated on the air.
+
+The Chapel of the Holy Sacrament, on the left of the cathedral, was made
+into the sepulchre that day, and anything more beautiful than the myriad
+altar lights and the flowers could not be imagined. At the altar
+black-robed nuns were kneeling, and all over the chapel, kneeling on the
+floor, were people of all grades and ranks of life, from the duchess and
+princess to the beggar woman with a ragged shawl on her shoulders and
+her baby in her arms. St. Peter's was nearly filled all that day with
+people, not crowded, but apparently thronged in almost every part.
+
+The altar in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament was one mass of deep red
+roses. The chapel was completely darkened, but the blaze of myriads of
+tall candles illuminated the roses and the black-robed nuns and the
+black-robed devotees. It was a scene never to be forgotten.
+
+Even in the latter-day Rome, historic names are not wanting. One of
+these, the Princess Christina Bonaparte, _née_ Ruspoli, died in 1907 in
+her Roman villa in Via Venti Settembre. She was the widow of Prince
+Napoleon Charles Bonaparte and a cousin of the Empress Eugénie. With her
+husband in Paris until 1870, she fled (whilst her husband was fighting
+at Metz) as soon as the Commune was proclaimed. The princess was
+considered a beautiful woman and her portrait had been painted by Ernest
+Hébert, but it was lost when the Palace of the Tuileries was destroyed
+in 1870.
+
+With this princess dies the name of the Bonaparte family. Her daughters,
+Donna Maria Gotti-Bonaparte and Princess Maria della Moskowa, were often
+with her in Rome.
+
+The Palazzo Bonaparte is very near Porta Pia. Although called a palace,
+it is simply a plain house of some five stories, with narrow halls and
+stone staircases, no elevator, no electric lights. The princess occupied
+the first floor, while the apartments above were let to various
+families.
+
+With the exception of the royal palaces there are few in which suites
+are not obtainable for residence by any one who desires them.
+
+ [Illustration: CASTEL SAN ANGELO AND ST. PETER'S, ROME
+ _Page 204_]
+
+It was at a pleasant _déjeûner_ one spring day in Rome that the project
+was launched, that we should go motoring that afternoon to Frascati,
+Albano, Castel Gandolfo, Lago di Nemi, and all that wonderful region. We
+were lunching with a friend who had a charming apartment in one of the
+sumptuous old palaces of Rome, where, in a niche on the marble
+staircase, the statue of Cæsar Augustus stood,--a copy of the famous
+statue in the Capitoline,--where lofty, decorated ceilings, old
+paintings and sculptures adorned the rooms, and where from the windows
+we looked out on the tragedy-haunted Castel San Angelo, with the dome of
+San Pietro in the background. Our friend who invited us to fly in his
+motor had brought his touring car over from America. The one note of new
+luxury now is for travellers to journey with their touring cars. In a
+year or two more it will be airships or soaring machines. On this
+wonderful May afternoon, all azure and gold, we started off in the
+great, luxurious touring car which was arranged even to carry two
+trunks, with a safe in it for the deposit of valuables, a hamper for
+refreshments, and, indeed, almost every conceivable convenience. On we
+flew through Rome, past the great Basilica of San Maria Maggiore; past
+the wonderful pile of San Giovanni Laterano, with the colossal statues
+of the apostles surmounting the façade; through the Porta San Giovanni
+into the narrow, walled lane leading out on the Campagna; on, on, to the
+Alban hills. We flew past olive orchards and vineyards, and the vast
+green pasture lands of the Campagna whose vivid green was ablaze with
+scarlet poppies. Far away to the west there was a white shining
+line--the line of the sea.
+
+At Frascati we stopped at the Villa Torlonia, the country place of the
+ducal family, whose grand Roman palazzo is in the Bocca di Leone in the
+old part of Rome. The Torlonia have an only daughter, Donna Teresa,
+whose _débutante_ ball a year ago is said to have been the most
+magnificent entertainment in Rome for fifty years. A writer, in a recent
+article on the nobility of Rome, said of this family:--
+
+ "The Torlonia figure repeatedly in the novels of Thackeray, who
+ was never tired of portraying them. They have been most useful
+ citizens, and since the days of the old army contractor, who
+ founded the house, have augmented the family wealth by judicious
+ investments, especially in connection with the draining and
+ reclaiming of the marsh lands that abound in the former Papal
+ States. They have contracted matrimonial alliances with the
+ Colonna, with the Borghese, the Belmonte, the Doria, and the
+ Sforza."
+
+The Villa Torlonia at Frascati is a very large estate with extensive
+gardens, terraces, and a cascade of three falls on the hillside, which
+is turned on (the water) at pleasure. The house, however, is a
+shabby-looking affair, a two or three story, rambling, yellow structure,
+which, at Newport, would not be considered too good for the gardener.
+
+After the usual fashion of the Italians who seldom travel, the Torlonia,
+wealthy as they are, simply remove from their palace in Rome to their
+villa at Frascati instead of travelling to Switzerland, Germany, or
+elsewhere in the summer.
+
+The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland were the guests of the Torlonia that
+day, the entire party enjoying themselves _al fresco_, and the beautiful
+cascade pouring down within the near distance.
+
+These outlying towns, Frascati, Albano, Castel Gandolfo, and Lago di
+Nemi, the picturesque group in the Alban Mountains, are some sixteen to
+eighteen miles from Rome. These Alban hills rise like an island from the
+vast plain of the Campagna, the highest point being some three thousand
+feet above sea level. They are covered with villages and castles and
+villas, and have in all a population of some fifty thousand. The region
+is volcanic, and the beautiful Lago di Nemi and Lago di Albano were the
+craters of extinct volcanoes. All this region was the haunt of Cicero,
+Virgil, and Livy. At Tusculum, near Frascati, are the remains of
+Cicero's villa, and also of an ancient theatre hewn out of solid rock.
+The view to the west toward Rome is most beautiful. The dome of St.
+Peter's crowns the Eternal City; and the Campagna--a sea of green--is as
+infinite in sight as is the Mediterranean. There are splendid villas and
+estates in these Alban hills that belong to the Roman nobility, and
+here the Pope has his summer palace. "The Alban Mount is also full of
+historical and legendary interest," says a writer on the country around
+Rome. "The Latin tribe, one of the constituent elements of the Roman
+people, had here its seat. Upon the highest peak of the range was the
+temple of Jupiter Latiaris, where all the tribes of Latin blood, the
+Romans included, met every year to worship; and where the victorious
+generals of the Republic repaired to offer praises and acknowledgments.
+In these mountain glens undoubtedly most of that ballad literature of
+Rome, the loss of which Macaulay so eloquently laments and so
+successfully restores, had its origin. Nor need the scholar be reminded
+that this is the scene of the most original and vigorous portions of the
+Æneid of Virgil; nor how the genius of the poet, which rather languidly
+recounts the traditions borrowed from Greece, wakes to new life, when he
+feels his feet upon his own soil and deals with Latin names and Latin
+legends."
+
+The Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati is celebrated for its fantastic
+waterworks in elaborate fountains and cascades. In the gardens a statue
+of Pan with a pipe of reeds and one of a satyr with a trumpet are made
+to play (both the pipe and the trumpet) by water. The hydraulic engineer
+must have found in Frascati his earthly paradise, for he commanded the
+water to leap into foam and spray in the air, to rush down marble
+terraces, and to form itself into obelisks of liquid silver.
+
+At Grotto Ferrata is a vast monastery of monks of the Order of Basilio
+(Greek), a monastery so colossal as to be mistaken for a fortress. The
+chapel has frescoes by Domenichino. At Castel Gandolfo is the summer
+Papal palace, that has not been occupied by a Pope since the
+overthrowing of the temporal power in 1870. It has a beautiful and
+commanding view toward Rome. It was built by Urban VIII.
+
+All the magic of Italy is in this picturesque excursion. In the vast
+grounds of the Villa Barberini are the ruins of the ancient palace and
+gardens of Domitian. On one hillside is a broken wall; a long avenue of
+ilex trees reveals here and there fragments of mosaic pavement.
+Crumbling niches hold fragments of statues. The hill itself is still
+pierced with the long tunnels driven through it by Domitian that he
+might pass unseen,--presumably safe from his enemies,--from the palace
+to the gardens. From the parapet, Rome is seen across the shining
+Campagna and the dome of Michael Angelo gleams against the blue Italian
+sky.
+
+"The wreck is beautiful," writes Mrs. Humphry Ward, in "Eleanor," of
+this romantic spot; "for it is masked in the gloom of the overhanging
+trees; or hidden behind dropping veils of ivy; or lit up by straggling
+patches of broom and cytisus that thrust themselves through the gaps in
+the Roman brickwork and shine golden in the dark. At the foot of the
+wall, along its whole length, runs a low marble conduit that held the
+sweetest, liveliest water. Lilies of the valley grow beside it,
+breathing scent into the shadowed air; while on the outer or garden side
+of the path the grass is purple with long-stalked violets, or pink with
+the sharp heads of the cyclamen. And a little farther, from the same
+grass, there shoots up, in happy neglect, tall camellia trees, ragged
+and laden, strewing the ground red and white beneath them. And above the
+camellias again the famous stone-pines of the villa climb into the high
+air, overlooking the plain and the sea, peering at Rome and Soracte."
+
+One could wander all day in the strange ruins of the old Barberini
+grounds, and in the vast spaces of the gardens and through the Villa
+Doria.
+
+The beauty of the avenue of ilex trees through which we flew from Castel
+Gandolfo to Lago di Nemi surpasses description. This lake, some four
+miles in circumference, lies in a crater hollow, with precipitous hills
+surrounding it, the water so clear that the ancients called it the
+"Mirror of Diana." In it was constructed an artificial island in the
+design of a Roman state barge.
+
+Over the long viaduct at Ariccia we flew; everywhere in the little town
+people, donkeys--an almost indistinguishable mass--filled the narrow
+streets; and thus on to Genzano and the Lago di Nemi, with its fabled
+fleet at the bottom.
+
+The Chigi woods, that fill the deep ravine under the great viaduct at
+Ariccia, were in the most brilliant emerald green. Past these forests
+lay the vast stretch of the Pontine Marshes; and turning toward Rome
+again, the splendor of the sunset flamed in the sky. One could but
+recall Mrs. Humphry Ward's vivid picture of a storm seen over this part
+of the Campagna:--
+
+ "The sunset was rushing to its height through every possible phase
+ of violence and splendor. From the Mediterranean, storm clouds were
+ rising fast to the assault and conquest of the upper sky, which
+ still above the hills shone blue and tranquil. But the northwest
+ wind and the sea were leagued against it. They sent out threatening
+ fingers and long spinning veils of cloud across it--skirmishers
+ that foretold the black and serried lines, the torn and monstrous
+ masses behind. Below these wild tempest shapes again--in long
+ spaces resting on the sea--the heaven was at peace, shining in
+ delicate greens and yellows, infinitely translucent and serene,
+ above the dazzling lines of water. Over Rome itself there was a
+ strange massing and curving of the clouds. Between their blackness
+ and the deep purple of the Campagna rose the city--pale
+ phantom--upholding one great dome, and one only, to view of night
+ and the world. Round and above and behind, beneath the long flat
+ arch of the storm, glowed a furnace of scarlet light. The buildings
+ of the city were faint specks within its fierce intensity, dimly
+ visible through a sea of fire. St. Peter's alone, without visible
+ foundation or support, had consistence, form, identity; and between
+ the city and the hills, waves of blue and purple shade, forerunners
+ of the night, stole over the Campagna towards the higher ground.
+ But the hills themselves were still shining, still clad in rose and
+ amethyst, caught in gentler repetition from the wildness of the
+ west. Pale rose even the olive gardens; rose the rich brown
+ fallows, the emerging farms; while drawn across the Campagna from
+ north to south, as though some mighty brush had just laid it there
+ for sheer lust of color, sheer joy in the mating it with the
+ rose,--one long strip of sharpest, purest green."
+
+The Villa Falconieri, in Frascati, which was built by Cardinal Ruffini,
+with the old ilex tree preserved in the portals, has recently been
+purchased by the Emperor of Germany, who proposes to transform it into
+an Academy for the accommodation of German students in Rome. These
+national academies draw their corresponding numbers of students from the
+nations thus represented, and contribute to the cosmopolitan aspects of
+Rome. The American Academy in Rome is now being transferred from the
+Ludovisi quarter to a large and convenient building outside Porta Pia.
+
+Perhaps the eminently social quality of Roman life may be indirectly due
+to the lack of library privileges which is a conspicuous defect in Rome.
+The Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, under the courteous administration of
+Commendatore Conte Guili, has, it is true, a collection of over half a
+million volumes and thousands of very rare and valuable manuscripts. It
+has a large public reading room, and books are loaned on the signature
+of any embassy or consulate; yet this library, while offering peculiar
+advantages to theological and other special students and readers, does
+not afford any extended privileges to the general reader of modern
+English and American publications. It is located in a grim and
+forbidding old stone palace, approached by an obscure lane from the
+Corso, where, as there is no sidewalk, the pedestrian shares the narrow,
+dark, cold, stone-paved little street with carts, donkeys, peasants,
+and beggars.
+
+The great monument to King Victor Emmanuel, of mingled architecture and
+sculpture, a colossal structure of white marble with arches and pillars
+forming beautiful colonnades, the capital of each column heavily carved,
+and the sculpture, which is being done by a number of artists, will be
+of the most artistic and beautiful order. This memorial will occupy an
+entire block, and it is located very near the Capitol. All the old
+buildings in the vicinity will be torn down to give a fine vista for
+this transcendently noble and sumptuous memorial.
+
+The directors of this work aim to have it completed and ready to be
+unveiled in 1911, the jubilee year of Italy's resurrection as a united
+country.
+
+Encircled by the old Aurelian wall and near the great pyramid that marks
+the tomb of Caius Cestius, who died 12 B.C., lies the Protestant
+cemetery of Rome, full of bloom and fragrance and beauty, under the
+dark, solemn cypress trees that stand like ever-watchful sentinels. When
+Keats was buried here (in 1820), Shelley wrote of "the romantic and
+lovely cemetery ... under the pyramid of Caius Cestius, and the mossy
+walls and towers now mouldering and desolate which formed the circuit of
+ancient Rome. The cemetery is an open space among the ruins, covered
+even in winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with
+death," he added, "to think of being buried in so sweet a place."
+
+ [Illustration: PORTA SAN PAOLA, PYRAMID OF CAIUS CESTIUS, ROME
+ _Page 216_]
+
+In the old cemetery (immediately adjoining the pyramid and separated
+from the new one by a wall) is the grave of Keats (who died in 1821)
+with its unique inscription, "Here lies one whose name was writ in
+water." Beside it is that of his friend, Joseph Severn, who died in
+1829, and near these the grave of John Bell, the famous writer on
+surgery and anatomy. In the new or more modern cemetery the visitor
+lingers by the graves of Shelley and his friend, Trelawney; August
+Goethe (the son of the poet); of William and Mary Howitt, who died in
+1879 and 1888. Not merely, however, do the names of Keats and Shelley
+allure the visitor to poetic meditations; but here lie the earthly forms
+of many a poet, painter, and sculptor of our own country, with their
+wives and children, who have sought in the Eternal City the
+atmosphere for art and who, enamoured by the loveliness of Rome,
+continued there for all their remaining years. These graves, these
+sculptured memorials, are eloquent with the joys, the sorrows, the
+achievements and the failures, the success and the defeat, of the
+artistic life in a foreign land. Many of these memorial sculptures are
+the work of the husband or the father, into which is inseparably joined
+the personal tenderness to the artist's skill. Especially noticeable are
+the graves of the wives of three American sculptors,--William Wetmore
+Story, Richard S. Greenough, and Franklin Simmons. Each of these is
+marked by a memorial sculpture created by the husband, and the three
+different conceptions of these sculptors are interesting to contrast.
+That of Mr. Story is of an angel with outspread wings, kneeling, her
+head bowed in the utter despair and desolation of hopeless sorrow. The
+figure has the greatest delicacy of beauty and refinement and
+tenderness; but it is the grief that has no support of faith, the grief
+that has no vision of divine consolation. On the memorial monument is
+simply the name, Emelyn Story, born in Boston, 1820, died in Rome in
+1898, and the note that it is the last work of W. W. Story, in memory of
+his beloved wife. Here, also, is Mr. Story buried, his name and dates of
+birth and death (1819-1901) alone being inscribed.
+
+At the tomb of Sarah B. Greenough, the wife of Richard S. Greenough, the
+monument is designed to represent Psyche escaping from the bondage of
+mortality. This Psyche is emerging from her garments and she holds in
+her hand a lamp. On this is the inscription: "Her loss was that as of a
+keystone to an arch."
+
+Mrs. Greenough was a very accomplished musician, and she had the unique
+honor of having been made a member of the "Arcadians."
+
+The memorial sculpture over the grave of Mrs. Franklin Simmons is, as
+elsewhere noted, the work of her husband, a figure called "The Angel of
+the Resurrection." The angel is represented as a male figure (Gabriel)
+holding in the left hand a golden trumpet while the right is
+outstretched. His wings are spread, his face partly turned to the right.
+The form is partially draped and in every detail is instinct with a
+complete harmony; every fold of the drapery, every curve of the body,
+and the lofty and triumphant expression of the face in its ineffable
+glory of achievement proclaim the triumph of immortality. It stands on a
+pedestal that gives it, from the base of the pedestal to the tip of the
+outstretched wings, a height of some twenty-one feet. This monument,
+seen against a background of dark cypress trees, speaks the word of
+positive and complete faith in the divine promise of eternal life.
+
+ "Then life is--to wake, not sleep,
+ Rise and not rest, but press
+ From earth's level where blindly creep
+ Things perfected, more or less,
+ In the heaven's height--far and steep."
+
+The visitor lingers over the grave of that interesting painter, J.
+Rollin Tilton, whose landscapes from Egypt and Italian scenes were so
+vivid and picturesque.
+
+Richard Henry Dana, the elder, born in Boston in 1815, came to Rome to
+die in 1882.
+
+Very near the tomb of William Wetmore and Emelyn Story is that of
+Constance Fenimore Woolson. Over the graves of William and Mary Howitt
+is the inscription: "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God,
+believe also in me."
+
+On the wall just back of the new tomb erected over the ashes of Shelley
+by Onslow Ford in 1891 is a memorial tablet placed to Frederick W. H.
+Myers, bearing this inscription:--
+
+ "This tablet is placed to the memory of Frederick William Henry
+ Myers, born at Keswick, Cumberland, Feb. 6, 1843; died in Rome,
+ Jan. 17, 1901. 'He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him long
+ life ever and forever.'"
+
+Over the grave of John Addington Symonds, whose best monument is in his
+admirable History of the Renaissance in Italy, is a Latin inscription
+written by Professor Jowett of Oxford, and a stanza from the Greek of
+Cleanthes, translated by Mr. Symonds as follows:--
+
+ "Lead thou, our God, law, reason, motion, life;
+ All names for Thee alike are vain and hollow;
+ Lead me, for I will follow without strife,
+ Or, if I strive, still more I blindly follow."
+
+John Addington Symonds, who certainly ranks as the most gifted
+interpreter of Italy, in her art, her legends and associations, and her
+landscape loveliness, died in the Rome he so loved in 1893. His wife was
+ill in Venice, but his daughter, Margaret,--his inseparable companion
+and his helper in his work,--was with him. It is Miss Symonds who
+prefaced a memorial volume to her father with the exquisite lines:--
+
+ "O Love; we two shall go no longer
+ To lands of summer beyond the sea."
+
+Near the graves of Keats and of his friend, Joseph Severn, are those of
+Augustus William Hare and John Gibson, the sculptor, who died in 1868.
+Some ten years before Hawthorne, meeting Gibson at a dinner given by T.
+Buchanan Read, wrote of him that it was whispered about the table that
+he had been in Rome for forty-two years and that he had a quiet,
+self-contained aspect as of one who had spent a calm life among his clay
+and marble.
+
+Dwight Benton, an American painter and writer, who was for some time in
+the diplomatic service and whose home had been in Rome for more than a
+quarter of a century, lies buried here. For many years he was the
+editor of _The Roman World_, which still sustains the interesting
+character that marked it during his editorship. Of his work in art a
+friend wrote:--
+
+ "In painting, as in literature, Dwight Benton took his inspiration
+ from nature. His paintings of Italian scenery are true and faithful
+ representations of its character and atmospheric effects. His
+ tramps on the Roman Campagna were long and often tiring, but he
+ worked with all an artist's enthusiasm, unmindful of cold, rain,
+ and even hunger. He would delight, as all true artists, in an old
+ convent, a tree, a tower, a cross, which he would reproduce with a
+ peculiar and striking perfection of tone and color. In his
+ paintings of Keats's and Shelley's tombs, not only are the slabs
+ and marble there, but there, also, in all their naturalness, are
+ the stately pines and cypresses above, with the sunshine and
+ shadows alternating between them, and in the background the
+ turreted top of St. Paul's Gateway, the Pyramid of Caius Cestius,
+ all lending effect and picturesqueness to the whole."
+
+The present King of Italy purchased one of Mr. Benton's paintings,
+called "Giornata di tristezza."
+
+While art abounds in Rome, less can be said for literature. There is a
+large and admirable selected Italian library in connection with the
+Collegio Romano; but while these books circulate, under certain
+conditions, to visitors, and the courtesy of the librarian and his staff
+is generously kind, the location and the Italian methods render it a
+matter of some difficulty to avail one's self of its resources. In the
+Piazza di Spagna there are two circulating libraries, but although one
+of these claims twenty-five thousand volumes, the majority are of
+mediocre fiction and almost none, if any, of the important modern works
+are to be found here. The visitor who is a subscriber to this library
+passes into a small, dark room, where one window looking on the street
+hardly does more than make the darkness visible, and he must take the
+catalogue to the window and stand in order to decipher the list, which
+is hardly, indeed, worth the trouble, as there are very few volumes of
+any pretension to importance in the collection, and of late years no
+additions, apparently, have ever been made. The other circulating
+library, while far preferable, is still in crowded rooms and the
+assortment is limited. The visitor in Rome who cares for reading matter
+looks forward with delight to Florence, with its noble circulating
+library, to which access is so easy and whose conduct in all ways is so
+convenient and grateful to the guest.
+
+In Rome, however, one finds his romance embodied in life and his history
+written in the streets and in the marvellous structures. His poetry is
+in her art, her ruins, her magical loveliness of hillside vistas, her
+infinite views over the Campagna, her sapphire skies, and her luminous,
+golden atmosphere.
+
+
+
+
+ "_Here Ischia smiles
+ O'er liquid miles,
+ And yonder, bluest of the isles,
+ Calm Capri waits
+ Her sapphire gates,
+ Beguiling to her bright estates._"
+
+ "_Oh, Signor! thine the amber hand,
+ And mine the distant sea
+ Obedient to the least command
+ Thine eyes impose on me._"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+DAY-DREAMS IN NAPLES, AMALFI, AND CAPRI
+
+ "With dreamful eyes
+ My spirit lies
+ Where summer sings but never dies."
+
+
+Naples is the paradise of excursions. It is set in the heart of
+incomparable loveliness. Over its sapphire sea one sails away--to the
+Fortunate Isles, or some others equally alluring. Its heights and
+adjacent mountains offer views that one might well cross the ocean to
+enjoy. Its atmosphere is full of classic interest; of song, and story,
+and legend, and romance; of history, too, which in its tragic and
+exciting episodes is not less vivid in color and in strange studies of
+human life than is any romance. Naples is the city of fascination. Rome
+is stately and impressive; Florence is all beauty and enchantment;
+Genoa is picturesque; Venice is a dream city; but Naples is
+simply--fascinating. There is the common life of the streets and the
+populace continually _en scène_; the people who are at home on the sunny
+side in winter, or the shady side in summer; there is the social life of
+the nobility, which is brilliant and vivacious. The excursions, of which
+Naples is the centre, are the chief interest to travellers, and these,
+while possible in winter, are far more enjoyable in the early spring.
+Still even in midwinter the days are sunny, and while the air is crisp
+and cool, it is not cold. The grass is as green as in June; but the
+foliage and flowers are more or less withered. Naples has the high and
+the lower town, the former the more desirable, and the fine hotels
+perched on the terraces, with the view all over the Bay of Naples,
+Capri, Sorrento, and Vesuvius, offer a vista hardly to be duplicated in
+the entire world. The lower town has its fine hotels on the water's
+edge, with a beautiful view over the bay, less enchanting than when seen
+from above. The Bay of Naples is enclosed in two semicircular arms that
+extend far out at sea, the southern reaching nearly to Capri, while near
+the termination of the northern,
+
+ "Fair Ischia smiles
+ O'er liquid miles."
+
+Far out at sea the sun shines dazzlingly on the blue Mediterranean. The
+landscape is full of those curious formations that are always inherent
+in volcanic regions. The region surrounding Naples is abrupt,
+picturesque, with the same irregular outline of hills that characterizes
+the elevations in the Tonto basin in Arizona. The vegetation is of the
+tropical type. The cactus is common, although it grows to no such
+monstrous heights as in Arizona. Orange and lemon groves prevail as far
+as the eye can see. On every height towns and villages crown the crests
+and sweep in winding terraces around the hillsides. Olive orchards
+abound. Castles and ruins gleam white in the sunshine on the ledge of
+rocky precipices. The curved shores shine like broken lines of silver,
+with deep indentations at Naples and at Castellammare. Between these two
+points rises Vesuvius, the thin blue smoke constantly curling from the
+summit that, since the eruption of 1906, has lost much of its elevation.
+In many places there is hardly the width of a roadway between the low
+mountains and the coast, but the cliffs are tropically luxurious in
+vegetation. Everywhere the habitations of the people crowd the space.
+From the monasteries and the castles that crown the heights, both
+distant and near to the clustered villages of the plain and those
+clinging to the hillsides, the scene is one unending panorama of human
+life. For Naples is only the focussing point of these densely populated
+regions of Southern Italy. The city stretches along the coast on both
+sides her semicircular bay; but the terraced hills, the stretches of
+land beyond, and every peak and valley are thickly sown with human
+habitations. Its commanding heights, two of which rise in the middle of
+the town, and its beautiful mirrored expanse of water give to it the
+most unparalleled variety and beauty of landscape loveliness.
+
+"What words can analyze," says George S. Hillard, "the parts and details
+of this matchless panorama, or unravel that magic web of beauty into
+which palaces, villas, forests, gardens, vineyards, the mountains, and
+the sea are woven? What pen can paint the soft curves, the gentle
+undulations, the flowing outlines, the craggy steeps, and the far-seen
+heights, which, in their combination, are so full of grace and, at the
+same time, expression? Words here are imperfect instruments, and must
+yield their place to the pencil and the graver. But no canvas can
+reproduce the light and color which play round this enchanting region.
+No skill can catch the changing hues of the distant mountains, the
+star-points of the playing waves, the films of purple and green which
+spread themselves over the calm waters, the sunsets of gold and orange,
+and the aerial veils of rose and amethyst which drop upon the hills from
+the skies of morning and evening. The author of the book of
+Ecclesiasticus seems to have described Naples, when he speaks of 'the
+pride of the height, the clear firmament, the beauty of heaven, with his
+glorious show.' 'See Naples and then die,' is a well-known Italian
+saying; but it should read, 'See Naples and then live.' One glance at
+such a scene stamps upon the memory an image which, forever after, gives
+a new value to life."
+
+ [Illustration: CASTEL SANT'ELMO, NAPLES
+ _Page 231_]
+
+Naples gives to the visitor the impression of being a city without a
+past. If she has a history, it is not written in her streets. She is
+poetic and picturesque, not historic. The heights of Capodimonte and
+Sant'Elmo divide her into unequal parts, and there is the old Naples
+which only the antiquarian or the political economist would wish to
+see, and the new and modern city which is such a miracle of beauty that
+one longs to stay forever, and fails to wonder that the siren sought
+these shores. Naples has either been very much misrepresented as to its
+prevailing manners and customs, or else it has changed within the past
+decade, for, as a rule, the gentle courtesy and kindness of the people
+are especially appealing. Augustus often sojourned in Naples, and it was
+an especially poetic haunt of Virgil, whose tomb is here. Although the
+poverty and the primitive life of the great masses of the people have
+been widely discussed, it is yet true that Naples has a very charming
+social life, and that the University is a centre of learning and
+culture. One of the oldest universities in Europe, it has a faculty of
+over one hundred and twenty professors and more than five thousand
+students. A large and valuable library, and a mineralogical collection
+which specialists from all over the world come to study, are among the
+treasures of this University, which was founded in the early part of the
+thirteenth century by Emperor Frederick William II. There is now in
+process of erection a new group of buildings which will embody the
+latest laboratory and library and other privileges. Archæology is,
+naturally, a special feature of the University of Naples, and the
+proximity to Pompeii, Herculaneum, and to the wonderful Pompeian
+collection in the Museum of Naples affords peculiar and unrivalled
+advantages to students. A bust of Thomas Aquinas, during his life a
+lecturer at this University, is one of the interesting treasures. The
+Archives of the Kingdom of Naples attract many a scholar and savant to
+this city. There are in this collection (which is kept in the monastery
+adjoining the Church of San Severino) over forty thousand Greek
+manuscripts, some of which date back to the year 700. The Naples Museum
+is the great repository of all Pompeian art, and it is rich in
+sculpture; but it is badly arranged and the vast series of galleries and
+the long flights of stairs make any study of its work so fatiguing that
+a visit to it might rank as one of the seven labors of Hercules.
+
+In the royal museum of the Palazzo di Capodimonte, which is located on
+the beautiful height bearing that name, there are some pictures that are
+well worth visiting, not because they are particularly good art, but
+because of the interest attaching to the subjects. This gallery is
+largely the work of modern Neapolitan artists. Here is the celebrated
+picture of Michael Angelo bending over the dead body of Vittoria
+Colonna, kissing only her hand, and haunted by the after-regret that he
+did not kiss her forehead. Virginia Lebrun has here portraits of Maria
+Theresa and of the Duchess of Parma; there is one canvas (by Celentano)
+showing Benvenuto Cellini at the Castel Sant'Angelo; a scene depicting
+the death of Cæsar and a few others of some degree of interest.
+
+Curiously, Naples has never produced great art. Salvator Rosa was, to be
+sure, a Neapolitan, but his is almost the only name that has made itself
+immortal in the art of this city. Domenico Morelli, who has recently
+died, made himself felt as an original painter with certain claims that
+arrested attention. He is not a draughtsman, but he is a colorist of
+passionate intensity; he has original power and, more than all, he has a
+curious endowment of what may be called artistic clairvoyance.
+Transporting himself by the magic of thought to places on which his eye
+never rested, he yet sees as in vision their special characteristics.
+In one of his most important works, the motive of which is the
+temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, he has painted the desert with a
+startling reality. Here is a great plain, the stony, parched Judean
+plain, with the very feeling of its desolation pervading the atmosphere.
+The Royal Chapel in Naples was decorated by Morelli, the ceiling painted
+with an "Assumption of the Virgin," which stands alone in all the
+interpretations of this theme; not by virtue of superior artistic
+excellence,--on the contrary its art does not make a strong appeal,--but
+by its originality of treatment. The "Salve Regina" and the "Da Scala
+d'Oro" are among the more interesting works of this artist, whose recent
+death has removed a figure of exceptional character in modern art, one
+who had, pre-eminently, the courage of his convictions. Some few years
+ago Morelli's "Temptation of St. Anthony" was exhibited in both Paris
+and Florence, and was generally condemned, perhaps because not wholly
+understood. The form of the temptation was supposed to be the shapes
+taken by a morbid and diseased imagination; but while as a
+psychological conception it was not without value, it was yet far from
+attractive as a work of art. The finest conception, perhaps, ever
+depicted of the temptation of St. Anthony--a subject that has haunted
+many an artist--is that painted by the late Carl Guthers of Washington,
+a lofty and gifted spirit whose too brief stay on earth ended in the
+early months of 1907. In this picture the temptation of the saint
+appears as a vision of all that is purest and sweetest in life,--wife,
+children, home; it was from all this peace and loveliness that St.
+Anthony turned, sacrificing personal happiness to the duty of
+consecrated service to his Master, in the exquisite conception of Mr.
+Guthers. Edoardo Dalbano is the typical leader of the Neapolitan school
+of painting of the present day, and his fascinating picture, called the
+"Isle of Sirens," representing the sirens singing in the sunlit Bay of
+Naples, might well be held as the keynote to all this enchanting region.
+Surely, if the sirens sing not in those blue waters, it were useless to
+search elsewhere for them. Buono is an artist of the Neapolitan shores,
+who paints its fisher-folk; Brancaccio catches the very spirit and
+animated atmosphere of the street scenes of Naples; Campriani and
+Pratello are landscapists of note; Esposito, too, despite his Spanish
+name, is a Neapolitan marine painter whose work is often most arresting
+in its power to catch the flickering sunshine over blue water that
+bathes the rocks rising out of the sea,--these isles of the sirens from
+which float the melodies that enchanted Odysseus.
+
+The traveller may be surprised to find that in size Naples ranks fourth
+on the European Continent,--Paris, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, only,
+exceeding it. Naples should be, not only a port, a pleasure haunt, and a
+paradise for excursions, but one of the great cities of the world in
+commercial and in social importance. It has one of the finest natural
+harbors of the world; it has a beautiful and attractive adjoining
+country in which to extend, indefinitely, its residence and trade
+districts; it has the most enchanting fairyland of views that ever were
+seen this side the ethereal world; it has an atmosphere of song and
+story and a climate that is far from being objectionable. Naples is
+seldom the possessor of a higher temperature in summer than is New York
+or Boston; the winters are mild, and they offer weeks of sunny
+loveliness when Rome is swept by the icy tramontana from the snow-clad
+Alban hills. Naples offers, too, exceedingly good facilities for living;
+the groups of excellent hotels, both on the terraces and on the water's
+edge in the lower town and along the Villa Nazionale, offer every
+comfort, and the politeness and courtesy of the Neapolitans, as a rule,
+are among the alluring features of this enchanting city.
+
+What shall be said of one hotel, especially, perched on the cliffs, to
+which one ascends by an elevator, finding it the most luxurious
+fairyland that imagination can conjure? Leaving the street one walks
+through a marble tunnel lighted with electricity, wondering if he is,
+indeed, in the grotto of the Muses. Entering a "lift" truly American in
+its comfort and speed, he is wafted up the heights and steps out in--is
+it paradise? Here is a large salon entirely of glass with an
+incomparable view all over the gleaming bay, with Capri and Sorrento
+shining fair on the opposite sides and Vesuvius, a purple peak, in the
+near distance. The great city of Naples lies spread out below, with its
+interior heights of Capodimonte and others. It is a view for which alone
+one might well sail the four thousand miles of sea from the American
+shores. Through open French windows one may step out on the terrace. If
+it is cold he may still enjoy this sublimely wonderful view behind the
+glass walls that reveal all its beauty and protect him from wind or
+chill. Elsewhere adjoining salons stretch away, where sunshine, music,
+reading matter, and dainty writing-desks allure the guest and create for
+him, indeed, an earthly paradise.
+
+Of the drive on the Strada Nuova di Posilipo, skirting the coast while
+following the winding rise of the hill, with the sumptuous villas and
+gardens on one side and the blue sea on the other,--what words can
+suggest its charm? On a jutting promontory on the ruins of the Palazzo
+di Donna Ana are seen the palace whose convenient location made it
+possible for the royal hosts to throw their guests into the sea whenever
+they became tiresome, an accommodation that the modern hostess might, at
+times, appreciate. On this road, winding up the Posilipo, is the villa
+where Garibaldi passed the last winter of his life and which is marked
+by a tablet. And everywhere and at every turn are the beautiful views,
+commanding Bagnoli, Camaldoli, Ischia, Baia and Procida, Capri, Nisida
+and the Neapolitan waters. The hill slopes are overgrown with myrtles
+and orange trees and roses. Here and there a defile is filled with a
+vineyard under careful culture.
+
+In the presence of all this marvel of nature's loveliness the visitor
+hardly remembers the historic interest; yet it was on the little island
+of Nisida that Brutus and Cassius concocted the conspiracy against
+Cæsar. The vast Phlegræan Plain before the eye is invested with Hellenic
+traditions and is the region of many scenes in the poems of Virgil and
+Homer. In the years of the first and second centuries this plain was
+dotted with the rich villas of the Roman aristocracy. Here, too, lay the
+celebrated Lacus Avernus, a volcanic lake which the ancients regarded as
+the entrance to Avernus itself. Truly it required little imagination to
+see here the approach to the infernal regions. The air was so poisonous
+that no bird could fly over the lake and live. Virgil's scene of the
+descent of Æneas, guided by the sibyl, into the infernal depths is laid
+here; and near this lake are resorts of the latter-day tourist, known
+as the "Sibyl's Grotto," the "Grotto della Pace," the "Bagni di Sibyl,"
+and the "Inferno."
+
+ [Illustration: ANCIENT TEMPLE, BAIÆ
+ _Page 241_]
+
+Baia, on the coast, was the Newport of Rome in the days of Augustus,
+Hadrian, Cicero, and Nero. It was then the most magnificent summer
+watering-place known to the world. The glory of the Roman Empire was
+reflected in the glory of Baia. In one of the Epistles of Horace a Roman
+noble is made to say: "Nothing in the world can be compared with the
+lovely bay of Baia." Some five hundred years ago this region became so
+malarial that no one could dwell in it. Fragments and ruins still remain
+of the imposing baths and villas of the Roman occupancy. An old crater
+called the Capo Miseno is described by Virgil as the burial place of
+Misenus:--
+
+ "_At pius Æneas ingenti mole sepulcrum
+ Inponit, suaque arma viro remumque tubamque
+ Monte sub aereo, qui nunc Misenus ab illo
+ Dicitur aeternumque tenet per saecula nomen._"
+
+Cumæ was the most ancient Greek colony of Italy on the coast, and the
+last survivors of the Tarquinii died here. This is the most classic of
+all these legendary coast towns near Naples, as it was here that the
+Cumæan Sibyl dwelt with the mysterious sibylline leaves,--the books that
+were carried to Rome. A colossal Acropolis was once here, fragments of
+whose walls are now standing; and the rocky foundation is honeycombed
+with secret passages and openings. It is here that Virgil's "Grotto of
+the Sibyl" is supposed to have stood,--the grotto "whence resound as
+many voices, the oracles of the prophetess."
+
+The journey from Naples to Herculaneum is easily made by electric train
+cars within an hour, and while there is not much to see it is still an
+excursion well worth making. Dr. de Petra, of the chair of Archæology in
+the University of Naples, and formerly the Director of the National
+Museum, is warmly in favor of the proposed excavation of this buried
+city, as is Professor Spinazzola of the San Martino museum, who believes
+that Italy may well become one vast museum of antiquities. "As the
+theatre of Herculaneum is actually at present a subterranean
+excavation," he observed, "why not excavate in a similar way the entire
+city underneath modern Resina? In this way a perfectly unique
+underground museum would be formed, which would have the merit of
+leaving magnificent Roman art treasures exactly in their proper places
+in the villas. Such a work ought to be perfectly practicable, with the
+resources of modern engineering, and would certainly be unique in the
+world.
+
+"There would be no need to build a special museum for the objects
+discovered. Not only would this money be saved, but I feel convinced
+that so many visitors would be attracted as to more than pay for the
+maintenance. A subterraneous Herculaneum--surely a perfectly unique
+place of pilgrimage, just as it was nearly two thousand years ago--might
+be lighted by electric arc lights. I feel certain it would attract
+sight-seers from the ends of the world. At the same time work might go
+on in the open parts of the city.
+
+"Pompeii was more of an industrial town, while Herculaneum was a
+favorite resort of the Roman patricians, who did not bring their
+treasures with them from their northern homes, but had them executed by
+Greek artists in the south."
+
+Under the mighty floods of _lava d'acqua_ that buried Herculaneum
+doubtless lie temples, a splendid forum, magnificent villas, and most
+valuable art and literary treasures. In the eighteenth century
+excavations brought to light rare bronzes, mosaics, and papyri. The
+famous equestrian statue of Balbo, in the Naples Museum, was excavated
+from Herculaneum. Professor Lanciani and Commendatore Boni of Rome--the
+latter the present director of the Forum, succeeding Lanciani--believe
+that some of the richest art of ancient times may be found in
+Herculaneum; as does Professor Dall'Osso, inspector of excavations at
+Pompeii.
+
+Herculaneum is held to have been founded by Hercules when he landed at
+Campania, returning from Iberia, some three hundred years B.C., and it
+was in 63 A.D. that it was destroyed. Of this cataclysm Pliny, the
+Younger, wrote:--
+
+ "The sea seemed to roll back on itself by the convulsions of the
+ earth. On the other side hung a black and dreadful cloud, bursting
+ with fiery and serpentine vapors. Naught was heard in the darkness
+ but the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the frenzied
+ cries of men calling for children, for wives, for parents,--all
+ lifting hands to the gods, praying and wishing for death."
+
+Dr. Charles Waldstein of Cambridge University, the eminent archæologist,
+whose efforts toward initiating the excavation of Herculaneum were a
+notable event of 1906, thus writes of this buried city:--
+
+ "It is important to bear in mind that naturally all the best works
+ in the Museum of Naples, especially the bronzes, came from
+ Herculaneum and not from Pompeii.
+
+ "What is most striking is the marvellous preservation of these
+ works. This fact of itself ought to counteract the strange but
+ widespread misapprehension that, while Pompeii was covered with
+ cinders and ashes, Herculaneum was covered with lava, and that the
+ hardness of that material made excavation difficult, if not
+ impossible. All geologists and archæologists are agreed that no
+ lava issued from the eruption of 79 A.D. Herculaneum was covered by
+ a torrent of mud consisting of ashes and cinders mixed with water.
+ The mass which covers it, so far from being less favorable to the
+ preservation of objects, is much more favorable than that which
+ covers Pompeii. Pompeii was partially covered with hot ashes and
+ pumice stones, which burnt or damaged the works of art. As it was
+ not wholly covered, moreover, the inhabitants returned and dug up
+ some of their greatest treasures. Herculaneum, on the other hand,
+ had its actual life, arrested at the highest point, securely
+ preserved from depredation, to a depth of eighty feet, by a
+ material which preserved intact the most delicate specimens which
+ have come down to us in a state so perfect as to be really
+ remarkable.
+
+ "The most important of these delicate objects are manuscripts, of
+ which that one villa produced 1750. The state of preservation is
+ illustrated by one specimen, giving two pages from the works of the
+ philosopher Philademus. Unfortunately, the possessor of the villa
+ was a specialist, a student of Epicurean philosophy. While his
+ taste in art was fortunately so catholic, his taste in literature
+ was narrowed down by his special bent. Piso was the friend and
+ protector of the philosopher Philo. Already sixty-five copies of
+ that author's works have been found among the papyri.
+
+ "Yet the city of Herculaneum contained many such villas, and herein
+ it differed from Pompeii. Pompeii was a commonplace provincial town
+ devoted exclusively to commerce; it was not the resort of wealthy
+ and cultured Romans. It was essentially illiterate. No manuscript
+ can be proved to have been found there. It is true a wax tablet
+ with writing has been found; yet this contains--receipts of
+ auctions. Herculaneum, on the other hand, was the favorite resort
+ of wealthy Romans, who built beautiful villas there as in our times
+ people from modern Rome settle for the summer at Sorrento and
+ Castellammare."
+
+The present descent into the theatre of Herculaneum is made by a flight
+of more than a hundred steps, slippery and cold, in total darkness save
+for the candle that is carried by the guide, and the visitor sees only
+the stone seats of the amphitheatre and the stage with the two vacant
+niches, the statues that filled each being now placed in the Museum in
+Naples.
+
+The journey of thirteen miles from Naples to Pompeii is through a
+succession of densely populated villages that seem to be an integral
+part of Naples itself, for there is no line of demarcation. Portici,
+Torre del Greco, Torre dell'Annunziata, and others all blend with each
+other and with Naples. However familiar one has become with the
+literature of Pompeii, with both archæological descriptions and
+imaginative interpretations in romance, and however familiar with its
+aspects he may have become from replicas in art museums, and from
+pictures, one can yet hardly approach this silent, phantom city without
+being thrilled by its deep significance. At a distance of a few miles
+over the gently undulating plain rises Vesuvius; one gazes on the paths
+where the rivers of molten fire must have rolled down. George S.
+Hillard, visiting Pompeii in 1853, thus described a house which the
+visitors of to-day study and admire:--
+
+ "The finest house we saw within the walls is one which had been
+ discovered and laid bare about four months previous to the date of
+ our visit, called the house of the Suonatrice, from a painting of a
+ female playing on a pipe, at the entrance. This house was deemed of
+ such peculiar interest that it was under the charge of a special
+ custode, and was only to be seen on payment of an extra fee. It was
+ not of large size, but had evidently been occupied by a person of
+ ample fortune and exquisite taste. The paintings on the walls were
+ numerous, and in the most perfect preservation. In the rear was a
+ minute garden not more than twenty or thirty feet square, with a
+ fairy fountain in the centre; around which were several small
+ statues of children and animals, of white marble, wrought with
+ considerable skill. The whole thing had a very curious effect, like
+ the tasteful baby-house of a grown-up child. Everything in this
+ house was in the most wonderful preservation. The metal pipes which
+ distributed the water, and the cocks by which it was let off,
+ looked perfectly suited for use. Nothing at Pompeii seemed so real
+ as this house, and nowhere else were the embellishments so numerous
+ and so costly.
+
+ "Pompeii, though a Roman city in its political relations, was
+ everywhere strongly marked with the impress of the Greek mind. It
+ stood on the northern edge of that part of Italy which, from the
+ number of Grecian colonies it contained, was called Magna
+ Græcia,--a region of enchanting beauty, in which the genius of
+ Greece attained its most luxurious development. It has been
+ conjectured that Pompeii had an unusually large proportion of men
+ of property, who had been drawn there by the charms of its
+ situation and climate, and that it thus extended a liberal
+ patronage to Greek architects, painters, and sculptors. At any
+ rate, the spirit of Greece still lives and breathes in its ashes.
+ Its temples, as restored by modern architects, are Greek. Its works
+ in marble and bronze claim a place in that cyclus of art of which
+ the metopes of the Parthenon are the highest point of excellence.
+ The pictures that embellish the walls, the unzoned nymphs, the
+ bounding Bacchantes, the grotesque Fauns, the playful arabesques,
+ all are informed with the airy and creative spirit of Greek art.
+
+ "The ruins of Pompeii are not merely an open-air museum of
+ curiosities, but they have great value in the illustration they
+ offer to Roman history and Roman literature. The antiquarian of our
+ times studies the great realm of the past with incomparable
+ advantage, by the help of the torch here lighted."
+
+From Pompeii to Castellammare, the beautiful seaside summer resort of
+the Neapolitans, "a lover of nature could hardly find a spot of more
+varied attractions. Before him spreads the unrivalled bay,--dotted with
+sails and unfolding a broad canvas, on which the most glowing colors and
+the most vivid lights are dashed,--a mirror in which the crimson and
+gold of morning, the blue of noon, and the orange and yellow-green of
+sunset behold a livelier image of themselves,--a gentle and tideless
+sea, whose waves break upon the shore like caresses, and never like
+angry blows. Should he ever become weary of waves and languish for
+woods, he has only to turn his back upon the sea and climb the hills for
+an hour or two, and he will find himself in the depth of sylvan and
+mountain solitudes,--in a region of vines, running streams,
+deep-shadowed valleys, and broad-armed oaks,--where he will hear the
+ringdove coo, and see the sensitive hare dart across the forest aisles.
+A great city is within an hour's reach; and the shadow of Vesuvius hangs
+over the landscape, keeping the imagination awake by touches of mystery
+and terror."
+
+The road to Sorrento, on a cliff a hundred feet or more above the sea,
+with mountains on the other side, towering up hundreds of feet high; a
+road cut in many places out of the solid rock, supported by galleries
+and viaducts from below,--a road that crosses deep gorges and chasms,
+always with the iridescent colors of the sea below,--and from Sorrento
+to Amalfi again, only, if possible, even more wonderful,--is there in
+the world any drive that can rival this picturesque and sublime route?
+Of it George Eliot wrote:--
+
+ "It is an unspeakably grand drive round the mighty rocks with the
+ sea below; and Amalfi itself surpasses all imagination of a
+ romantic site for a city that once made itself famous in the
+ world."
+
+Sorrento, with its memories and associations of Tasso, seems a place in
+which one cares only to sit on the balcony of the hotel overhanging the
+sea and watch the magic spectacle of a panorama unrivalled in all the
+beauty of the world. Flowers grow in riotous profusion; the fairy sail
+of a flitting boat is caught in the deepening dusk; the dark outline of
+Vesuvius is seen against the horizon; and orange orchards gleam against
+gray walls. Here Tasso was born, in 1544, fit haunt for a poet, with
+tangles of gay blossoms and the aerial line of mountain peaks. A low
+parapet borders the precipice, and over it one leans in the air heavy
+with perfume of locust blossoms. Has the lovely town anything beside
+sunsets and stars and poets' dreams? Who could ask for more?
+
+To La Cava,--to Amalfi,--still all a dream world!
+
+ "O summer day, beside the joyous sea!
+ O summer day so wonderful and white,
+ So full of gladness and so full of pain!"
+
+How Amalfi sets itself to song and music! Who can enter it without
+hearing in the air Longfellow's beautiful lines?--
+
+ "Sweet the memory is to me
+ Of a land beyond the sea,
+ Where the waves and mountains meet,
+ Where, amid her mulberry-trees,
+ Sits Amalfi in the heat,
+ Bathing ever her white feet
+ In the tideless summer seas.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ 'Tis a stairway, not a street,
+ That ascends the deep ravine,
+ Where the torrent leaps between
+ Rocky walls that almost meet.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ This is an enchanted land!
+ Round the headlands, far away,
+ Sweeps the blue Salernian bay
+ With its sickle of white sand;
+ Further still and furthermost
+ On the dim discovered coast,
+ Pæstum with its ruins lies,
+ And its roses all in bloom."
+
+If ever a region was dropped out of paradise designed, solely, for a
+poet's day-dreams, it is Amalfi, and the even more beautiful Ravello
+just above. One fancies that it must have been in the mystic loveliness
+of this eyrie that the poet lost himself in a day-dream while Jupiter
+was dividing all the goods of the world. When he reproached the god for
+not saving a portion for him, Jupiter replied that all the goods were
+gone, it was true, but that his heaven was always open to the poet.
+
+The ancient Amalfi, the city of activities and merchandise, is gone.
+
+ "Where are now the freighted barks
+ From the marts of east and west?
+ Where the knights in iron sarks
+ Journeying to the Holy Land,
+ Glove of steel upon the hand,
+ Cross of crimson on the breast?
+ Where the pomp of camp and court?
+ Where the pilgrims with their prayers?
+ Where the merchants with their wares?
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Vanished like a fleet of cloud,
+ Like a passing trumpet-blast,
+ Are those splendors of the past,
+ And the commerce and the crowd!
+ Fathoms deep beneath the seas
+ Lie the ancient warves and quays,
+ Swallowed by the engulfing waves."
+
+It is impossible to realize that Amalfi was once a flourishing city of
+Oriental trade. One looks in vain for any trace of ruin or shrine that
+still suggests the ancient splendors of activity. The strata of the
+past, so visible in other mediæval cities, are not apparent here. The
+great cathedral is a most interesting study in the art of
+architecture,--its exquisite arcades, its delicate, lofty campanile
+glittering in the sun. The green-roofed cupola is a distinctive feature,
+and up the many flights of stairs the old Capuccini convent lies,--the
+unique, romantic hotel where the cells of the monks are now the rooms of
+the perpetual procession of guests. Does the wraith of Cardinal
+Capuano, who founded this convent, still wander in midnight hours
+through the dim cloisters? Does he still keep watch by the body of St.
+Andrew, the apostle, which he is said to have found and brought to the
+cathedral where the saint lies, as a saint should lie, gloriously
+entombed. St. Andrew was the patron saint of Amalfi, but at his death
+his body was carried from Patras to the Bosphorus, where it was placed
+in a church in Constantinople. The legend runs that Cardinal Capuano,
+being in Constantinople, entered the Church of the Holy Apostles to
+pray, and knowing that the body of the saint was in that city, he
+besought the heavenly powers to guide him to it. Rising from his
+devotions he was approached by an aged priest, who announced to the
+Cardinal that the object of his search was in that very church in which
+he was praying for guidance; and, aided by unseen powers, he was able to
+recover it and convey it to Amalfi. All Italian towns that respect
+themselves offer the allurement of an entombed saint and if,
+occasionally, the same identical saint does duty for more than one city,
+who is to decide the local genuineness of the claim? Nothing in all
+Italy is so curious as is this town of staircases instead of streets; of
+houses perched on the angles of impossible eyries suggesting that, as
+the Venetians go about in gondolas, so the Amalfians must have airships,
+or the wings of Icarus, with which to circle in air from their dwellings
+to the beach.
+
+The precipitous gorges and dark ravines have on their crests low
+parapets of stone walls over which the visitor lingers and leans
+watching the bluest of seas lying fair under the bluest of skies. The
+main road,--there is only one,--descending from the hill to the water's
+edge, makes its progress through a tunnel.
+
+The old Amalfi, with its palaces, its arches and colonnades, lies under
+the sea. Just as the Pensione Caterina with its rose walks and terraces
+slipped into the sea in December of 1899, when two guests and several
+fishermen lost their lives, so the ancient Amalfi fell, its cliffs
+swallowed up in the waters below.
+
+ "Hidden from all mortal eyes,
+ Deep the sunken city lies;
+ Silent streets and vacant halls,
+ Ruined roofs and towers and walls;
+ Even cities have their graves!"
+
+When, on a May evening, the white moonlight falls in cascades of silver
+sheen over terraces and sea, with Amalfi all alabaster and pearl like a
+dream city in the ethereal air; when the stars hang low in the skies and
+the fairy lights of the fishermen's boats twinkle far out at sea; when
+the summer silence is suddenly thrilled by the melody of Neapolitan
+songs on the air, as if it were a veritable _chant d'amour_ of
+sirens,--then does one believe in the buried city. These rich baritone
+voices are surely those of some singers of the buried ages. They are
+floating across the centuries since Amalfi had its pride and place among
+the great centres of activity. Atrani, Amalfi's twin city, lies in the
+adjoining defile of the mountains which arch above them. The strange old
+houses are all dazzlingly white, transfigured under the moon to an
+unearthly loveliness.
+
+The tragedy of the ruin of Amalfi is related by Petrarca, who was then
+living in Naples. It was in 1343 that a terrible cataclysm--an
+earthquake accompanied by a tempest--caused the destruction and the
+submergence of the city in the sea.
+
+The believers in astrology will find their faith re-enforced by the fact
+that a bishop, who was also an astrologist, had read in the stars that
+in December of 1343 a terrible disaster would occur on the Naples coast.
+It arrived on schedule time. Petrarca, writing of it to Giovanni
+Colonna, states that in consequence of the prediction of the bishop, the
+people were in a condition of wild terror, endeavoring to repent of
+their sins and aspiring to a purer moral life. In this tide of religious
+emotion, ordinary occupations were neglected. On the very day of the
+calamity people were crowding the churches and kneeling in prayer. At
+night, after the people were in bed, the shock came. The sunset had been
+fair, the evening quiet, and the people were reassured. But they were
+awakened from sleep by the violence of falling walls and the terror of
+the tempest. Petrarcha was lodging in a convent, and he heard the monks
+calling to one another as they rushed from cell to cell. They hastily
+gathered crosses and sacred relics in their hands, and, preceded by the
+prior, sought the chapel, where they passed the night in prayer while
+the tempest raged outside. The sea broke against the rocks with a fury
+that seemed to tear the very foundations of the earth. The thunder
+pealed, and mingled with it were the shrieks of the frightened
+populace. The rain fell in torrents, deluging the city as if the sea
+itself were pouring on it. When the morning came the darkness still
+continued. In the harbor broken ships crashed helplessly together. The
+sands were strewn with mutilated dead bodies. Between Capri and the
+shore the sea ran mountains high. Amalfi was completely destroyed, and
+has never regained her prestige.
+
+The cathedral at Ravello has traces of the rich art it once enshrined,
+and the rose gardens of the Palazzo Rufolo might enchant Hafiz himself.
+The terrace on the very crest of the mountain commands one of the
+wonderful views of the world. The cloistered colonnades of this old
+Saracenic palace reveal views even to the plains of Pæstum. There are
+rare mosaics and fragments of bronzes and marbles yet remaining.
+
+The noble Greek ruins at Pæstum--the three temples--stand in all the
+majesty of utter desolation. They are overgrown with flowers, however,
+and they stand "dewy in the light of the rising dawn-star."
+
+ "The shrine is ruined now, and far away
+ To east and west stretch olive groves, whose shade,
+ Even at the height of summer noon, is gray.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "Yet this was once a hero's temple, crowned
+ With myrtle boughs by lovers, and with palm
+ By wrestlers, resonant with sweetest sound
+ Of flute and fife in summer evening's calm,
+ And odorous with incense all the year,
+ With nard and spice and galbanum and balm."
+
+The detour to Pæstum is full of significance. The massive columns of the
+temples stand like giants of the ages. "It is difficult," writes John
+Addington Symonds, "not to return again and again to the beauty of
+coloring at Pæstum. Lying basking in the sun on a flat slab of stone,
+and gazing eastward, we overlook a foreground of dappled light and
+shadow; then come two stationary columns built, it seems, of solid gold,
+where the sunbeams strike along their russet surface. Between them lies
+the landscape, a medley first of brakefern and asphodel and feathering
+acanthus and blue spikes; while beyond and above is a glimpse of
+mountains, purple almost to indigo with cloud shadows, and flecked with
+snow."
+
+The sail from Amalfi to Pæstum is one incomparable in loveliness. The
+sunshine is all lurid gold. The faint, transparent blue haze fills all
+the defiles of the mountains; the cliffs disclose yawning caverns where
+vast clusters of stalactites hang; and as the boat floats toward Capri
+from the Sorrento promontory its rocky headlands rise and flame into
+purple and rose against the glowing sky. Across the Bay of Naples rises
+the great city. It stands in some subtle way reminding one of the scene
+where one
+
+ "... rowing hard against the stream,
+ Saw distant gates of Eden gleam."
+
+Capri is the idyllic island of prismatic light and shade, of gay and
+joyous life. Here Tiberius had his summer palace, and it was from these
+shores that he sent the historic letter which revolutionized the life of
+Sejanus. The letter--_verbosa et grandis epistola_--is still vivid in
+the historic associations of Rome. Capri is one of the favorite resorts
+both for winter and summer. Its former modest prices are now greatly
+increased, like all the latter-day expenses of Italy; but its beauty is
+perennial, and the artist and poet can still command there a seclusion
+almost impossible to secure elsewhere in Italy. The distinguished
+artist, Elihu Vedder of Rome, has a country house on Capri, and another
+well-known artist, Charles Caryl Coleman, makes this island his home.
+There are days--sometimes several days in succession--that the sea is
+high and the boats cannot run between Naples, Sorrento, and Capri; and
+the enforced seclusion is still the seclusion of the poet's dream. For
+he shares it with Mithras, the "unconquered god of the sun," whose cult
+influenced all the monarchs of Europe and who holds his court in the
+Grotto de Matrimonia. Into this grotto one descends by a flight of
+nearly two hundred feet; he strolls among the ruins of the villa of
+Tiberius, where the very air is still vital and vocal with those strange
+and tragic chapters of Roman life. The Emperor Augustus first founded
+here palaces and aqueducts. Tiberius, who retired to Capri in the year
+27 A.D., had his architects build twelve villas, in honor of the gods,
+the largest of these being for Jupiter and known as the Villa Jovis. In
+31 A.D. occurred that dramatic episode in Roman history, the fall of
+Sejanus, and six years later Tiberius died. The vast white marble baths
+he had built for him are now submerged on the coast, and boats glide
+over the spot where they stood. The Villa Jovis stood on a cliff seven
+hundred feet above the sea, and the traditions of the barbarities and
+atrocities that took place there still haunt the island. The natives
+apparently regard them as a certain title to fame, but the wise tourists
+persistently ignore horrors; life is made for joy, sweetness, and charm;
+it is far wiser to think on these things.
+
+And there is charm and joy to spare on lovely Capri. "Sea-mists are
+frequent in the early summer mornings, swathing the cliffs of Capri and
+brooding on the smooth water till the day wind rises," says John
+Addington Symonds. "Then they disappear like magic, rolling in
+smoke-wreaths from the surface of the sea, condensing into clouds and
+climbing the hills like Oceanides in quest of Prometheus, or taking
+their station on the watch towers of the world as in the chorus of the
+Nephelai. Such a morning may be chosen for the _giro_ of the island. The
+Blue Grotto loses nothing of its beauty, but rather gains by contrast,
+when passing from dense fog you find yourself transported to a world of
+wavering subaqueous sheen. It is only through the very topmost arch that
+a boat can glide into this cavern; the arch itself spreads downward
+through the water so that all the light is transmitted from beneath and
+colored by the sea. Outside the magic world of pantomime there is
+nothing to equal these effects of blue and silver.... Numberless are the
+caves at Capri. The so-called Green Grotto has the beauty of moss agate
+in its liquid floor; the Red Grotto shows a warmer chord of color; and
+where there is no other charm to notice, endless beauty may be found in
+the play of sunlight upon roofs of limestone, tinted with yellow,
+orange, and pale pink, mossed over, hung with fern, and catching tones
+of blue or green from the still deeps beneath.... After a day upon the
+water it is pleasant to rest at sunset in the loggia above the sea. The
+Bay of Naples stretches far and wide in front, beautiful by reason of
+the long fine line descending from Vesuvius, dipping almost to a level,
+and then gliding up to join the highlands of the north. Now sun and moon
+begin to mingle: waning and waxing splendors. The cliffs above our heads
+are still blushing like the heart of some tea-rose; when lo, the touch
+of the huntress is laid upon those eastern pinnacles, and the horizon
+glimmers with her rising. Was it on such a night that Ferdinand of
+Aragon fled from his capital before the French, with eyes turned ever to
+the land he loved, chanting, as he leaned from his galley's stern, that
+melancholy psalm, 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh
+but in vain,' and seeing Naples dwindle to a white blot on the purple
+shore?"
+
+The roses of Capri would form a chapter alone. What walks there are
+where the air is all fragrance of acacia and rose and orange blossoms!
+Cascades of roses in riotous luxuriance festoon the old gray stone
+walls; the pale pink of the early dawn or of a shell by the seashore,
+the amber of the Banskeia rose, the great golden masses of the Maréchal
+Niel, their faint yellow gleaming against the deep green leaves of
+myrtle and frond. The intense glowing scarlet of the gladiolus flames
+from rocks and roadside, and rosemary and the purple stars of hyacinths
+garland the ways, until one feels like journeying only in his singing
+robes. The deep, solemn green of stone pines forms canopies under the
+sapphire skies, and through their trunks one gazes on the sapphire sea.
+Is Capri the isle of Epipsychidion?
+
+ "Is there now any one that knows
+ What a world of mystery lies deep down in the heart of a rose?"
+
+One walks among these rose-lined lanes, hearing in the very air that
+exquisite lyric by Louise Chandler Moulton:--
+
+ "Roses that briefly live,
+ Joy is your dower;
+ Blest be the Fates that give
+ One perfect hour.
+ And, though too soon you die,
+ In your dust glows
+ Something the passer-by
+ Knows was a Rose."
+
+Monte Cassino is one of the most interesting inland points in Southern
+Italy,--the monastery lying on the crest of a hill nearly two thousand
+feet above the sea. Dante alludes to this in his Paradiso (XXII,
+XXXVII), and in the prose translation made by that eminent Dantean
+scholar, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, this assurance of Beatrice to
+Dante is thus rendered:--
+
+ "That mountain on whose slope Cassino is, was of old frequented on
+ its summit by the deluded and ill-disposed people, and I am he who
+ first carried up thither the name of Him who brought to earth the
+ truth which so high exalts us; and such grace shone upon me that I
+ drew away the surrounding villages from the impious worship which
+ seduced the world. Those other fires were all contemplative men,
+ kindled by that heat which brings to birth holy flowers and fruits.
+ Here is Macarius, here is Romuald, here are my brothers, who within
+ the cloisters fixed their feet, and held a steadfast heart. And I
+ to him, 'The affection which thou displayest in speaking with me,
+ and the good semblance which I see and note in all your ardors,
+ have so expanded my confidence as the sun does the rose, when she
+ becomes open so much as she has power to be. Therefore I pray thee,
+ and do thou, father, assure me if I have power to receive so much
+ grace, that I may see thee with uncovered shape.' Whereon he,
+ 'Brother, thy high desire shall be fulfilled in the last sphere,
+ where are fulfilled all others and my own. There perfect, mature,
+ and whole is every desire; in that alone is every part there where
+ it always was: for it is not in space, and hath not poles; and our
+ stairway reaches up to it, wherefore thus from thy sight it
+ conceals itself. Far up as there the patriarch Jacob saw it stretch
+ its topmost part when it appeared to him so laden with Angels. But
+ now no one lifts his feet from earth to ascend it; and my rule is
+ remaining as waste of paper. The walls, which used to be an abbey,
+ have become caves; and the cowls are sacks full of bad meal. But
+ heavy usury is not gathered in so greatly against the pleasure of
+ God, as that fruit which makes the heart of monks so foolish. For
+ whatsoever the Church guards is all for the folk that ask it in
+ God's name, not for one's kindred, or for another more vile. The
+ flesh of mortals is so soft that a good beginning suffices not
+ below from the springing of the oak to the forming of the acorn.
+ Peter began without gold and without silver, and I with prayers and
+ with fasting, and Francis in humility his convent; and if thou
+ lookest at the source of each, and then lookest again whither it
+ has run, thou wilt see dark made of the white. Truly, Jordan turned
+ back, and the sea fleeing when God willed, were more marvellous to
+ behold than succor here."
+
+Dante adds that the company "like a whirlwind gathered itself upward,"
+and that "the sweet lady urged me behind them, with only a sign, up over
+that stairway; so did her virtue overcome my nature. But never here
+below, where one mounts and descends naturally, was there motion so
+rapid that it could be compared unto my wing."
+
+The time was when Dante and Beatrice met, and he "was standing as one
+who within himself represses the point of his desire, and attempts not
+to ask, he so fears the too-much." And then he heard: "If thou couldst
+see, as I do, the charity which burns among us thy thoughts would be
+expressed. But that thou through waiting mayst not delay thy high end, I
+will make answer to thee, even to the thought concerning which thou art
+so regardful."
+
+The vast monastery of Monte Cassino, lying on the crest of a hill nearly
+two thousand feet above the sea, has one of the most magnificent
+locations in all Italy. This monastery was founded (in 529 A.D.) by St.
+Benedict, on the site of an ancient temple to Apollo. Dante alludes to
+this also in the Paradiso (Canto XX, 11). As seen from below this
+monastery has the appearance of a vast castle, or fortress. Its
+location is one of the most magnificent in all Italy. The old entrance
+was a curious passage cut through solid rock and it is still used for
+princes and cardinals--no lesser dignitaries being allowed to pass
+through it--and within the past thirty years a new entrance has been
+constructed. In the passageway of the mediæval entrance St. Benedict is
+said to have had his cell, and of recent years the German Benedictines,
+believing they had located the original cell, had it located, restored,
+and decorated with Egyptian frescoes. Several of the courts of this
+convent are connected by beautiful arcades with lofty arches, and
+adorned with statues, among which are those of St. Benedict and his
+sister, St. Scholastica. Still farther up the hill, upon the monastery,
+stands the church which is built on the site of the ancient one that was
+erected by St. Benedict himself--this present edifice dating back to
+1637. Above the portals there is a long inscription in Latin relating
+the history of the monastery and the church. These portals are solid
+bronze, beautifully carved, with inlaid tablets of silver on which are
+inscribed a list of all the treasures of the abbey in the year 1006. The
+church is very rich in interior decoration of mosaics, rare marbles,
+and wonderful monumental memorials. Either side of the high altar are
+monuments to the Prince of Mignano (Guidone Fieramosca) and also to
+Piero de Medico. Both St. Benedict and his sister, St. Scholastica, are
+entombed under the high altar, which is one of the most elaborately
+sculptured in all the churches of Italy.
+
+Among the pictorial decorations of this church are a series of fresco
+paintings by Luca Giordano, painted in the seventeenth century,
+representing the miracles wrought by St. Benedict. In the refectory is
+the "Miracle of the Loaves," by Bassano; and in the chapel below are
+paintings by Mazzaroppi and Marco da Siena. Nothing can exceed the
+richness and beauty of the carvings of the choir stalls. These were
+executed in the seventeenth century by Coliccio.
+
+The library of this monastery is renowned all over Europe--indeed, it is
+famous all over the world--for its preservation of ancient manuscripts
+done by the monks. These are carefully treasured in the archives. Among
+them is the record of a vision that came to the monk Alferic, in the
+twelfth century, on which it is believed that Dante founded his
+immortal "Divina Commedia;" there is also a fourteenth-century edition
+of Dante with margined notes; and the Commentary of Origen (on the
+Epistle to the Romans), dating back to the sixteenth century; there is
+the complete series of Papal bulls that were sent to the monastery of
+Monte Cassino from the eleventh century to the present time, many of
+them being richly illuminated and decorated with curiously elaborate
+seals. There is an autograph letter of the Sultan Mohammed II to Pope
+Nicholas IV, with the Pope's reply,--the theme of the correspondence
+being the Pope's threat of war. The imperial Mohammed seems to have been
+in terror of this, and in his epistle he expresses his willingness, and,
+indeed, his intention, to be converted as soon as he shall visit Rome!
+Apparently the Holy Father of that day laid little stress on the
+sincerity of this offer on the part of the Sultan. Here, too, is a
+wonderful correspondence between Don Erasmo Gattola, the historian of
+the abbey, and a great number of the celebrated men of his time; and
+there are hundreds of other letters, manuscripts, and documents relating
+to kings, nobles, emperors, and many of the nobility of the age.
+
+In this monastery there is a most interesting collection of relics, in
+bronze, silver, gold, and _rosso antico_. The library proper contains
+some eleven thousand volumes, dating back to the very dawn of the
+discovery of the art of printing.
+
+Mr. Longfellow, whose poet's pen has pictured so many of the Italian
+landscapes and ancient monuments, thus set Monte Cassino to music,
+picturing the entire landscape of the Terra di Lavoro region:--
+
+ "The Land of Labor and the Land of Rest,
+ Where mediæval towns are white on all
+ The hillsides, and where every mountain's crest
+ Is an Etrurian or a Roman wall.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "There is Aquinum, the old Volscian town,
+ Where Juvenal was born, whose lurid light
+ Still hovers o'er his birthplace like the crown
+ Of splendor seen o'er cities in the night.
+
+ "Doubled the splendor is, that in its streets
+ The Angelic Doctor as a school-boy played,
+ And dreamed perhaps the dreams that he repeats
+ In ponderous folios for scholastics made.
+
+ "And there, uplifted, like a passing cloud
+ That pauses on a mountain summit high,
+ Monte Cassino's convent rears its proud
+ And venerable walls against the sky.
+
+ "Well I remember how on foot I climbed
+ The stony pathway leading to its gate;
+ Above, the convent bells for vespers chimed,
+ Below, the darkening town grew desolate.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "The silence of the place was like a sleep,
+ So full of rest it seemed; each passing tread
+ Was a reverberation from the deep
+ Recesses of the ages that are dead.
+
+ "For, more than thirteen centuries ago,
+ Benedict fleeing from the gates of Rome,
+ A youth disgusted with its vice and woe,
+ Sought in these mountain solitudes a home.
+
+ "He founded here his Convent and his Rule
+ Of prayer and work, and counted work as prayer;
+ The pen became a clarion, and his school
+ Flamed like a beacon in the midnight air.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "From the high window, I beheld the scene
+ On which Saint Benedict so oft had gazed,--
+ The mountains and the valley in the sheen
+ Of the bright sun,--and stood as one amazed.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "The conflict of the Present and the Past,
+ The ideal and the actual in our life,
+ As on a field of battle held me fast,
+ Where this world and the next world were at strife."
+
+The monastery of Monte Cassino entertains, as its guests, for dinner or
+for a night, all gentlemen who visit it; but there is an alms box on the
+ancient gate into which the guest is supposed to place whatever
+contribution he pleases for the poor of the place. The Italian
+government, in 1866, declared this monastery to be a "Monumento
+Nazionale," and it is now a famous ecclesiastical school with some two
+hundred students and a resplendent faculty of fifty learned monks under
+the direction of the Abbot. Some of the most celebrated prelates in
+Europe have been educated at Monte Cassino.
+
+Quite near Monte Cassino, as Longfellow depicts in his lines, is Monte
+Aquino, a picturesque hillside where the "Doctor Angelicus," Thomas
+Aquinas, was born (in 1224), the son of Count Landulf, in the Castel
+Roccasecca. He was educated in the monastery, and one finds himself
+recalling here these lines of Thomas William Parsons, entitled "Turning
+from Darwin to Thomas Aquinas:"--
+
+ "Unless in thought with thee I often live,
+ Angelic doctor! life seems poor to me.
+ What are these bounties, if they only be
+ Such boon as farmers to their servants give?
+ That I am fed, and that mine oxen thrive,
+ That my lambs fatten, that mine hours are free--
+ These ask my nightly thanks on bended knee;
+ And I do thank Him who hath blest my hive,
+ And made content my herd, my flock, my bee.
+ But, Father! nobler things I ask from Thee.
+ Fishes have sunshine, worms have everything!
+ Are we but apes? Oh! give me, God, to know
+ I am death's master; not a scaffolding,
+ But a true temple where Christ's word could grow."
+
+It was at Aquinum, too, at the foot of Monte Aquino, Juvenal was born.
+Near the peaks of Monte Cassino and Monte Aquino is that of Monte Cairo,
+five thousand five hundred feet high, from whose summit one of the
+finest views of all southern Europe is attained. The Gulf of Gaeta, the
+valley of San Germano, the wild and romantic mountain region of the
+Abruzzi and a view, too, of the blue sea are in the panorama, bathed in
+the opalescent, gleaming lights that often invest the Italian landscape
+with jewelled splendor.
+
+ "I ask myself, Is this a dream?
+ Will it all vanish into air?
+ Is there a land of such supreme
+ And perfect beauty, anywhere?"
+
+It might have been in this pictured dream-region that Hercules came to
+rest.
+
+ "When Heracles, the twelve great labors done,
+ To Calpe came, and there his journey stayed,
+ He raised two pillars toward the evening sun,
+ And carved them by a goddess' subtle aid.
+ Upon their shafts were sacred legends traced,
+ And round the twain a serpent cincture placed:
+ 'T was at this bound the primal world stood still,
+ And of Atlantis dreamed, with baffled will."
+
+But still in unmeasured space, still beyond and afar and unattained,
+still lost in the unpenetrated realms of the poet's fancy,--
+
+ "Atlantis lies beyond the pillars yet!"
+
+
+
+
+ _"Here Ischia smiles
+ O'er liquid miles."_
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ _High o'er the sea-surge and the sands,
+ Like a great galleon wrecked and cast
+ Ashore by storms, thy Castle stands
+ A mouldering landmark of the Past._
+
+ _Upon its terrace-walk, I see
+ A phantom gliding to and fro;
+ It is Colonna,--it is she
+ Who lived and loved so long ago._
+
+ LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+
+
+ _We are the only two that, face to face,
+ Do know each other, as God doth know us both.
+ --O fearless friendship, that held nothing back!
+ O absolute trust, that yielded every key,
+ And flung each curtain up, and drew me on
+ To enter the white temple of thy soul,
+ So vast, so cold, so waste!--and give thee sense
+ Of living warmth, of throbbing tenderness,
+ Of soft dependencies! O faith that made
+ Thee free to seek the spot where my dead hopes
+ Have sepulture, and read above the crypt
+ Deep graven, the tearful legend of my life!
+ There, gloomed with the memorials of my past,
+ Thou once for all didst learn what man accepts
+ Lothly--(how should he else?)--that never woman,
+ Fashioned a woman,--heart, brain, body, soul,--
+ Ever twice loved._
+
+ "_Vittoria Colonna to Michael Angelo._"
+
+ MARGARET J. PRESTON.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+A PAGE DE CONTI FROM ISCHIA
+
+ "Unto my buried lord I give myself."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ Michael Angelo!
+ A man that all men honor, and the model
+ That all should follow; one who works and prays,
+ For work is prayer, and consecrates his life
+ To the sublime ideal of his art
+ Till art and life are one.
+
+ LONGFELLOW, from "_Michael Angelo; A Fragment_."
+
+
+In that poetic sail along the Italian coast between Naples and Genoa the
+voyager feels that it is
+
+ "On no earthly sea with transient roar"
+
+that his bark is floating; that
+
+ "Unto no earthly airs he trims his sail,"
+
+as he flits along this coast when violet waves dash against a brilliant
+background of sky. Ischia reveals herself through the blue, transparent
+air, gleaming with opalescent lights, quivering, fading and flaming
+again as the afterglow in the east rivals in its coloring the sunset
+splendors of the west. Is there in the air a faint, lingering echo of
+the _chant d'amour_ of sirens on the rocky shores? Is Parthenope still
+to be descried? Gazing upon Ischia there is a rush of romantic
+impressions as if one were transported into ideal regions of song,
+before this impression begins to resolve itself into definite
+remembrance of fact and incident. Surely some exquisite associations in
+the past had enchanted this island in memory and invested it with the
+magic light that never was on sea or land. Traditions of beauty; of the
+lives of scholar and savant and princes of the church; of a court of
+nobility enriched and adorned by prelate and by poet; traditions, too,
+of a woman's consecration to an immortal love and the solace of grief by
+poetic genius and exalted friendships,--all these seem to cling about
+Ischia in a vague, atmospheric way till memory, still groping backward
+in the twilight of the richly historic past, suddenly crystallized into
+recognition that it was Ischia which was the home of Vittoria Colonna,
+the greatest woman poet of the Italian Renaissance. Lines, long since
+read, arose like an incantation; and like bars of music, each note of
+which vibrated in the air, came this fragment of one of her songs:--
+
+ "If in these rude and artless songs of mine
+ I never take the file in hand, nor try
+ With curious care and nice, fastidious eye
+ To deck and polish each uncultured line,
+ 'T is that it makes small merit of my name
+ To merit praise....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ But it must be that heaven's own gracious gift
+ Which, with its breath, divine, inspires my soul,
+ Strikes forth these sparks unbidden by my will."
+
+ [Illustration: ISCHIA, FROM THE SEA
+ _Page 282_]
+
+Vittoria Colonna was called the most beautiful and gifted woman of her
+time in all Italy. Her life of nearly sixty years (1490-1547) lay
+entirely in that period when the apathy of ten centuries was broken,
+when the darkness fled before the dawning of a glorious day. New methods
+of thought, revised taste in poetry, new discoveries of science, a
+nobler progress in criticism, great discoveries, and a lofty and
+unprecedented freedom of conviction marked the century between 1450 and
+1550, stamping it as the marvellous time which we know as the
+Renaissance, "that solemn fifteenth century which can hardly be studied
+too much, not merely for its positive results in the things of the
+intellect and the imagination, its concrete works of art, its special
+and prominent personalities, with their profound æsthetic charm, but for
+its general spirit and character, for the ethical qualities of which it
+is a consummate type."
+
+It was peculiarly fitting that Italy should take the initiative in
+inaugurating this _vita nuova_. Italy had a language and literature and
+art. Dante had delivered his solemn message and Petrarca his impassioned
+song. Boccaccio had taught the gospel of gladness. Who shall analyze the
+secret springs of their inspiration and reveal to what degree Ovid and
+Horace and Virgil influenced the later literature? A new solar system
+was established by Copernicus. America was discovered. Science entered
+on her definite and ceaseless progress, and religion and art became
+significant forces in human life. Printing had been invented and the
+compass discovered.
+
+Into this time of new forces, when everything was throbbing and
+pulsating with life, was Vittoria Colonna born into social prestige and
+splendor. Her father, Fabrizio Colonna, and her mother, Agnesina di
+Montefeltro, a daughter of the Duke of Urbino, were then domiciled in
+the castle of Marino, on the Lago d'Albano, a magnificent palace some
+twelve miles from Rome, in which the Duke d'Amalfi (the father of
+Fabrizio Colonna) lived, and which is still standing, filled with
+memorials and relics of historic interest. Urbino, the seat of the
+Montefeltro, is renowned as having been the birthplace of Raphael, who
+
+ "Only drank the precious wine of youth,"
+
+but who
+
+ "... lives immortal in the hearts of men,
+ ... and the world is fairer
+ That he lived in it."
+
+The Colonna date back to the eleventh century, and they gave many
+princes and cardinals to the country. At the close of the thirteenth
+century they were arrayed against Boniface VIII, the Pope, who accused
+them of crime, while they disputed the validity of his election to the
+holy office. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated the entire family,
+anathematized them as heretics and declared their estates forfeited to
+the church. The Colonna, far from being intimidated, commanded three
+hundred armed horsemen, attacked the papal palace, which they plundered,
+and made him a prisoner,--an incident referred to by Dante in the
+"Inferno." The Colonna and the Orsini were also at warfare, and when a
+member of the former family was elevated to the papacy under the name of
+Martin V, they despoiled property of the Orsini.
+
+Gay excursionists to-day, who fly over the Campagna in their
+twentieth-century touring cars to the lovely towns of the Alban hills,
+may look down from Castel Gandolfo on the gloomy, mediæval little town
+of Marino, part way up a steep hillside, whose summit is crowned by the
+castle once belonging to the Colonna and in which Vittoria passed her
+early childhood. "Nothing," in his "Roba di Roma," says Story, "can be
+more rich and varied than this magnificent amphitheatre of the Campagna
+of Rome, ... sometimes drear, mysterious, and melancholy in desolate
+stretches; sometimes rolling like an inland sea whose waves have
+suddenly become green with grass, golden with grain, and gracious with
+myriads of wild flowers, where scarlet poppies blaze and pink daisies
+cover vast meadows and vines shroud the picturesque ruins of antique
+villas, aqueducts, and tombs, or drop from mediæval towers and
+fortresses."
+
+Flying in the swift motor-car of the time toward the Alban hills, Marino
+may be easily reached in less than an hour from the Porta San Giovanni,
+and in the near distance Monte Albani, rising into the cone of Monte
+Cavi, is a picture before the eye, while on the lower slopes gleam the
+white villages of Albani, Marino, Castel Gandolfo, and Frascati, with
+the campanile of a cathedral, a fortress-like ruin, or gardens and olive
+orchards clambering up the heights. The Papal town of Rocca di Papa
+crowns one summit where once Tarquin's temple to Jupiter stood and on
+whose ruins now gleam afar in the Italian sunshine the white walls of
+the Passionist convent of Monte Cavi, built by Cardinal York. From this
+height Juno gazed upon the great conflict of contending armies, if
+Virgil's topography be entitled to authority. And here, through a defile
+in the hills, one may look toward Naples, "and then rising abruptly
+with sheer limestone cliffs and crevasses, where transparent purple
+shadows sleep all day long, towers the grand range of the Sabine
+mountains, whose lofty peaks surround the Campagna to the east and north
+like a curved amphitheatre.... Again, skirting the Pontine Marshes on
+the east, are the Volscian mountains, closing up the Campagna at
+Terracina, where they overhang the road and affront the sea with their
+great barrier. Following along the Sabine hills, you will see at
+intervals the towns of Palestrina and Tivoli, where the Anio tumbles in
+foam, and other little mountain towns nestled here and there among the
+soft airy hollows, or perched on the cliffs."
+
+In this landscape there are three ruined villages--Colonna, Gallicano,
+and Zagarda--perched on their respective hills. The castle of the
+Colonna family is now restored and modernized to a degree that leaves
+little trace of that former stately grandeur which is transmuted into
+modern convenience and comfort.
+
+In this scene of romantic beauty, with the vista of beauty almost
+incomparable in any inland view in Italy, Vittoria passed her infancy,
+until, at the age of four, her childhood was transplanted to fairy
+Ischia. In all this chain of Alban towns, including Marino, Viterbo,
+Ariccia, and Rocca di Papa, the great family of the Colonna owned
+extensive estates, each crowning some height, while the defiles between
+were filled, then as now, with the foam and blossom of riotous greenery.
+Then, as now, across the mystic Campagna, the dome of St. Peter's
+silhouetted itself against a golden background of western sky.
+
+One needs not to have had privileged access to the sibylline leaves of
+the Cumæan soothsayer to recognize that Vittoria Colonna was born under
+the star of destiny. Her horoscope seemed to be inextricably entwined
+with that of Italy; and the events which created and determined the
+conditions of her life and its panoramic series of circumstances were
+the events of Italy and of Europe as well--in political aspects and in
+the influence on general progress, brought to bear by strong and
+prominent individualities whose gifts, genius, or force dominated the
+movements of the day.
+
+To her father's change of political allegiance, from the French to the
+Spanish side, in the war raging between those countries in 1494,
+Vittoria owed all her life in Ischia; and her marriage, and all that
+resulted from her becoming a member of the d'Avalos family, was due to
+this espousal of a new political faith on the part of Fabrizio Colonna.
+To the fact that in 1425 the war with France again broke out was due the
+loss of her husband and the conditions that consecrated her life to
+poetry, to learning, and that made possible the beautiful and
+sympathetic friendship between herself and Michael Angelo. Her life
+presents the most forcible illustration of the overruling power on human
+life and destiny.
+
+It was the political change of faith on the part of Fabrizio Colonna
+that initiated an unforeseen and undreamed-of drama of life for his
+infant daughter, the first act of which included the command of the King
+of Naples that the little Vittoria should be betrothed to Francesco
+d'Avalos, the son of Alphonso, Marchese di Pescara, of Ischia, one of
+the nobles who stood nearest to the king in those troubled days.
+Francesco was born in the castle on Ischia in 1489, and was one year
+older than Vittoria. Fabrizio exchanged his castle at Marino for one in
+Naples, which city made him the Grand Constable. The d'Avalos castle in
+Ischia had at this time for its chatelaine the Duchessa di Francavilla,
+who is said by some authorities to have been the elder sister and by
+others to have been the aunt of Francesco. Donna Constanza d'Avalos,
+later the Duchessa di Francavilla, had been made the Castellana of the
+island for her courage in refusing to capitulate to the French troops
+when, after the death of her father, she was left in sole charge of the
+d'Avalos estates, and Emperor Charles V elevated her rank to that of
+Principessa. The Duchessa was one of the most remarkable women of the
+day. She was a classical scholar, and herself a writer, the author of a
+book entitled "_Degli Infortuni e Travagli del Mondo_." To the care of
+this learned and brilliant woman, a great lady in the social life of the
+time, the care of the little Vittoria was committed, and she studied and
+played and grew up with Francesco, her future husband. The d'Avalos
+family ranked among the highest nobility of the Court of Naples, and the
+Principessa reigned as a queen of letters and society in her island
+kingdom. It was under her care that the two children, Francesco and
+Vittoria, pursued their studies together and acquired every grace of
+scholarship and accomplishment of society. The circles which the
+Duchessa drew around her included many gentlewomen from Sicily and from
+Naples; and "the life at Castel d'Ischia was synonymous with everything
+glorious and elegant," recorded Visconti, "and its fame has been
+immortalized." Although Francesco (the future Marchese di Pescara) was
+born in Italian dominions, yet the d'Avalos family were of Spanish
+ancestry and traditions. The musical Castilian was the language of the
+household. The race ideals of Spain--the poetic, the impassioned, the
+joy in color and movement--pervaded the very atmosphere of Castel
+d'Ischia. Vittoria's earliest girlhood revealed her exceptional beauty
+and charm, and gave evidence that the gods loved her and had dowered her
+with their immortal gifts and genius, which flowered, under the
+sympathetic guidance and stimulus of such a woman as the Principessa
+(the Duchessa di Francavilla) and the society she drew around her, as
+the orange and the myrtle flower under the southern sunshine.
+
+The literature of biography presents no chapter that can rival this in
+the idyllic beauty of the lives of those two children on the lovely
+island in the violet sea. The perpetual conflicts that were waged in
+both Rome and Naples awakened no echoes in this romantic and isolated
+spot, whose atmosphere was that of the peace of scholarly pursuits and
+lofty thought that is found where the arts and the muses hold their
+sway.
+
+But in 1496 came the tragedy of the death of the young king and queen of
+Naples; four years later Rome celebrated a jubilee in which Naples took
+part, sending a splendid procession as escort to the famous Madonna that
+was carried from Naples to Rome and back, working miracles, it is said,
+on both journeys, as a Madonna should. A year later Frederick of Naples
+and the queen, and two of the king's sisters,--ladies of high
+nobility,--came as guests to the castle in Ischia,--royal exiles seeking
+shelter. Five years later the new king and queen were welcomed with
+gorgeous parade and acclamation. A pier was thrown out over one hundred
+feet into the sea; on this a tent of gold was erected, and all the
+nobility of Naples, in the richest costumes of velvet and jewels,
+thronged to meet the royal guests. Over the sunlit Bay of Naples
+resounded the thunder of the guns in military salute and the cheers of
+the people. Among the distinguished nobility present, Costanza, Duchessa
+and Principessa di Francavilla, was a marked figure with her young
+charge, Vittoria Colonna, at her side. She made a deep reverence and
+kissed the hand of the king as he passed, as did many of the ladies of
+highest rank, and at the fête of that evening Vittoria's beauty charmed
+all eyes. Although it was well understood that she had been betrothed
+since childhood to Francesco d'Avalos, yet many princes and nobles sued
+for her hand and were refused by her father, who was at this time
+established magnificently in Naples. Pope Julius II refused the
+pleadings of two dukes, both of whom wished to seek Vittoria in
+marriage, as he considered the love of the young girl for her betrothed
+a matter to be held sacred. Three years later, when Vittoria was
+nineteen and Francesco twenty, their marriage was celebrated in Castel
+d'Ischia with the richest state and beauty of ceremonial observance. A
+few months previous to this time she had returned to her father's
+country home in the family castle at Marino, whither both Fabrizio
+and Agnese Colonna accompanied their daughter. When the time appointed
+for her bridal came, Vittoria was escorted to Ischia by princes, and
+dukes, and ladies of honor, and the marriage gifts to the bride included
+a chain of rubies, diamonds, and emeralds, linked with gold; a writing
+desk of solid gold; wonderful bracelets; costumes of velvets, and
+brocades and rich embroideries, and a portion of fourteen thousand
+ducats.
+
+ [Illustration: LA ROCCA, ISCHIA
+ _Page 294_]
+
+"The noted pair had not their equals in Italy at this time," writes a
+contemporary historian. "Their life in Naples was all magnificence and
+festivity, and when they desired to exchange it for the country they
+left Naples for Pietralba on Monte Emo, where they assembled pleasant
+parties of ladies and gentlemen. Much time was passed in their beloved
+Ischia, where the Duchessa, as Castellana, was obliged to receive much
+company. And here were found the flower of chivalry and the men most
+noted in letters.... They listened to the poets Sanazzaro, il Rota, and
+Bernardo Tasso; or they heard the admirable discourses on letters of
+Musefico, il Giovio, and il Minturno. It was an agreeable school for the
+youthful minds of Vittoria and Pescara. Thus passed in great happiness
+the first three years of their married life."
+
+It is not strange that to the young Marchesa di Pescara, Ischia had
+become an enchanted island. The scene of her happy childhood, of her
+studies, of her first efforts in lyric art, of her stately and
+resplendent bridal; the home, too, of her early married life,--it is
+little wonder that in after years she translated into song its scenic
+loveliness and the thoughts and visions it had inspired.
+
+Again, the ever-recurring war came on, and in the spring of 1512 the
+King of Naples conferred the doubtful privilege on the Marchesa di
+Pescara of serving as the royal representative. It is said that Vittoria
+personally superintended her young husband's outfit,--in horses,
+attendants, armor, and other details belonging to a gentleman of rank.
+Her father and her uncle, Prospero Colonna, were also among the military
+who led Italian troops. In the terrible battle of Ravenna (which was
+fought on the Easter Sunday, April 11, of 1512), Pescara was wounded,
+taken prisoner, and carried to the fortress of Porta Gobbia. A messenger
+was sent to Ischia, where Vittoria lived between her books and the
+orange groves; and the twentieth-century cynic of 1907 will smile at the
+form in which she expressed her sorrow,--that of a poem of some forty
+stanzas, which began:--
+
+ "_Eccelso Mio Signor! Questa ti scrivo
+ Per te narrar tra quante dubbie voglie,
+ Fra quanti aspri martir, dogliosa io vivo!_"
+
+A translation of this lyric epistle, made in prose, gives it more fully
+as follows:--
+
+ "Eccelso Mio Signor: I write this to thee to tell thee amid what
+ bitter anxieties I live.... I believed that so many prayers and
+ tears, and love without measure, would not have been displeasing to
+ God.... Thy great valor has shone as in a Hector or an Achilles."
+
+In this letter Vittoria tells him that when the messenger reached her,
+she was lying on a point of the island ("_I_, in the _body_, my _mind_
+always with _thee_," she says), and that the whole atmosphere had been
+to her that day "like a cavern of black fog," and that "the marine gods
+seemed to say to Ischia, 'To-day, Vittoria, thou shalt hear of disgrace
+from the confines: thou now in health and honor, thou shalt be turned
+to grief; but thy father and husband are saved, though taken
+prisoners.'"
+
+This presentiment she related to her husband's aunt, the Duchessa
+Francavilla, the Castellana of Ischia, who begged her not to think of it
+and said, "It would be strange for such a force to be conquered."
+
+Just after this conversation between the youthful Marchesa and the
+Duchessa, the messenger arrived. The psychic science of to-day would see
+in this occurrence a striking instance of telepathy. In her poetic
+epistle to her husband, Vittoria also says:--
+
+ "A wife ought to follow her husband at home and abroad; if he
+ suffers trouble, she suffers; if he is happy, she is; if he dies,
+ she dies. What happens to one happens to both; equals in life, they
+ are equals in death. His fate is her fate."
+
+These letters--in keeping with the times--were, on both sides, expressed
+in literary rather than in personal form. Pescara, from his captivity,
+wrote to her a "Dialogue on Love,"--a manuscript for which Visconti
+notes that he has searched in vain.
+
+The Marchesa di Pescara went from Ischia to Naples, after learning of
+the misfortunes that had overtaken her husband, in order that she might
+be able constantly to receive direct communication regarding his fate. A
+few months later the Marchese returned, making the day "brilliant with
+joy" to Vittoria, but after a year of happiness he was again called to
+service, and the Marchesa returned to her beloved Ischia. She gave
+herself to the study of the ancient classics; she wrote poems, and
+"considered no time of value but so spent," says Rota. The age was one
+of a general revival of learning. Royalty, the Pope, the princes and
+nobility were all giving themselves with ardor to this higher culture.
+Under Dante the Italian language assumed new perfection. This period was
+to Vittoria one of intense stimulus, and it must have had a formative
+influence on her gifts and her mental power. Having no children, she
+adopted a young cousin of her husband, the Marchese del Vasto, to
+educate and to be the heir of their estates. In 1515, Pescara again
+returned and the entire island of Ischia was "aflame with bonfires, and
+the borders of the beautiful shore bright and warm with lights," in
+honor of the event. Of this event, Vittoria wrote:--
+
+ "... My beloved returns to us ... his countenance radiant with
+ piety to God, with deeds born of inward faith."
+
+At a magnificent wedding festival in the d'Avalos family about this
+time, it is recorded that the Marchesa di Pescara "wore a robe of
+brocaded crimson velvet, with large branches of beaten gold wrought on
+it, with a headdress of wrought gold and a girdle of beaten gold around
+her waist."
+
+When the coronation of Charles V was to be celebrated at Aix-la-Chapelle
+the Marchese di Pescara was appointed ambassador to represent the House
+of Aragon on this brilliant occasion, when the new emperor was to be
+invested with the crown and the sceptre of Charlemagne. Charles had
+decided to journey by sea and to visit Henry VIII on the way, an
+arrangement of which Cardinal Wolsey was aware, although he had kept
+Henry in ignorance of it, according to those curious mental processes
+of his mind where his young monarch was concerned. Shakespeare, in the
+play of "King Henry VIII," describes the meeting of the two kings, which
+occurred at Canterbury, "at a grand jubilee in honor of the shrine of
+Thomas à Becket." One historian thus describes this scene:--
+
+ "The two handsome young sovereigns rode into Canterbury under the
+ same canopy, the great Cardinal riding directly in front of them,
+ and on the right and left were the proud nobles of Spain and
+ England, among whom was Pescara. The kings alighted from their
+ horses at the west door of the cathedral and together paid their
+ devotions before that rich shrine blazing with jewels. They humbly
+ knelt on the steps worn by the knees of tens of thousands of
+ pilgrims."
+
+On the return to Naples of the Marchese di Pescara he told the story of
+his regal journey to an assemblage of nobles in the Church of Santa
+Maria di Monte Oliveto, and he then joined the Marchesa in Rome, where
+she had gone to visit her family and to pay her devotions to Leo X, who
+had just created Pompeo Colonna a cardinal.
+
+Pope Leo aspired to draw around him a court distinguished for its
+culture and brilliancy in both art and literature. In this court the
+Marchesa di Pescara shone resplendent. "She was at the height of her
+beauty, and her charms were sung by the poets of the day," says a
+contemporary.
+
+A year later Leo X died, succeeded by Adrian (who had been tutor to
+Charles V), to the intense and bitter disappointment of Cardinal Wolsey,
+who had made the widest--and wiliest--efforts to gratify his own
+ambition of reigning in the Papal chair. Again the war between France
+and Italy, that which seemed to be a perpetually smouldering feud, and
+the Marchese di Pescara, again summoned to battle, was wounded at Pavia.
+For some time he lay between life and death at Milan, and a messenger
+was sent to beg Vittoria to come to him. She set out on this journey,
+leaving Naples in great haste; but on reaching Viterbo another messenger
+met her with the tidings of the death of the Marchese, which had
+occurred on Nov. 25, 1525. Overcome with grief, Vittoria was carried
+back to Rome and for the solace of entire seclusion she sought the
+cloistered silence of the convent of San Silvestre, which lay at the
+foot of the Monte Cavallo in Rome, almost adjoining the gardens of the
+Colonna palace. To the Marchese di Pescara, who had the military rank of
+general, was given a funeral of great pomp and splendor in Milan, and
+his body was brought to the famous Naples church of Santa Domenica
+Maggiore, where it was entombed with the princes and nobles of his
+house.
+
+Before the death of the Marchese there had been a political plot to join
+the Papal, Venetian, and Milanese forces and rescue Italy from the
+Emperor's rule, and the Pope himself had sent a messenger to Pescara
+asking him to unite with the league. The Marchese, Spanish by ancestry
+and by sympathies, used this knowledge to frustrate the Italian designs
+and to warn Spain. The Italian historians have execrated him for this
+act, which they regard as that of a traitor. Vittoria, however, did not
+take this view apparently, as in a letter to her husband she wrote:--
+
+ "Titles and kingdoms do not add to true honor.... I do not desire
+ to be the wife of a king, but I glory in being the wife of that
+ great general who shows his bravery in war and, still more, by
+ magnanimity in peace, surpasses the greatest kings."
+
+The inducement of the throne of Naples had been held out to Marchese di
+Pescara. He evidently regarded this in the nature of a dishonorable
+bribe, and it is this view which the Marchesa plainly shared.
+
+After his death her first impulse was to take the vows of a cloistered
+nun. The Pope himself intervened to dissuade her, and she consented to
+enter, only temporarily, the convent of San Silvestre on the Monte
+Cavallo.
+
+In the will of the Marchese di Pescara there was a clause directing that
+anything in his estate unlawfully acquired should be restored to the
+owner; and under this, Vittoria gave back to the monastery of Monte
+Cassino the Monte San Magno that had formerly been its property.
+
+From the cloistered shades of the convent Vittoria removed to the family
+castle of the Colonna at Marino, where, on the shore of this beautiful
+lake (which was the scenery of Virgil's Æneid), she passed some months,
+engaged in writing sonnets. Of one of these a translation runs in
+part:--
+
+ "I write solely to assuage my inward grief, which destroys in my
+ heart the light of this world's sun; and not to add light to _mio
+ bel sole_, to his glorified spirit. It is fit that other tongues
+ should preserve his great name from oblivion."
+
+In another, perhaps her most perfect sonnet, she beseeches the winds to
+convey to her beloved the message she sends:--
+
+ "_Ch'io di lui sempre pensi; o pianga, o parli_,"--That I always
+ think of him, or weep for him, or speak of him.
+
+Again, a year later, Vittoria returned to lovely Ischia, which, as one
+writer has described, "rises out of the blue billows of the
+Mediterranean like giant towers. The immense blocks of stone are heaped
+one upon another, in such a supernatural manner as to give a coloring to
+the legend, that beneath them, in those vast volcanic caverns, dwells
+the giant Tifeo." The castle where the Duchessa Francavilla and the
+Marchesa Pescara lived is built on a towering mass of rock joined to the
+island by a causeway. The castle includes the palace, a church, and
+other buildings for the family and their guests and dependants.
+
+For some three years the Marchesa did not again leave Ischia. In the
+mean time volumes of her poems were published. She received the
+acclamation of all the writers of her time. The crown of immortelles,
+often laid but on a tomb, was continually pressed upon her brow. She was
+the most famous woman of her time. Her beauty, her genius, her noble
+majesty of character impressed the contemporary world. Her days were
+filled with correspondence with the most distinguished men of the day.
+Ariosto, Castiglione, Ludovico Dolce, Cardinal Bembo, Cardinal
+Contarini, and Paolo Giovio were among her nearer circle of friends.
+
+ [Illustration: CASTELLO DI ALFONSO, ISCHIA
+ _Page 306_]
+
+Stormy times fell upon Italy, in all of which the Colonna family bore
+prominent part, and all of which affected the life of Vittoria Colonna
+in many ways. Her biography, if written with fulness and accuracy, would
+be largely a history of the Italy of that time, for her life seemed
+always inseparably united with great events.
+
+In the year 1530 (Clement VII being the Pope) a full Papal pardon had
+been extended to all the Colonna, and their castles and estates had also
+been restored to them. For years past Rome had been in a state of
+conflict. Benvenuto Cellini, who had watched the terrible scenes from
+Castel San Angelo where he was immured, has described the terrors. The
+Eternal City, whose population under Leo X had been 90,000, was now--in
+1530--reduced to half that number. Palaces and temples had been the
+scenes of riot and destruction, yet to this very lawlessness of the time
+the Roman galleries of the present owe their ancient statues, which were
+uncovered by these assaults. The Coliseum was left in the ruined state
+in which it is now seen, and by the sale of the stones taken from it the
+Palazzo Barberini was erected.
+
+Vittoria, coming again to Rome and revisiting its classic greatness,
+exclaimed that happy were they who lived in times so full of grandeur;
+to which the poet Molza gallantly replied that they were less happy, as
+they had not known her! Everywhere was she received with the highest
+honors. She made a tour, visiting Bagni di Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara,
+where she was the guest of the Duca and Duchessa Ercole in the ducal
+palace. The Duchessa was the Princesse Renée, the daughter of Louis XII
+of France, and an ardent friend of Calvin, who visited her in Ferrara.
+It was to this visit that Longfellow refers in his poem entitled
+"Michael Angelo," when he pictures Vittoria as sitting for her portrait
+to the artist and conversing with her friend Giulia, the Duchess of
+Trajetto, Michael Angelo begs them to resume the conversation
+interrupted by his entrance, and Vittoria says:--
+
+ "Well, first, then, of Duke Ercole, a man
+ Cold in his manners, and reserved and silent,
+ And yet magnificent in all his ways."
+
+To which the Duchessa replies:--
+
+ "How could the daughter of a king of France
+ Wed such a duke?"
+
+ MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+ "The men that women marry,
+ And why they marry them, will always be
+ A marvel and a mystery to the world."
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "And then the Duchess,--how shall I describe her,
+ Or tell the merits of that happy nature
+ Which pleases most when least it thinks of pleasing?
+ Not beautiful, perhaps, in form and feature,
+ Yet with an inward beauty, that shines through
+ Each look and attitude and word and gesture;
+ A kindly grace of manner and behavior,
+ A something in her presence and her ways
+ That makes her beautiful beyond the reach
+ Of mere external beauty; and in heart
+ So noble and devoted to the truth,
+ And so in sympathy with all who strive
+ After the higher life."
+
+ JULIA.
+
+ "She draws me to her
+ As much as her Duke Ercole repels me."
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "Then the devout and honorable women
+ That grace her court, and make it good to be there;
+ Francesca Bucyronia, the true-hearted,
+ Lavinia della Rovere and the Orsini,
+ The Magdalena and the Cherubina,
+ And Anne de Parthenai, who sings so sweetly;
+ All lovely women, full of noble thoughts
+ And aspirations after noble things.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ With these ladies
+ Was a young girl, Olympia Morata,
+ Daughter of Fulvio, the learned scholar,
+ Famous in all the universities:
+ A marvellous child, who at the spinning-wheel,
+ And in the daily round of household cares,
+ Hath learned both Greek and Latin; and is now
+ A favorite of the Duchess and companion
+ Of Princess Anne. This beautiful young Sappho
+ Sometimes recited to us Grecian odes
+ That she had written, with a voice whose sadness
+ Thrilled and o'ermastered me, and made me look
+ Into the future time, and ask myself
+ What destiny will be hers."
+
+ JULIA.
+
+ "And what poets
+ Were there to sing you madrigals, and praise
+ Olympia's eyes?" ...
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "None; for great Ariosto is no more."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ JULIA.
+
+ "He spake of you."
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "And of yourself, no less,
+ And of our master, Michael Angelo."
+
+ MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+ "Of me?"
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "Have you forgotten that he calls you
+ Michael, less man than angel, and divine?
+ You are ungrateful."
+
+ MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+ "A mere play on words."
+
+The Duca and Duchessa of Ferrara invited the most distinguished persons
+in Venice and Bologna and Lombardy to meet their honored guest. Bishop
+Ghiberto of Verona besought her to visit that city. Vittoria accepted
+and was for some time the Bishop's guest in his palace, and she took
+great interest in the historic city. With the Bishop she visited the
+ancient Duomo, which in 1160 had been restored by Pope Urban II, and
+reconsecrated. It was a strong desire of the Marchesa at this time to
+make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; but the journey was then so perilous and
+so long--none too easy, indeed, at the present time--that she was
+dissuaded from the attempt.
+
+Verona, to do her honor, had a medal struck bearing her portrait. The
+group of great artists--Titian, Tintoretto, and Giorgione in Venice; Fra
+Angelico, Bartolommeo, and others of that day--were creating their
+wonderful works which Vittoria must have seen and enjoyed during this
+tour. Raphael, whose death had occurred in 1520, Vittoria had,
+doubtless, known; but whether it was she who was the original of the
+Muse in his great picture of "Parnassus," as is alleged, is not fully
+established.
+
+ [Illustration: DETAIL FROM "PARNASSUS," RAPHAEL STANZE,
+ PALAZZO VATICANO, ROME
+ Raphael Sanzio
+ _Page 311_]
+
+ "Unto my buried lord I give myself,"
+
+wrote Vittoria Colonna in one of the sonnets to her husband's memory,
+and this line is the keynote to her entire life, both as woman and poet.
+It was no translation of her life into another key, no reckoning by
+stars that flashed from different skies, when there fell upon her the
+baptism and crown of that immortal friendship with Michael Angelo.
+
+The Marchesa di Pescara returned to Rome, from this notable tour in
+Northern Italy, in 1538. She was received with the honors that her fame
+inspired. Michael Angelo was then deeply absorbed in painting his "Last
+Judgment," in the Capella Sistina.
+
+"Every one in Rome took an interest in the progress of this magnificent
+fresco, from the Pope (who continually visited the artist) down to the
+humblest of the people. We may imagine Vittoria standing by the great
+painter to view his sublime work; but Michael Angelo did not require the
+patronage, even of a Colonna, and it is possible that Vittoria herself
+first sought out his friendship."
+
+In the Casa Buonarroti, in Florence, hangs that exquisite picture
+painted of Italy's greatest woman poet, in her early youth; and in its
+rare and precious collection of manuscripts are the letters of Vittoria
+to the poet and sculptor. Her influence is said to have produced a great
+change in his religious views, influencing his mind to a more lofty and
+more spiritual comprehension of the divine laws that govern the
+universe.
+
+Condivi, in referring to this chapter in their lives, has said:--
+
+ "In particular he was most deeply attached to the Marchesa di
+ Pescara, of whose divine spirit he was enamoured, and he was
+ beloved by her in return with much affection."
+
+It was about 1535 when Michael Angelo left Florence for Rome, appointed
+by the Pope, Paul III, as the chief architect, sculptor, and painter of
+the Vatican. He was enrolled in the Pontifical household, and he at once
+began his work in the Sistine Chapel. Mr. Symonds believes that he must
+have been engaged upon the "Last Judgment" through 1536, 1537. The great
+artist was not without a keen wit of his own as well; for on receipt of
+a letter from Pietro Aretino, from Venice, in September of 1537, with
+praises of his work that Michael Angelo deemed extravagant, he replied
+that while he rejoiced in Aretino's commendation, he also grieved; "as
+having finished a large part of the fresco," he said, "I cannot realize
+your conception which is so complete that if the Day of Judgment had
+come and you had been present and seen it with your eyes, your words
+could not have described it better."
+
+Vittoria Colonna now passed some years between Rome and Orvieto, that
+picturesque town with its magnificent cathedral rich in mediæval art,
+where she lived in the convent of St. Paolo d'Orvieto. She varied this
+residence by remaining at times in the convent of San Caterina di
+Viterbo, in that city. In Rome she had lived both at the convent of
+Santa Anna and also at the Palazzo Cesarini, which was the home of
+members of the Colonna family. A sonnet of Michael Angelo's written to
+Vittoria reflects the feeling that she inspired in him:--
+
+ "Da che concetto ha l'arte intera e diva
+ La forma e gli atti d'alcun, poi di quello
+ D'umil materia un semplice modello
+ È 'l primo parto che da quel deriva.
+ Ma nel secondo poi di pietra viva
+ S'adempion le promesse del martello;
+ E sì rinasce tal concetto e bello,
+ Che ma' non è chi suo eterno prescriva.
+ Simil, di me model, nacqu'io da prima;
+ Di me model, per cosa più perfetta
+ Da voi rinascer poi, donna alta e degna.
+ Se 'l poco accresce, 'l mio superchio lima
+ Vostra pietà; qual penitenzia aspetta
+ Mio fiero ardor, se mi gastiga e insegna?"
+
+Of this sonnet the following beautiful translation is made by John
+Addington Symonds:--
+
+ "When divine Art conceives a form and face,
+ She bids the craftsman for his first essay
+ To shape a simple model in mere clay:
+ This is the earliest birth of Art's embrace.
+ From the live marble in the second place
+ His mallet brings into the light of day
+ A thing so beautiful that who can say
+ When time shall conquer that immortal grace?
+ Thus my own model I was born to be--
+ The model of that nobler self, whereto
+ Schooled by your pity, lady, I shall grow.
+ Each overplus and each deficiency
+ You will make good. What penance then is due
+ For my fierce heat, chastened and taught by you?"
+
+The correspondence between Vittoria and Michael Angelo was undated, and
+all that now remains is fragmentary.
+
+The great artist, writing to his nephew, Sionardo, in 1554, says:--
+
+ "Messer Giovan Francisco Fattucci asked me about a month ago if I
+ possessed any writings of the marchioness. I have a little book
+ bound in parchment which she gave me some ten years ago. It has one
+ hundred and three sonnets, not counting another forty she afterward
+ sent on paper from Viterbo. I had these bound into the same book,
+ and at that time I used to lend them about to many persons so that
+ they are all of them now in print. In addition to these poems I
+ have many letters which she wrote from Orvieto and Viterbo. These,
+ then, are the writings I possess of the marchioness."
+
+In Rome, 1545, Michael Angelo thus writes to Vittoria:--
+
+ "I desired, lady, before I accepted the things which your ladyship
+ has often expressed the will to give me--I desired to produce
+ something for you with my own hand in order to be as little as
+ possible unworthy of this kindness. I have now come to recognize
+ that the grace of God is not to be bought, and that to keep it
+ waiting is a grievous sin. Therefore I acknowledge my error and
+ willingly accept your favors. When I possess them--not, indeed,
+ because I shall have them in my house, but for that I myself shall
+ dwell in them--the place will seem to encircle me with paradise.
+ For which felicity I shall remain ever more obliged to your
+ ladyship than I am already, if that is possible.
+
+ "The bearer of this letter will be Urbino, who lives in my service.
+ Your ladyship may inform him when you would like me to come and see
+ the head you promised to show me."
+
+With this letter Michael Angelo sent to Vittoria a sonnet which, in the
+translation made by John Addington Symonds, is as follows:--
+
+ "Seeking at least to be not all unfit
+ For thy sublime and boundless courtesy,
+ My lowly thoughts at first were fain to try
+ What they could yield for grace so infinite.
+ But now I know my unassisted wit
+ Is all too weak to make me soar so high,
+ For pardon, lady, for this fault I cry,
+ And wiser still I grow remembering it.
+ Yea, will I see what folly 't were to think
+ That largess dropped from thee like dews from heaven,
+ Could e'er be paid by work so frail as mine!
+ To nothingness my art and talent sink;
+ He fails who from his mental stores hath given
+ A thousandfold to match one gift divine."
+
+As a gift to Vittoria Colonna, Michael Angelo designed an episode from
+the Passion of our Lord, which Condivi describes as "a naked Christ at
+the moment when, taken from the cross, our Lord would have fallen at the
+feet of His most holy mother if two angels did not support Him in their
+arms. She sits below the cross with a face full of tears and sorrow,
+lifting both her widespread arms to heaven while on the stem of the tree
+above is written this legend: '_Non vi si pensa quanto sangue costa._'
+The cross is of the same kind as that which was carried by the White
+Friars at the time of the plague of 1348, and afterward deposited in the
+Church of Santa Croce at Florence."
+
+In presenting this cross to her he wrote:--
+
+ "Lady Marchioness, being myself in Rome, I thought it hardly
+ fitting to give the Crucified Christ to Messer Tommaso, and to make
+ him an intermediary between your ladyship and me, especially
+ because it has been my earnest wish to perform more for you than
+ for any one I ever knew upon the world. But absorbing occupations,
+ which still engage me, have prevented my informing your ladyship of
+ this. Moreover, knowing that you know love needs no taskmaster, and
+ that he who loves doth not sleep, I thought the less of using
+ go-betweens. And though I seemed to have forgotten, I was doing
+ what I did not talk about, in order to effect a thing that was not
+ looked for, my purpose has been spoiled. He sins who faith like
+ this so soon forgets."
+
+ [Illustration: VITTORIA COLONNA, GALLERIA BUONARROTI, FLORENCE
+ _Page 312_]
+
+In reply Vittoria Colonna wrote:--
+
+ "Unique Master Angelo and my most singular friend: I have received
+ your letter and examined the crucifix which truly hath crucified in
+ my memory every other picture I ever saw. Nowhere could one find
+ another figure of our Lord so well executed, so living, and so
+ exquisitely finished. I cannot express in words how subtly and
+ marvellously it is designed. Wherefore I am resolved to take the
+ work as coming from no other hand but yours.... I have examined it
+ minutely in full light and by the lens and mirror, and never saw
+ anything more perfect."
+
+She added:--
+
+ "... Your works forcibly stimulate the judgment of all who would
+ look at them. My study of them made me speak of adding goodness to
+ things perfect in themselves, and I have seen now that 'all is
+ possible to him who believes.' I had the greatest faith in God that
+ He would bestow upon you supernatural grace for the making of this
+ Christ. When I came to examine it I found it so marvellous that it
+ surpasses all my expectations. Wherefore, emboldened by your
+ miracles I conceived a great desire for that which I now see
+ marvellously accomplished: I mean that the design is in all parts
+ perfect and consummate. I tell you that I am pleased that the angel
+ on the right hand is by far the fairer, since Michael will place
+ you, with all angels, upon the right hand of the Lord some day.
+ Meanwhile I do not know how else to serve you, than by making
+ orisons to this sweet Christ, whom you have drawn so well and
+ exquisitely, and praying you to hold me yours to command as yours
+ in all and for all."
+
+Again Vittoria wrote to him:--
+
+ "I beg you to let me have the crucifix a short while in my keeping,
+ even though it be unfinished. I want to show it to some gentlemen
+ who have come from the most reverend, the Cardinal of Mantua. If
+ you are not working will you not come at your leisure to-day and
+ talk with me?"
+
+It is an interesting fact to the visitor in the Rome of to-day that the
+convent of San Silvestre where Vittoria Colonna lived was attached to
+the church of San Silvestre in Capite, now used as the English-speaking
+Catholic church in the Eternal City. The wing which was formerly the
+convent (founded in 1318) is now converted into the central post office.
+
+It was in the sacristy of San Silvestre, decorated with frescoes by
+Domenichino, that a memorable meeting and conversation took place, one
+Sunday afternoon in those far-away days of nearly five hundred years
+ago, between Michael Angelo and Francesco d'Ollanda, a Spanish miniature
+artist,--the meeting brought about by Vittoria Colonna. The Spanish
+artist was a worshipper of Michael Angelo, who "awakened such a feeling
+of love," that if d'Ollanda met him in the street "the stars would come
+out in the sky," he says, "before I would let him go again." This
+fervent worship was hardly enjoyed by its object, who avoided the
+Spanish enthusiast. One Sunday, however, d'Ollanda had gone to San
+Silvestre finding there Tolomei, to whom he was also devoted, and
+Vittoria Colonna, both of whom had gone to hear the celebrated Fra
+Ambrosia of Siena expound the Epistles of St. Paul. The Marchesa di
+Pescara observed that she felt sure their Spanish friend would far
+rather hear Michael Angelo discuss painting than to hear Fra Ambrosia on
+the wisdom of St. Paul. Summoning an attendant she directed him to find
+Michael Angelo and tell him how cool and delightful was the church that
+morning and to beg him to join Messer Tolomei and herself; but to make
+no mention of the presence of d'Ollanda. Her woman's tact and her
+faultless courtesy were successful in procuring this inestimable
+privilege for the Spanish painter. Michael Angelo came, and began the
+conversation--which was a monologue, rather, as all three of the friends
+wished only to listen to the master--by defending artists from the
+charge of eccentric and difficult methods. With somewhat startling
+candor Michael Angelo proceeded:--
+
+ "I dare affirm that any artist who tries to satisfy the better
+ vulgar rather than men of his own craft will never become a
+ superior talent. For my part, I am bound to confess that even his
+ Holiness wearies and annoys me by begging for too much of my
+ company. I am most anxious to serve him, ... but I think I can do
+ so better by studying at home than by dancing attendance on my legs
+ in his reception room."
+
+Another meeting of this little group was appointed for the next Sunday
+in the Colonna gardens behind the convent, under the shadow of the
+laurel trees in the air fragrant with roses and orange blossoms, where
+they sat with Rome spread out like a picture at their feet. That
+beautiful terrace of the Colonna gardens, to which the visitor in Rome
+to-day always makes his pilgrimage, with the ruined statues and the
+broken marble flights of steps, is the scene of this meeting of Vittoria
+Colonna, Michael Angelo, and Francesco d'Ollanda. On this second
+occasion the sculptor asserted his belief that while all things are
+worthy the artist's attention, the real test of his art is in the
+representation of the human form. He extolled the art of design. He
+emphasized the essential nature of nobleness in the artist, and added:--
+
+ "In order to represent in some degree the adored image of our Lord,
+ it is not enough that a master should be great and able. I maintain
+ that he must also be a man of good conduct and morals, if possible
+ a saint, in order that the Holy Ghost may rain down inspiration on
+ his understanding."
+
+Of the relative degree of swiftness in work Michael Angelo said:--
+
+ "We must regard it as a special gift from God to be able to do that
+ in a few hours which other men can only perform in many days of
+ labor. But should this rapidity cause a man to fail in his best
+ realization it would be better to proceed slowly. No artist should
+ allow his eagerness to hinder him from the supreme end of
+ art--perfection."
+
+Mr. Longfellow, in his unfinished dramatic poem, "Michael Angelo" (to
+which reference has already been made), has one scene laid in the
+convent chapel of San Silvestre, in which these passages occur:--
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "Here let us rest awhile, until the crowd
+ Has left the church. I have already sent
+ For Michael Angelo to join us here."
+
+ MESSER CLAUDIO.
+
+ "After Fra Bernardino's wise discourse
+ On the Pauline Epistles, certainly
+ Some words of Michael Angelo on Art
+ Were not amiss, to bring us back to earth."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ MICHAEL ANGELO, _at the door_.
+
+ "How like a Saint or Goddess she appears!
+ Diana or Madonna, which I know not,
+ In attitude and aspect formed to be
+ At once the artist's worship and despair!"
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "Welcome, Maestro. We were waiting for you."
+
+ MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+ "I met your messenger upon the way.
+ And hastened hither."
+
+ VITTORIA.
+
+ "It is kind of you
+ To come to us, who linger here like gossips
+ Wasting the afternoon in idle talk.
+ These are all friends of mine and friends of yours."
+
+ MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+ "If friends of yours, then are they friends of mine.
+ Pardon me, gentlemen. But when I entered
+ I saw but the Marchesa."
+
+Vittoria tells the master that the Pope has granted her permission to
+build a convent, and Michael Angelo replies:--
+
+ "Ah, to build, to build!
+ That is the noblest art of all the arts.
+ Painting and sculpture are but images,
+ Are merely shadows cast by outward things
+ On stone or canvas, having in themselves
+ No separate existence. Architecture,
+ Existing in itself, and not in seeming
+ A something it is not, surpasses them
+ As substance shadow....
+
+ ... Yet he beholds
+ Far nobler works who looks upon the ruins
+ Of temples in the Forum here in Rome.
+ If God should give me power in my old age
+ To build for Him a temple half as grand
+ As those were in their glory, I should count
+ My age more excellent than youth itself,
+ And all that I have hitherto accomplished
+ As only vanity."
+
+To which Vittoria responds:--
+
+ "I understand you.
+ Art is the gift of God, and must be used
+ Unto His glory. That in art is highest
+ Which aims at this."
+
+The poet, with his characteristically delicate divination, has entered
+into the inner spirit of these two immortal friends.
+
+Walter Pater, writing of Michael Angelo, truly says:--
+
+ "Michael Angelo is always pressing forward from the outward
+ beauty--_il bel del fuor che agli occhi piace_--to apprehend the
+ unseen beauty; _trascenda nella forma universale_--that abstract
+ form of beauty about which the Platonists reason. And this gives
+ the impression in him of something flitting and unfixed, of the
+ houseless and complaining spirit, almost clairvoyant through the
+ frail and yielding flesh."
+
+Again we find Pater saying:--
+
+ "Though it is quite possible that Michael Angelo had seen Vittoria,
+ that somewhat shadowy figure, as early as 1537, yet their closer
+ intimacy did not begin till about the year 1542, when Michael
+ Angelo was nearly seventy years old. Vittoria herself, an ardent
+ Neo-Catholic, vowed to perpetual widowhood since the news had
+ reached her, seventeen years before, that her husband, the youthful
+ and princely Marquess of Pescara, lay dead of the wounds he had
+ received in the battle of Pavia, was then no longer an object of
+ great passion. In a dialogue written by the painter, Francesco
+ d'Ollanda, we catch a glimpse of them together in an empty church
+ at Rome, one Sunday afternoon, discussing indeed the
+ characteristics of various schools of art, but still more the
+ writings of St. Paul, already following the ways and tasting the
+ sunless pleasures of weary people, whose hold on outward things is
+ slackening. In a letter still extant he regrets that when he
+ visited her after death he had kissed her hands only. He made, or
+ set to work to make, a crucifix for her use, and two drawings,
+ perhaps in preparation for it, are now in Oxford.... In many ways
+ no sentiment could have been less like Dante's love for Beatrice
+ than Michael Angelo's for Vittoria Colonna. Dante's comes in early
+ youth; Beatrice is a child, with the wistful, ambiguous vision of a
+ child, with a character still unaccentuated by the influence of
+ outward circumstances, almost expressionless. Vittoria is a woman
+ already weary, in advanced age, of grave intellectual qualities.
+ Dante's story is a piece of figured work inlaid with lovely
+ incidents. In Michael Angelo's poems frost and fire are almost the
+ only images--the refining fire of the goldsmith; once or twice the
+ phoenix; ice melting at the fire; fire struck from the rock which
+ it afterwards consumes."
+
+Visconti notes that among Italian poets, Vittoria Colonna was the first
+to make religion a subject of poetic treatment, and the first to
+introduce nature's ministry to man into poetry. Rota, her Italian
+biographer, states that she died in February of 1547, in the Palazzo
+Cesarini. This palace is in Genzano, on Lago di Nemi, and has been one
+of the Colonna estates; but from Visconti and other authorities it is
+evident that she died in Rome, either in the convent of Santa Anna or in
+the palace of Cesarini, the husband of her kinswoman, Giulio Colonna,
+which must have been near the convent in Trastevere, the old portion of
+Rome across the Tiber. Visconti records that on the last evening of her
+life when Michael Angelo was beside her, she said: "I die. Help me to
+repeat my last prayer. I do not now remember the words." He clasped her
+hand and repeated it to her, while her own lips moved, she gazed
+intently on him, smiled and passed away. This translation has been made
+of Vittoria Colonna's last prayer:--
+
+ "Grant, I beseech Thee, O Lord, that I may ever worship Thee with
+ such humility of mind as becometh my lowliness and such elevation
+ of mind as Thy loftiness demandeth.... I entreat, O Most Holy
+ Father, that Thy most living flame may so urge me forward that, not
+ being hindered by any mortal imperfections, I may happily and
+ safely again return to Thee."
+
+It is recorded by an authority that her body, "enclosed in a casket of
+cypress wood, lined with embroidered velvet," was placed in the chapel
+of Santa Anna which has since been destroyed. Visconti says: "She
+desired, with Christian humility, to be buried in the manner in which
+the sisters were buried when they died. And, as I suppose, her body was
+placed in the common sepulchre of the nuns of Santa Anna." Grimm
+declares that he cannot discover the place of her burial, and Visconti
+declares that her tomb remains unknown.
+
+But it is apparently a fact that the body of Vittoria Colonna is
+entombed in the sacristy of Santa Domenica Maggiore in Naples, the
+sarcophagus containing it resting by the side of the one containing the
+body of her husband, Francesco d'Avalos, Marchese of Pescara. This
+church is one of the finest in Naples, with twenty-seven chapels and
+twelve altars, and it is here that nearly all the great nobles of the
+kingdom of Naples are entombed. Here is the tomb of the learned Thomas
+Aquinas and here is shown, in relief, the miracle of the crucifix by
+Tommaso de Stefani, which--as the legend runs--thus addressed the
+learned doctor:--
+
+"_Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma; quam ergo mercedem recipies?_"
+
+To which he replied: "_Non aliam nisi te._"
+
+It is in the sacristy in which lie all the Princes of the House of
+Aragon that the sarcophagi of the Marchese and the Marchesa di Pescara
+are placed side by side in the high gallery near the ceiling. The altar
+has a fine Annunciation ascribed to Andrea da Salerno. The ceiling
+(whose coloring is as fresh and vivid as if painted yesterday) is by
+Solimena. Around the walls near the ceiling are two balconies or
+galleries, filled with very large wooden sarcophagi, whose scarlet
+velvet covers have faded into yellow browns with pink shades, many of
+which are tattered and are falling to pieces. The casket containing the
+body of Fernando Francesco d'Avalos, Marchese of Pescara (the husband of
+Vittoria Colonna), has on it an inscription by Ariosto; and his portrait
+(showing in profile a young face with blonde hair and a full reddish
+brown beard) and a banner, also, is suspended above the casket. That
+containing the body of the Marchesa, his wife (Vittoria Colonna), has an
+aperture at the top where the wood is worn away and the embalmed form,
+partly crumbled, may be seen. This seems strange to the verge of
+fantasy, but it is, apparently, true. The writer of this volume visited
+the Church of Santa Domenica Maggiore in Naples in December of 1906, and
+was assured by the sacristan that this sarcophagus contains the body of
+the Marchesa. Inquiries were then made of other prelates and of the
+Archbishop, who gave the same assurance. Later, learned archæologists in
+Rome were appealed to, regarding this assertion made in Naples, and the
+consensus of opinion obtained declares their assertion true. Professor
+Lanciani has himself publicly expressed this conviction. Still, it
+remains a curious question as to when this sarcophagus was placed in the
+sacristy, for the date goes back into long-buried centuries.
+
+Adjoining Santa Domenica Maggiore is the monastery in which Thomas
+Aquinas lived and lectured (in 1272), and the cell of the great doctor
+of philosophy is now made into a chapel. His lectures called together
+men of the highest rank and learning and were attended by the king and
+the members of the royal family. The entire locality of this church is
+replete with historic association. The most distinguished of the
+nobility of Naples have, for centuries, held their chapels in this
+church, and in these are many notable examples of Renaissance sculpture.
+
+The Accadémia des Arcades of Rome, founded in the seventeenth century to
+do honor to lyric art, celebrated the placing of a bust of Vittoria
+Colonna in a gallery of the Capitoline, in May of 1865, by a resplendent
+poetic festa. According to the gentle, leisurely customs of the land,
+where it is always afternoon and time has no value, thirty-two poets
+read their songs, written in Latin or in Italian, for this occasion,
+which were published in a sumptuous volume to be preserved in the
+archives of the Arcadians, who take themselves more seriously than the
+world outside quite realizes. This bust of Vittoria Colonna was the gift
+of the Duca and Duchessa of Torlonia of that period. It was crowned with
+laurel, as that of Petrarca had been, and the government took official
+recognition of the event.
+
+Goethe was made a member of this Accadémia that regarded itself as
+reflecting the glories of the Golden Age of Greece, and which was a
+century old at the time of his visit to Italy. "No stranger of any
+consequence was readily permitted to leave Rome without being invited to
+join this body," he recorded, and he wrote a humorous description of the
+formalities of his initiation.
+
+Mrs. Horatio Greenough was honored by being made a member of this
+Accadémia in recognition of her musical accomplishments, and the record
+of it is placed on the memorial marble over her grave in the Protestant
+cemetery in Rome. Every year, on Tasso's birthday (April 25), the
+Accadémia holds a festa in a little amphitheatre near "Tasso's oak," on
+the Janiculum, at which his bust is crowned with laurel. The gardens in
+which the seventeenth-century Arcadians disported themselves are now
+known among the Romans as _il Bosco Parrasio degli Arcadi_.
+
+Throughout Italy the fame of Vittoria Colonna only deepens with every
+succeeding century. Her nobility of character, her lofty spirituality of
+life, fitly crowned and perfected her intellectual force and brilliant
+gifts. Although from the customs of the time the Marchesa lived much in
+convents, she never, in any sense, save that of her fervent piety, lived
+the conventual life. Her noble gifts linked her always to the larger
+activities, and her gifts and rank invested her with certain demands and
+responsibilities that she could not evade. She was one of the messengers
+of life, and her place as a brilliant and distinguished figure in the
+contemporary world was one that the line of destiny, which pervades all
+circumstances and which, in her case, was so marked, absolutely
+constrained her to fill. She had that supreme gift of the lofty nature,
+the power of personal influence. Her exquisite courtesy and graciousness
+of manner, her simple dignity and unaffected sincerity, her delicacy of
+divination and her power of tender sympathy and liberal comprehension
+all combined to make her the ideal companion, counsellor, and friend, as
+well as the celebrity of letters and lyric art.
+
+No poet has more exquisitely touched the friendship between Vittoria
+Colonna and Michael Angelo than has Margaret J. Preston, in a poem
+supposed to be addressed to the sculptor by Vittoria, in which occur the
+lines:--
+
+ "We twain--one lingering on the violet verge,
+ And one with eyes raised to the twilight peaks--
+ Shall meet in the morn again.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ ... Supremest truth I gave;
+ Quick comprehension of thine unsaid thought,
+ Reverence, whose crystal sheen was never blurred
+ By faintest film of over-breathing doubt;
+ ... helpfulness
+ Such as thou hadst not known of womanly hands;
+ And sympathies so urgent, they made bold
+ To press their way where never mortal yet
+ Entrance had gained,--even to thy soul."
+
+This is the _Page de Conti_ that one reads in the air as he sails past
+Ischia on the violet sea; and the _chant d'amour_ of the sirens catches
+the echo of lines far down the centuries:--
+
+ "I understood not, when the angel stooped,
+ Whispering, 'Live on! for yet one joyless soul,
+ Void of true faith in human happiness,
+ Waits to be won by thee, from unbelief.'
+
+ "Now, all is clear. For _thy_ sake I am glad
+ I waited. Not that some far age may say,--
+ '_God's benison on her, since she was the friend
+ Of Michael Angelo!_'"
+
+
+
+
+ _So sometimes comes to soul and sense
+ The feeling which is evidence
+ That very near about us lies
+ The realm of spiritual mysteries.
+ The sphere of the supernal powers
+ Impinges on this world of ours.
+ The low and dark horizon lifts,
+ To light the scenic terror shifts;
+ The breath of a diviner air
+ Blows down the answer of a prayer:--
+ That all our sorrow, pain, and doubt
+ A great compassion clasps about,
+ And law and goodness, love and force,
+ Are wedded fast beyond divorce.
+ Then duty leaves to love its task,
+ The beggar Self forgets to ask;
+ With smile of trust and folded hands,
+ The passive soul in waiting stands
+ To feel, as flowers the sun and dew,
+ The One true Life its own renew._
+
+ WHITTIER.
+
+ "_For Thou only art holy. Thou only art the Lord. Thou only, O
+ Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the Glory of God the
+ Father._"
+
+
+
+
+ _Sometimes in heaven-sent dreams I do behold
+ A city with its turrets high in air,
+ Its gates that gleam with jewels strange and rare,
+ And streets that glow with burning of red gold;
+ And happy souls, through blessedness grown bold,
+ Thrill with their praises all the radiant air,
+ And God himself is light, and shineth there
+ On glories tongue of man hath never told._
+
+ _And in my dreams I thither march, nor stay
+ To heed earth's voices, howsoe'er they call,
+ Or proffers of the joys of this brief day,
+ On which so soon the sunset shadows fall;
+ I see the Gleaming Gates, and toward them press--
+ What though my path lead through the Wilderness?_
+
+ LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+VOICES OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
+
+ Oh, Italy! thy strength, thy power, thy crown
+ Lie in the life that in Assisi stirs
+ The heart, with impulse of self-sacrifice;
+ Where still St. Francis gathers weary souls
+ In his great love, which reaches out to all.
+ ... His blessing falls
+ In clear sweet tones: "_Benedicat tibi
+ Convertat vultum suum ad te et
+ Det Pacem!_" Hushed and holy silence breathes
+ About the wanderer who lifts his heart
+ To catch the echo of that voice of love.
+
+ CELIA RICHMOND.
+
+
+The mystic pilgrimage to Assisi, the "Seraphic City," prefigures itself
+almost as a journey to the Mount of Vision. "Any line of truth that
+leads us above materialism," says Dr. Wilberforce, Venerable Archdeacon
+of Westminster Abbey, "that forces us to think, that encourages the
+imagination to pierce the world's cobwebs, that forces us to remember
+that we are enwrapped by the supernatural, is helpful and stimulating. A
+human life lived only in the seen and felt, with no sense of the
+invisible, is a fatally impoverished life, a poor, blind, wingless life,
+but to believe that ever around us is a whole world full of spiritual
+beings; that this life, with its burdens, is but the shadow which
+precedes the reality; that here we are but God's children at school, is
+an invigorating conviction, full of hope, productive of patience and
+fruitful in self-control."
+
+To an age imprisoned in the fear of God the "sweet saint," Francis,
+brought the message of the love of God. To an age crushed under the
+abuses of religion as an organization of feudal bishops and
+ecclesiastics, St. Francis brought the message of hope and of joy. He
+revealed to his age the absolute reality of the spiritual world that
+surrounds us. He was born into a time when there existed on the one
+hand, poverty and misery; on the other, selfish and debasing
+self-indulgence of wealth and its corresponding oppression of the poor.
+The Church itself was a power for conquest and greed. Its kingdom was of
+this world. St. Bernard and others had nobly aimed to effect a reform
+and had illustrated by their own lives the beautiful example of
+simplicity and unselfishness, but their work failed in effectiveness
+and permanent impress.
+
+ "Oh, beauty of holiness!
+ Of self-forgetfulness, of lowliness."
+
+Not only in beauty, but in power does it stand. St. Francis brought to
+the sad and problematic conditions of his time that resistless energy of
+infinite patience, of a self-control based on insight into the divine
+relationships of life, and of unfailing fidelity to his high purpose.
+Through good report or through evil report he kept the faith, and
+pressed onward to the high calling of God. The twelfth and the
+thirteenth centuries had been a period of religious unrest and chaos. As
+Archdeacon Wilberforce has so impressively said in the words quoted from
+him, a life lived with no sense of the invisible is blind and
+impoverished. The movement initiated by St. Francis proclaimed anew the
+divine grace and love.
+
+ "Tokens are dead if the things live not. The light everlasting
+ Unto the blind is not, but is born of the eye that has vision."
+
+Something not unlike this trend of thought must drift through the mind
+of every one who journeys through the lovely Umbrian country to Assisi,
+one of those picturesquely beautiful hill towns of Italy whose romantic
+situation impresses the visitor. Seen from a little distance, one could
+hardly imagine how it could be reached unless he were the fortunate
+possessor of an airship. The entire region is most picturesque in
+character. Journeying from Rome to Assisi there is a constant ascent
+from the Campagna to the Apennines, and the road passes through wild
+defile and valley with amethyst peaks shining fair against the sky, with
+precipitous rocks, and the dense growth of oak and pine trees. In some
+places the valley is so narrow that the hills, on either side, rise
+almost within touch of the hand from the car window. The hill towns are
+frequent, and the apex of these towns is invariably crowned with a
+castle, a cathedral, or a ruin, and around it, circling in terraces, is
+built the town. The charm largely vanishes when fairly in these circling
+roads, for on either side are high walls, so that one's view is
+completely bounded by them; but from the summit and from the upper
+floors of the houses the most beautiful views are obtained. The Umbrian
+region, in which are located Perugia, Assisi, Spello, Foligno, Spoleto,
+Terni, Narni, and others, is simply the gem region of all Italy. The
+Umbrians are the most ancient of the Italian people, and Assisi claims
+to have been founded eight hundred and sixty-five years before the
+founding of Rome. It was the scene of constant warfare, and the streets
+are all underlaid by subterranean passages, in which the inhabitants
+could disappear from their enemies.
+
+To this ancient Umbrian city, from which went out the life and light
+that carried wonderful currents of vitality and illumination to all
+Italy and into almost all parts of the world, one comes as to a special
+and a sacred pilgrimage. For this mediæval town, perched on the top of a
+rocky hill, is the birthplace of St. Francis, the founder of the
+Franciscan order; in it were the scenes of his early life, and here, in
+1226, at the age of forty-four years, he died. The convent-church of San
+Francesco, built to his memory in 1230; the lower church, completed at
+that date, while the upper was finished in 1253; the magnificent
+Cathedral of Santa Maria Degli Angeli, completed in 1640; the Church of
+Santa Chiara and the Duomo, are the points of interest.
+
+ [Illustration: SAN FRANCESCAN CONVENT-CHURCH, ASSISI
+ _Page 346_]
+
+The purple Apennines, on one spur of which Assisi is built, are a
+picturesque feature of lovely Umbria. The old houses of Assisi rise
+white in the sunshine. The ancient walls still surround the city, and
+its towers stand as they stood before the eyes of St. Francis, almost
+seven centuries ago. The peak of Mt. Subasio, a neighboring peak of the
+Apennines, looms above the colossal rock that crowns the hill around
+whose top Assisi clusters in winding terraces. The massive pile of the
+Francescan church and monastery--the two churches, one above the
+other--forms an architectural group whose imposing aspect arrests the
+eye of every traveller for miles around. The pointed arches of the
+cloisters and the square campanile contrast rather than blend in an
+effective and harmonious manner and resemble military fortifications
+rather than an edifice of the church. The old walls still surround
+Assisi, and the houses all rise white under the blue Italian sky. The
+narrow streets, hardly wide enough for one carriage to pass another, are
+so intricate in their curves as they climb the steep hill, that it
+requires a faith hardly less than the traditional degree said to move
+mountains to lead the visitor to suppose that he will ever emerge
+from one that he has entered. Many of the houses along these curious
+thoroughfares have no windows, the only light and air coming through the
+open door. The bells from the campanile of the Francescan
+convent-church, from the Duomo and from the Church of Santa Chiara ring
+every quarter of an hour; and this constant clash of bells is almost the
+only sound that breaks the silence of the mediæval town, which lends
+itself to visions and to dreams. On the very air is stamped the impress
+of St. Francis. His personality, his teachings, his faith pervaded the
+atmosphere in a way that no one could believe until he had himself
+entered into the experience. In narration it cannot but seem like a
+pleasing and half-poetic fancy; but the lingerer in this shrine of
+religion and art will realize that the actual personality of the man who
+trod these streets nearly seven hundred years ago is strangely before
+him. Canon Knox Little, in a series of lectures on St. Francis of Assisi
+delivered in the Ladye Chapel of Worcester Cathedral a few years since,
+says of the panorama of the town:--
+
+ "The scene which from Assisi presented itself daily to his youthful
+ eyes must have had, did have, as we know, a lasting effect upon his
+ mind. From thence the eye surveys a noble coronet of stately
+ mountains. You look from Radicofani, above Trena, to Monte Catria,
+ famous as the scene of some of Dante's saddest times of solitude,
+ and ever is the eye satisfied with the grace and grandeur of the
+ curves of mountain outline, and the changing hues of an
+ incomparable sky. There are rivers and cities and lakes,--from
+ Thrasymene, just hidden by a line of crests, to the Paglia and
+ Tiber beneath, where Orvieto crowns its severe and lonely rock.
+ With the changing lights and shadows always beautiful in the vivid
+ spring or burning summer, tender-tinted autumn or clear and
+ sparkling winter, with the bright and pure and buoyant atmosphere
+ always giving life and vigor, what spot on earth more fitted as the
+ birthplace of the saint who was, above all things, bright and
+ tender and strong?"
+
+Assisi was an important town in the twelfth century when Francis, the
+son of Pietro Bernardone di Mercanti, wandered over its hills, and after
+severe fasting and prayer communed with God. Born in the midst of the
+constant warfare between Assisi and Perugia, he was first a soldier. He
+was captured and thrown into prison, and it was a remarkable dream, or
+vision, that came to him before he was set free, that determined his
+life of consecration. Tradition invested his birth with legends, one of
+which is, that in his infancy an aged man came to the door and begged to
+be permitted to take the child in his arms, prophesying that he was
+destined to accomplish a great work. Pietro Bernardone was a wealthy
+merchant of Assisi. Pica, the mother of Francis, is said to have been of
+noble origin and of a deeply religious nature. The early youth of
+Francis was given to games, festivals, and pleasures that degenerated
+into dissipation, but the mother continually affirmed her assurance
+that, if it pleased God, her son would become a Christian. In this
+atmosphere was nurtured "the sweet-souled saint of mediæval Italy," who
+is described as a figure of magical power, whose ardent temperament and
+mystic loveliness attracted to him all men.
+
+There is also a legend that Pica went to pray at the Portiuncula and
+that, for seven years, she prayed for a son. Her prayer was answered in
+the coming of the infant who was to be the great saint of all the ages.
+Francis, in his childhood, also knelt and prayed at this shrine. In the
+year 1211, when Francis was twenty-nine years of age and had entered on
+his ministry, this chapel was given to him, "and no sooner had they come
+to live here," it is said, "than the Lord multiplied their number from
+day to day." At one time he had gone to his devotions in great
+depression of spirits, "when, suddenly, an unspeakable ecstasy filled
+his breast. 'Be comforted, my dearest,' he said, 'and rejoice in the
+Lord, and let us not be sad that we are few; for it has been shown to me
+by God that you shall increase to a great multitude and shall go on
+increasing to the end of the world. I see a multitude of men coming to
+me from every quarter--French, Spaniards, Germans, English--each in
+their different tongues encouraging the others.'"
+
+At a distance of perhaps a mile and a half from Assisi, down in the
+valley near the railroad station, four holy pilgrims founded a shrine in
+the fourth century. Later, on this site, St. Benedict erected a tiny
+chapel, called "St. Maria della Portiuncula" (St. Mary of the Little
+Patron), and once, when praying in the chapel, Benedict had a vision of
+a vast crowd of people kneeling in ecstasy, chanting hymns of praise,
+while outside greater multitudes waited to kneel before the shrine, and
+he took this to mean that a great saint would one day be honored there.
+
+So the legends, still conversationally told in Assisi, run on and are
+locally current. Undoubtedly the dwellers in this curious old town,
+whose streets have hardly one level spot but climb up and down the steep
+hillside, realize that their saint is their title to fame and their
+revenue as well; yet through all the tales there breathes a certain
+sincerity and simplicity of worship. The little dark primitive shops
+teem with relics, which make, it is true, a great draft on imagination,
+and by what miracle modern photography has contrived to present the
+saint of Assisi in various impressive attitudes and groups it would be
+as well not to inquire too closely. It is a part of the philosophy of
+travel to take the goods the gods provide, and the blending of amused
+tolerance and unsuspected depths of reverential devotion by which the
+visitor will find himself moved, while in Assisi, can hardly be
+described. For, surely, here
+
+ "... there trod
+ The whitest of the saints of God,"
+
+and Catholic or Protestant, one equally enters into the beauty of his
+memory. The double and triple arches of the convent church enclose
+cloistered walls continually filled with visitors. No shrine in Italy
+holds such mysterious power. Simplicity and joy were the two keynotes of
+the life taught by St. Francis. "Poverty," he asserted, "is the happy
+state of life in which men are set free from the trammels of
+conventionalism, and can breathe the pure air of God's love. The richest
+inward life is enjoyed when life is poorest outwardly. Be poor," he
+continued, "try a new principle; be careless of having and getting; try
+_being_, for a change. Our life in the world ought to be such that any
+one on meeting us should be constrained to praise the heavenly Father.
+Be not an occasion of wrath to any one," he often said, "but by your
+gentleness may all be led to press onward to good works."
+
+The supreme aim of Francis was that of service to humanity. He gave
+himself with impassioned fervor to this one work. For him there were no
+ideals of cloistered seclusion or of devotion to learning and art, but
+the ideal alone to uplift humanity. It was literally and simply, indeed,
+the Christ ideal. Of the "Rule" made, one of his biographers says:--
+
+ "Amid all these encouragements the Rule was made. It consists, like
+ other monastic rules, of the three great vows of poverty, chastity,
+ and obedience, differing only in so far that the poverty ordained
+ by Francis was absolute. In other rules, though the individual was
+ allowed to possess nothing, the community had often rich
+ possessions, and there was no reason why the monks should not fare
+ sumptuously and secure to themselves many earthly enjoyments,
+ notwithstanding their individual destitution and their vow. But
+ among the Brothers Minor there was not to be so much as a provision
+ secured for the merest daily necessities. Day by day they were to
+ live by God's providence, eating what was given to them, taking no
+ thought how they were to be fed, or wherewithal clothed; 'neither
+ gold nor silver in your purses;' not even the scrip to collect
+ fragments in--as if God could not provide for every returning
+ necessity. There had been monasteries in Italy for centuries, and
+ the Benedictines were already a great and flourishing community;
+ but this absolute renunciation of all things struck a certain chill
+ to the hearts of all who heard of it, except the devoted band who
+ had no will but that of Francis. His friend, the Bishop of Assisi,
+ was one of those who stumbled at this novel and wonderful
+ self-devotion. 'Your life, without a possession in the world, seems
+ to me most hard and terrible,' said the compassionate prelate. 'My
+ lord,' said Francis, 'if we had possessions, arms and protection
+ would be necessary to us.' There was a force in this response which
+ perhaps we can scarcely realize, but the Assisan bishop, who knew
+ something of the temper of the lords of Umbria, and knew how lonely
+ were the brethren dwelling on the church lands--the little plot
+ (Portiuncula) a whole half league from the city gates--understood
+ and perceived the justice of the reply.
+
+ "Another grand distinction of the Rule drawn up by Francis was the
+ occupation it prescribed to its members. They were not to shut
+ themselves up, or to care first for their own salvation. They were
+ to preach--this was their special work; they were to proclaim
+ repentance and the remission of sins; they were to be heralds of
+ God to the world, and proclaim the coming of His kingdom. It is not
+ possible to suppose that when he thus began to organize the mind of
+ Francis did not make a survey of the establishments already in
+ existence--the convents bound by the same three great vows, where
+ life at this moment was going on so placidly, with flocks and herds
+ and vineyards to supply the communities, and studious monks in
+ their retirement, safe from all secular anxieties, fostering all
+ the arts in their beginning, and carrying on the traditions of
+ learning; while all around them the great unquiet, violent world
+ heaved and struggled, yet within the convent walls there was
+ leisure and peace. Blessed peace and leisure it was often, let us
+ allow, preserving for us the germs of many good things we now
+ enjoy, and raising little centres of safety and charity and
+ brotherly kindness through the country in which they were placed.
+ But such quiet was not in the nature of Francis. So far as we can
+ make out, he had thought little of himself--even of his own soul to
+ be saved--all his life. The trouble on his mind had been what to
+ do, how sufficiently to work for God and to help men. His fellow
+ creatures were dear to him; he gave them his cloak from his
+ shoulders many a day, and the morsel from his own lips, and would
+ have given them the heart from his bosom had that been possible."
+
+These are the "voices" that still echo in the air of Assisi. In the
+suburbs is still shown the spot where the chapel of St. Damian stood up
+a rocky path on the hillside in an olive grove. It was here that the
+scene of the miracle of the crucifix is laid. Before the altar Francis
+knelt, praying: "Great and Glorious Father, and thou, Lord Jesus, I pray
+ye, shed abroad your light in the darkness of my mind. May I in all
+things act in accordance with thy holy will."
+
+It is recorded that while he thus knelt in deep prayer, he was unable to
+turn his eyes from the cross, conscious that something marvellous was
+taking place. The image of the Saviour assumed life; the eyes turned
+attentively on him; a voice spoke accepting his service and he felt at
+once endowed with the most marvellous tide of vitality, of joy, and of
+exhilaration. At this moment he entered on that life whose impress is
+left on the ages. Of the character and the peculiar quality of its
+influence Mrs. Oliphant well says:--
+
+ "It is not always possible to follow with our sympathy that
+ literal, childlike rendering of every incident in the life of the
+ Master, which sometimes looks fantastical and often unmeaning. He
+ was a man of his time, and could live only under the conditions
+ which that time allowed. He made visible to a literal, practical,
+ unquestioning age the undeniable and astounding fact that the
+ highest of all beings chose a life of poverty, hardship, and
+ humbleness; that He chose submission instead of resistance, love
+ instead of oppression, peace and forgiveness instead of revenge and
+ war. Christ had died in their hearts, as said the legend of that
+ Christmas at Greccia; and, as in one of the bold and artless
+ pictures just then beginning to yield to a more refined and subtle
+ art, Francis set forth before the world the image of his Master.
+ The Son of man was lifted up, as on another cross, before the eyes
+ of Umbria, before all Italy, warlike and wily, priest and baron,
+ peasant and Pope. In this world Francis knew nothing, acknowledged
+ nothing, cared for nothing save Christ and Him crucified--except,
+ indeed, Christ's world, the universe redeemed, the souls to be
+ saved, the poor to be comforted, the friends to be cherished, the
+ singing birds and bubbling fountains, the fair earth and the sweet
+ sky. Courteous, tender, and gentle as any paladin, sweet-tongued
+ and harmonious as any poet, liberal as any prince, was the
+ barefooted beggar and herald of God. We ask no visionary reverence
+ for the Stigmata, no wondering belief in any miracle. As he stood,
+ he was as great a miracle as any then existing under God's
+ abundant, miraculous heavens; more wonderful than are the day and
+ night, the sun and the dew; only less wonderful than that great
+ Love which saves the world, and which it was his aim and destiny to
+ reflect and show forth."
+
+That mystic union to which all the ages attest, the union that may, at
+any moment, be formed between the soul and God, that mystery which the
+church calls conversion and which finds its perfect interpretation in
+the words of St. Paul, when he said, that if any man be in Christ he is
+a new creation, had been accomplished in the life of Francis. He
+realized the fulness of the knowledge of God's will; he longed only for
+wisdom and for spiritual understanding. Nor is this experience one to be
+relegated to the realm of miracle. It is simply entering into the
+supreme completeness of life. It is not alone St. Paul, but every man,
+who may truly say, "I can do all things through Christ, who
+strengtheneth me." Nor does this experience, when translated aright into
+daily life and action, require any abnormal form of expression. It does
+not, in its truest significance, mean a life apart from the ordinary
+duties, but rather it means that these duties shall be fulfilled in the
+larger and nobler way. The exceptional man may be called to be the
+standard bearer; to renounce all domestic ties and give his service to
+the world; but such a life as this differs only in degree from that
+which in the ordinary home and social relations finds ample means for
+its best expression. The persistent aim after perfection should be the
+keynote of every life. No one should be satisfied to hold as his
+supreme ideal any lesser standard of ultimate achievement than is
+involved in the divine command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
+Father in heaven is perfect." This is the soul's ideal, whatever ages
+and eternities it may require for it to recognize this trackless path.
+
+St. Francis recognized joy as a factor of the nobler life. "It was his
+constant effort," writes one biographer, "that there should be bright
+looks and cheerful tones about him. To one of his brethren, who had the
+habit of walking about sadly with his head drooping, he said,--it is
+evident, with a spark of the impatience natural to his own vivacious
+spirit,--'You may surely repent of your sins, my brother, without
+showing your grief so openly. Let your sorrow be between God and you:
+pray to Him to pardon you by His mercy, and to restore to your soul the
+joy of His salvation. But before me and the others be always cheerful,
+for it does not become a servant of God to have an air of melancholy and
+a face full of trouble.'"
+
+An incident in the early life of St. Francis, which had determining
+significance, was his meeting with Dominic. The story is told "that
+Dominic, praying in a church in Rome, saw, in a vision, our Lord rise
+from the right hand of the Father in wrath, wearied at last with the
+contradiction of sinners, with a terrible aspect and three lances in his
+hand, each one of which was to destroy from the face of the earth a
+distinct class of offenders. But while the dreamer gazed at this awful
+spectacle, the Virgin Mother arose and pleaded for the world, declaring
+that she had two faithful servants whom she was about to send into it to
+bring sinners to the feet of the Saviour; one of these was Dominic
+himself, the other was a poor man, meanly clad, whom he had never seen
+before. This vision came to the devout Spaniard, according to the
+legend, during the night, which he spent, as he was wont, in a church,
+in prayer. Next morning, while he mused on the dream which had been sent
+to him, his eye fell all at once upon a stranger in a brown tunic, of
+aspect as humble and modest as his garb, coming into the same church to
+pray. Dominic at once ran to him, fell on his neck, and, saluting him
+with a kiss, cried, 'Thou art my companion: thy work and mine is the
+same. If we stand by each other, nothing can prevail against us.'"
+
+No magic mirror, however, revealed to Francis the wonderful panorama of
+his future. No sibyl turned the leaves of the records yet to unfold. "He
+was preparing himself for a life of penitence rather than a life of
+activity," in the opinion of Paul Sabatier, and he had dreamed no dream
+of becoming a religious founder. He was so entirely without any personal
+ambition, save that of being obedient to the Heavenly Vision, that this
+absolute consecration of purpose enabled the divine power to work
+through him without obstruction. He became a very perfect instrument, so
+to speak, in the divine hand. After repairing the little chapel called
+the Portiuncula, on the level ground at the foot of the hill, some two
+miles from Assisi, his plan was to there pass his time in meditation and
+prayer. But the legend runs that on the feast of St. Mathias (February
+24), in the winter of 1209, a Benedictine monk was celebrating mass and
+on his turning to read, "Wherever ye go preach, saying, The kingdom of
+heaven is at hand," Francis was profoundly and peculiarly impressed, and
+he exclaimed: "This is what I desire, O Father; from this day forth I
+set myself to put this command in practice." He felt that Jesus himself
+had spoken to him through the priest. Love and sacrifice became to him
+the supreme ideals, and in this moment, in that poor and bare little
+chapel, was inaugurated one of the greatest and most far-reaching
+religious movements of the entire world.
+
+ "Not always as the whirlwind's rush
+ On Horeb's mount of fear,
+ Not always as the burning bush
+ To Midian's shepherd seer,
+ Not as the awful voice which came
+ To Israel's prophet bards,
+ Nor as the tongues of cloven flame,
+ Nor gift of fearful words,--
+
+ "Not always thus with outward sign
+ Of fire or voice from Heaven
+ The message of a truth divine,
+ The call of God is given!"
+
+That great ministry of St. Francis, whose influence pervades all
+time,--that lies between the opening years of the thirteenth and the
+opening years of the twentieth centuries,--was initiated the next
+morning in Assisi, when Francis preached for the first time. He spoke
+simply, emphasizing the truths he had learned to realize through his own
+experience: the absolute duty of following after perfection; the
+importance of realizing the shortness of life and the need of
+repentance. The first disciple of Francis was a wealthy resident of
+Assisi, named Bernardo. He was impressed with the conviction that he
+should distribute his possessions and unite with Francis in all his aims
+and work. Without definite organization, others joined them. They passed
+that spring and summer going up and down the country, sometimes
+assisting the harvesters and haymakers, and everywhere entering into the
+common life of the people. The Bishop of Assisi, however, remonstrated
+with Francis, saying that to him it seemed very harsh and unwise to try
+to live without owning anything. To which Francis replied that he did
+not desire temporal possessions, as these required arms for their
+defence and were an obstacle to the love of God and one's neighbor. It
+has remained for later years to discern the still truer significance of
+the teachings of Jesus, that neither possessions nor the lack of
+possessions form the real test, but the use which is made of them. As
+spiritual insight is developed it is more and more clearly realized that
+the quality of the life lived is the sole matter of importance, and not
+the conditions that surround it.
+
+The brotherhood increased. The abbot of the Benedictines on Monte
+Subasio ceded to Francis and his order the little chapel called the
+Portiuncula, now enclosed within the vast and magnificent church of
+Santa Maria degli Angeli. M. Paul Sabatier, in his admirable biography
+of St. Francis, points out clearly that the founder of the Franciscans
+contemplated a laboring and not a mendicant order. During the decade
+1211 to 1221, which Francis and his followers passed at the Portiuncula,
+a portion of the time was constantly passed in industrial pursuits.
+"With all his gentleness, Francis knew how to show an inflexible
+severity toward the idle," says Sabatier, "and he even went so far as to
+dismiss a friar who refused to work." Although Francis espoused poverty,
+declaring that she was his bride, he was unfalteringly loyal to the
+ideals of honest industry and integrity.
+
+ [Illustration: ST. FRANCIS D'ASSISI, THE DUOMO, ASSISI
+ Giovanni Dupré
+ _Page 366_]
+
+The mystic legends of the life of their saint that abound in Assisi are
+touched with poetic romance in that a companion figure is always seen by
+his side, that of Santa Chiara. Not more inseparable in popular thought
+are Dante and Beatrice, or Petrarca and Laura, than are Francis and
+Clara. Their statues stand side by side in the Duomo; they are
+represented together by both painter and sculptor in the churches of
+Santa Chiara and Santa Maria degli Angeli in the old hill town. Chiara
+was the daughter of a noble family, and as a girl of sixteen, coming
+under the influence of Francis from hearing one of his sermons, she,
+too, became one of his followers and left her father's palace in Assisi
+to take the vows of perpetual and voluntary poverty at the altar of the
+Portiuncula. Followed by two women, she passed swiftly through the town
+in the dead of the night, and through dark woods, her hurrying figure
+seeming like some spirit driven by winds towards an unknown future. One
+thing alone was clear before her--that she was nearing the abode of
+Francis Bernardone whose preaching at San Giorgio only a month before
+had thrilled her, inspiring her in this strange way to seek the life he
+had described in fiery words. Just as she came in sight of the
+Portiuncula the chanting of the brethren, which had reached her in the
+wood, suddenly ceased, and they came out with lighted torches in
+expectation of her coming. Swiftly and without a word she passed in
+to attend the midnight mass which Francis was to serve, and the scene is
+thus described:--
+
+ "The ceremony was simple, wherein lies the charm of all things
+ Franciscan. The service over and the last blessing given, St.
+ Francis led Clare toward the altar, and with his own hands cut off
+ her long, fair hair and unclasped the jewels from her neck. But a
+ few minutes more and a daughter of the proud house of Scifi stood
+ clothed in the brown habit of the order, the black veil of religion
+ falling about her shoulders, lovelier far in this nun-like severity
+ than she had been when decked out in all her former luxury of
+ silken gowns and precious gems.
+
+ "It was arranged that Clare was to go afterward to the Benedictine
+ nuns of San Paolo, near Bastia, about an hour's walk farther on in
+ the plain. So when the final vows had been taken, St. Francis took
+ her by the hand and they passed out of the chapel together just as
+ dawn was breaking, while the brethren returned to their cells
+ gazing half sadly, as they passed, at the coils of golden hair and
+ the little heap of jewels which still lay upon the altar cloth."
+
+Clara founded a convent and lived as its abbess, and the great church of
+Santa Chiara is built on the site of this convent. She was born in
+Assisi in 1194, and died in 1253, surviving Francis by twenty-seven
+years. Her father was the Count Favorini Scifi, and he had destined his
+daughter--who had great beauty--to a rich and brilliant marriage. He
+violently opposed her choice of the religious life, but no earthly
+power, she declared, should sever her from it.
+
+The beauty of the lifelong friendship between Francis and Clara is thus
+touched upon by Mrs. Oliphant:--
+
+ "It was one of those tender and touching friendships which are to
+ the student of history like green spots in the desert; and which
+ gave to the man and the woman thus voluntarily separated from all
+ the joys of life a certain human consolation in the midst of their
+ hardships. They can have seen each other but seldom, for it was one
+ of the express stipulations of the Franciscan Rule that the friars
+ should refrain from all society with women, and have only the most
+ sparing and reserved intercourse even with their sisters in
+ religion. And Francis was no priest, nor had he the privilege of
+ hearing confession and directing the spiritual life of his daughter
+ in the faith. But he sent to her to ask enlightenment from her
+ prayers, when any difficulty was in his way. He went to see her
+ when he was in trouble; especially once on his way to Rieti to have
+ an operation performed on his eyes. Once the two friends ate
+ together at a sacramental meal, the pledge and almost the
+ conclusion on earth of that tenderest, most disinterested, and
+ unworldly love which existed between them. That he was sure of her
+ sympathy in all things, of her prayers and spiritual aid,
+ whatsoever he might be doing, wheresoever he might be, no doubt was
+ sweet to Francis in all his labors and trials. As he walked many a
+ weary day past that church of St. Damian, every stone of which was
+ familiar to him, and many laid with his own hands, must not his
+ heart have warmed at thought of the sister within, safe from all
+ conflict with the world, upon whose fellow-feeling he could rely
+ absolutely as man can rely only on woman? The world has jeered at
+ the possibility of such friendships from its earliest age; and yet
+ they have always existed,--one of the most exquisite and delicate
+ of earthly ties. Gazing back into that far distance over the
+ graves, not only of those two friends, but of a hundred succeeding
+ generations, a tear of grateful sympathy comes into the student's
+ eye. He is glad to believe that, all those years, Francis could see
+ in his comings and goings the cloister of Clara; and that this
+ sacred gleam of human fellowship,--love purified of all
+ self-seeking,--tender, visionary, celestial affection, sweetened
+ their solitary lives."
+
+Legends innumerable, attesting supernormal manifestations regarding
+Francis, sprang up and have been perpetuated through the ages. One is as
+follows:--
+
+ "Hardly more than three years from the moment when the pale
+ penitent was hooted through Assisi amid the derisive shouts of the
+ people, and driven with blows and curses into confinement in his
+ own father's house, we find that it has already become his custom
+ on Sunday to preach in the cathedral; and that, from his little
+ convent at the Portiuncula, Francis has risen into influence in the
+ whole country, which no doubt by this time was full of stories of
+ his visit to Rome and intercourse with the Pope, and all the
+ miraculous dreams and parables with which that intercourse was
+ attended. Already the mind of the people, so slow to adopt, but so
+ ready to become habituated to, anything novel, had used itself to
+ the sight of the brethren in their brown gowns, and, leaping from
+ one extreme to the other, instead of madmen, learned to consider
+ them saints. The air about the little cloister began to breathe of
+ miracles,--miracles which must have been a matter of common report
+ among the contemporaries of the saint, for Celano wrote within
+ three years of Francis's death. Once, when their leader was absent,
+ a sudden wonder startled the brethren. It was midnight between
+ Saturday and Sunday, and Francis, who had gone to preach at Assisi,
+ was at the moment praying in the canon's garden. A chariot of fire,
+ all radiant and shining, suddenly entered the house, awaking those
+ who lay asleep, and moving to wonder and awe those who watched, or
+ labored, or prayed. It was the heart and thoughts of their leader
+ returning to them in the midst of his prayer, which were figured by
+ this appearance."
+
+When Francis died a pathetic scene is thus described:--
+
+ "All the clergy of Assisi, chanting solemn hymns, came out to meet
+ the bier, and thus they climbed the hill to the birthplace of the
+ saint, the city of his toils and tears and blessing. When they came
+ to St. Damian an affecting pause was made. Clara within, with all
+ her maidens, waited the last visit of their father and friend.
+ Slowly the triumphant crowd defiled into the church of the nuns,
+ hushing, let us hope, their songs of joy, their transports of
+ gratulations, out of respect to the grief which dwelt there, and
+ could scarcely, by all the arguments of family pride, or the
+ excitement of this universal triumph, be brought to rejoice. The
+ bier was set down within the chancel, the coffin opened, and opened
+ also was the little window through which the nuns received the
+ sacrament on ordinary occasions. To this little opening the pale
+ group of nuns, ten of them, with Clara at their head, came marching
+ silently, with tears and suppressed cries. Clara herself, even in
+ face of that multitude, could not restrain her grief. 'Father,
+ father, what will become of us?' she cried out; 'who will care for
+ us now, or console us in our troubles?' 'Virgin modesty,' says
+ Celano, stopped her lamentations, and with a miserable attempt at
+ thanksgiving, reminding herself that the angels were rejoicing at
+ his coming, and all was gladness on his arrival in the city of God,
+ the woman who had been his closest friend in this world, whose
+ sympathy he had sought so often, kissed the pale hands--'splendid
+ hands,' says Celano, in his enthusiasm, 'adorned with precious gems
+ and shining pearls'--and disappeared from the little window with
+ her tears into the dim convent behind, where nobody could reprove
+ her sorrow."
+
+The personality of Chiara comes down to us through the ages invested
+with untold charm. It is said that when she was dying there came "a long
+procession of white-robed virgins, led by the Queen of Heaven, whose
+head was crowned with a diadem of shining gold, each of the celestial
+visitors stooped to kiss Chiara as her soul passed to its home."
+
+During all the life of Francis, whenever any new movement or work was to
+be undertaken, he invariably sent to ask the counsel and the prayers of
+Chiara.
+
+The miraculous preservation of the body of Santa Chiara is one of the
+articles of faith in Assisi. In 1850--six hundred years after her
+death--a tomb believed to be hers was found and opened in the presence
+of a distinguished group of ecclesiastics, among whom was Cardinal
+Pecci, later Pope Leo XIII. In this tomb a form is said to have been
+found, and it has been placed in a reliquary of alabaster and Carrara
+marble especially constructed for it. This sanctuary is placed in the
+church of Santa Chiara, in the crypt, behind a glass screen, where
+candles are kept perpetually burning. Lina Gordon Duff, writing the
+history of Assisi, says of this curious spectacle:--
+
+ "As pilgrims stand before a grating in the dimly lighted crypt, the
+ gentle rustle of a nun's dress is heard; slowly invisible hands
+ draw the curtain aside, and the body of Santa Chiara is seen
+ lying in a glass case upon a satin bed, her face clearly outlined
+ against her black and white veils, whilst her brown habit is drawn
+ in straight folds about her body. She clasps the book of her Rule
+ in one hand, and in the other holds a lily with small diamonds
+ shining on the streamers."
+
+ [Illustration: SANTA CHIARA, THE DUOMO, ASSISI
+ Amalia Dupré
+ _Page 375_]
+
+In all these churches--the great convent church, upper and lower, of the
+Franciscans elaborately adorned with frescoes by Cimabue and by Giotto;
+in the ancient Duomo; in Santa Chiara and in Santa Maria degli
+Angeli--statues of the two saints, Francis and Chiara, are placed side
+by side. She shares all the exaltation of his memory and the fulness of
+his fame.
+
+The strange problem of the stigmata has, perhaps, never been absolutely
+solved. Canon Knox Little says that as to the miracles of St. Francis
+generally speaking, there is no intrinsic improbability; that "his holy
+life, his constant communion with God, the abundant blessings with which
+it pleased God to mark his ministry, all point in the same direction."
+Latter-day revelations of psychic science disclose contemporary facts
+of the power of mental influence on the physical form that are, in many
+instances, hardly less wonderful than this alleged miracle of St.
+Francis. Whether the story is accepted literally or only in a figurative
+sense does not affect the transcendent power of his influence. His
+entire life and work illustrate the beauty of holiness. "Art in its
+widest sense gained a marvellous impulse from his work and effort," says
+Canon Knox Little. The French and Provençal literature and the schools
+of Byzantine art preceded the life of Francis; but his influence
+imparted a powerful wave of sympathetic and vital insight and awakened a
+world of new sensibilities of feeling. Indeed, it is a proverb of Italy,
+"Without Francis, no Dante." Certainly the life of Francis was the
+inspiration of the early Italian art. Cimabue and Giotto drew from the
+inspiration of that unique and lovely life the pictorial conceptions
+that have made Assisi the cradle of Italian painting. The great works of
+Giotto are in the lower church of the Franciscan monastery. One of these
+frescoes represents chastity as a maiden kneeling in a shrine, while
+angels bring to her branches of palm. Obedience is depicted as placing
+a yoke upon the bowed figure of a priest, while St. Francis, attended by
+two angels, looks on; Poverty, whom Francis declared to be his bride, is
+pictured as accompanied by Hope and Charity, who give her in marriage to
+St. Francis, the union being blessed by Christ, while the heavenly
+Father and throngs of angels gaze through the clouds on this nuptial
+scene. The fresco called Gloriosus Franciscus is perhaps the crowning
+work of Giotto. Francis is seen in a beatitude of glory, with a richly
+decorated banner bearing the cross and seven stars floating above his
+head and bands of angels in the air surrounding him. Canon Knox Little,
+alluding to these interesting works of Giotto, says that "even in their
+faded glories they give an immense interest to the lower church of
+Assisi. No one can look at them now unmoved, or wander on the hillside
+to the west of the little city, with the rugged rocks above one's head,
+and beneath one's feet the rich carpets of cyclamen, and before one's
+eyes long dreamy stretches of the landscape of Umbria, without being
+touched by the feeling of that beautiful and loving life devoted to God
+and man and nature, in utter truth, which therefore left such an
+impress on Christian art."
+
+The Madonna and saints painted by Cimabue are faded almost to the point
+of obliteration, yet there still lingers about them a certain grace and
+charm. The visitor to this Franciscan monastery church realizes that he
+is beholding the art which was the very pledge and prophecy of the
+Renaissance, and he realizes, too, that the Renaissance itself was the
+outgrowth of the new vitality communicated to the world by the life and
+character of St. Francis. He gave to the world the realization of the
+living Christ; he taught that religion was in action, not in theology.
+He liberated the spirit; and when this colossal church was being built
+(1228-53) the artists who had felt the new thrill of life opened by his
+teaching hastened to Assisi to express their appreciation by their
+pictorial work on its walls. The qualities of spiritual life--faith,
+sacrifice, sympathy, and love--began, for the first time, to be
+interpreted into artistic expression.
+
+The tomb of St. Francis is in the crypt of the church. The stone
+sarcophagus containing his body was discovered in 1818, and then placed
+here in a little chamber especially prepared, surrounded by an iron
+latticework with candles perpetually burning.
+
+From the sacristy of the lower church, stairs ascend to the upper, with
+its beautiful nave and transept with a high altar, and the choir stalls.
+While the lower church with its great arches is always dark, the upper
+is flooded with light from vast windows. There is a series of frescoed
+panels on either side, accredited to pupils of Giotto, full of forcible
+action and a glow of color. But the upper church, while it is
+magnificent, lacks somewhat of that mystic atmosphere one is so swiftly
+conscious of in the gloom and mystery of the lower church.
+
+Stretching behind the churches, along the crest of the high hill, is the
+colossal monastery itself, with that double row of arches and colonnades
+that makes it so conspicuous a feature of all the Umbrian valley.
+Formerly hundreds of monks dwelt here; but the Italian government
+suppressed this monastery in 1866, and since that time it has been used
+as a school for boys.
+
+The ancient Duomo, whose façade is of the twelfth century, has three
+exquisite rose windows, and on either side, as one approaches the high
+altar, stand the statues of St. Francis and of Santa Chiara. In the
+little piazza in front of the church is a bronze copy of Dupré's famous
+statue of St. Francis.
+
+The colossal church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, with its magnificent
+dome, is a contrast, indeed, to the primitive little Portiuncula where
+Francis knelt in prayer, and which is now preserved in the centre of
+this vast cathedral,--the rude structure encased in marble, and
+decorated, above the entrance, with a picture by Overbeck, whose motive
+is St. Francis as he stands, hushed and reverent, listening to the voice
+that tells him to embrace poverty. There is a fine Perugino in the
+church, representing the Saviour. The cell in which St. Francis died,
+enclosed in the little chapel which St. Bonaventura built over it, is
+preserved in this great cathedral.
+
+"And who was he that opened that door in heaven?" questions Canon Knox
+Little in reference to St. Francis. "Who was he that gave that fresh
+life and thought? Who but the man who had brought down in his own person
+the living Christ into his century, who had taught men again the love of
+God, and then the love of man and the love of nature; who had lifted
+the people out of their misery and degradation, and awakened the church
+out of its stiffness and worldliness; it was he, too, who inspired, who
+may at most be said to have created, Italian art,--the great St.
+Francis! Such are the deep, such are the penetrating, such are the
+far-reaching effects of sanctity. If a soul is, by divine grace, given
+wholly to God, it is impossible for us to say to what heights it may
+attain, or what good, in every region of human effort, it may do."
+
+ [Illustration: BAIÆ AND ISCHIA, FROM CAMALDOLI
+ _Page 382_]
+
+Perugia, the neighboring city only fifteen miles from Assisi, is the
+metropolis of all this Umbrian region. Like Assisi, it is a "hill town,"
+built on an acropolis of rock, its foundations laid by the Etruscans
+more than three thousand years before the Christian era, and its
+atmosphere is freighted with the records of artists and scholars. The
+Perugians were the forerunners. They held the secret of artifice in
+metals and gems; they were architects and sculptors. The only traces of
+their painting that have come down to us are their works on sarcophagi,
+on vases or funeral urns,--traces that indicate their gifts for line and
+form. It was about 310 B.C. that all Umbria became a Roman province.
+The colossal porta of Augustus--a gateway apparently designed for the
+Cyclops--still retains its inscription, "Augustus Perusia." The
+imperishable impress of the great Roman conqueror is still seen in many
+places. Perugia was a firm citadel, as is attested by the fact that
+Totila and his army of Goths spent seven years in besieging it. The
+centuries from the thirteenth to the fifteenth inclusive, when it was
+under the sway of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, were years of tragic
+violence. Even the cathedral became the scene of riot, and its interior
+was entirely washed with wine, and it was reconsecrated before it could
+be again used for holy offices. The little piazza in front of the
+cathedral, now dreaming in the sun, has been the scene of strange and
+contrasting crises of life. Strife and warfare have desolated it; the
+footsteps of Bernardino of Siena have consecrated it, as he passed
+within the great portals to preach the gospel of peace. He was one of
+the most potent of the Francescan disciples, and Bernardino (born of the
+noble family of the Albizzeschi, in 1380, in Siena, the year after St.
+Catherine's death) for forty years wandered over Italy, preaching
+peace and repentance. Vespasiano da Bisticci, a contemporary historian,
+records that Bernardino "converted and changed the minds and spirits of
+men marvellously and had a wondrous power in persuading men to lay aside
+their mortal hatreds." Bernardino died at the age of sixty-four in
+Aquila, and the towns in which he had faithfully carried on his
+apostolic work placed the sacred sign of the divine name (I.H.S.) upon
+their gates and palaces, in his memory. In the Sienese gallery is a
+portrait of San Bernardino by Sano, painted in 1460, representing the
+saint as the champion of the Holy Name, with the inscription, "I have
+manifested Thy name to men." In one of his impressive and wonderful
+sermons San Bernardino said:--
+
+ "There still remain many places for us to make. Ah! for the love of
+ God, love one another. Alas! see you not that, if you love the
+ destruction one of the other you are ruining your very selves? Ah!
+ put this thing right for the love of God. Love one another! What I
+ have done to make peace among you and to make you like brothers, I
+ have done with that zeal I should wish my own soul to receive. I
+ have done it all to the glory of God. And let no one think that I
+ have set myself to do anything at any person's request. I am only
+ moved by the bidding of God for His honor and glory."
+
+Opposite the Duomo of Perugia, on the other side of the piazza, is the
+Palazzo Municipio, with a Gothic façade, a beautiful example of
+thirteenth-century architecture. Here also is the colossal fountain with
+three basins, decorated with pictorial designs from the Bible by Niccolo
+Pisano and Arnolfo of Florence, and in the shadow of this fountain St.
+Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Bernardino often met and held converse.
+
+Perugia easily reads her title clear to artistic immortality in having
+been the home of Perugino, the master of Raphael. Here he lived for
+several years working with Pinturicchio in the frescoes that adorn the
+Collegio del Cambio, now held as a priceless treasure hall of art. They
+still glow with rich coloring,--the Christ seen on the Mount of
+Transfiguration; the Mother and Child with the adoring magi; and the
+chariot of the dawn driven by Apollo a century before Guido painted his
+"Aurora" in the Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome.
+
+From the parapets of Perugia are views of supreme poetic beauty. The
+play of light and color on the picturesque hills and mountains of the
+Umbrian country; the gray-green gleam of olive orchards and the silver
+threads of winding streams; the towers and ruins and castles of a dozen
+towns and villages that crown the slopes, and the violet shadows of
+deepening twilight, with Assisi bathed in a splendor of rose and
+gold,--all combine to make this an ever-changing panorama for the poet
+and painter.
+
+No journey in Italy is quite like that to the lovely Umbrian valley and
+its Jerusalem, Assisi, the shrine which, with the single exception of
+Rome, is the special place of pilgrimage for the entire religious world.
+Perugia offers the charm of art, and attracts the visitor, also, by an
+exceptional degree of modern comfort and convenience; but Assisi is the
+shrine before which he kneels, where the footsteps of saints who have
+knelt in prayer make holy ground, and where he realizes anew the
+consecration of faith and sacrifice. The very air is filled with divine
+messages, and in lowly listening he will hear, again, those wonderful
+and thrilling words of St. Francis:--
+
+ "By the holy love which is in God I pray all to put aside every
+ obstacle, every care, every anxiety, that they may be able to
+ consecrate themselves entirely to serve, love, and honor the Lord
+ God, with a pure heart and a sincere purpose, which is what He asks
+ above all things."
+
+
+
+
+ _White phantom city, whose untrodden streets
+ Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting
+ Shadows of palaces and strips of sky;
+ I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets
+ Seen in mirage, or towers of clouds uplifting
+ In air their unsubstantial masonry._
+
+ LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+ _Fair as the palace builded for Aladdin,
+ Yonder St. Mark uplifts its sculptured splendor--
+ Intricate fretwork, Byzantine mosaic,
+ Color on color, column upon column,
+ Barbaric, wonderful, a thing to kneel to!
+ Over the portal stand the four gilt horses,
+ Gilt hoof in air, and wide distended nostril,
+ Fiery, untamed, as in the days of Nero.
+ Skyward, a cloud of domes and spires and crosses;
+ Earthward, black shadows flung from jutting stonework.
+ High over all the slender Campanile
+ Quivers, and seems a falling shaft of silver._
+
+ THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.
+
+
+
+
+ _As one who parts from Life's familiar shore,
+ Looks his last look in long-beloved eyes,
+ And sees in their dear depths new meanings rise
+ And strange light shine he never knew before;
+ As then he fain would snatch from Death his hand
+ And linger still, if haply he may see
+ A little more of this Soul's mystery
+ Which year by year he seemed to understand;
+ So, Venice, when thy wondrous beauty grew
+ Dim in the clouds which clothed the wintry sea
+ I saw thou wert more beauteous than I knew,
+ And long to turn and be again with thee.
+ But what I could not then I trust to see
+ In that next life which we call memory._
+
+ PHILLIPS BROOKS.[2]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] From "Life of Phillips Brooks," by kind permission of Messrs. E. P.
+Dutton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE GLORY OF A VENETIAN JUNE
+
+ I have been between Heaven and Earth since our arrival at Venice.
+ The Heaven of it is ineffable--never had I touched the skirts of so
+ celestial a place. The beauty of the architecture, the silver
+ trails of water up between all that gorgeous color and carving, the
+ enchanting silence, the music, the gondolas,--I mix it all up
+ together, and maintain that nothing is like it, nothing equal to
+ it, no second Venice in the world.
+
+ MRS. BROWNING, in the June of 1850.
+
+
+
+
+The first glimpse of enchanted Venice, as her towers and marble palaces
+rise wraith-like from the sea, is an experience that can never fade from
+memory. Like a mirage, like a vision invoked by some incantation or
+magician's spell, the scene prefigures itself, bringing a thrill of some
+vague and undefined memory, as if a breath floated by,--
+
+ "An odor from Dreamland sent,
+ That makes the ghost seem nigh me,
+ Of a splendor that came and went;
+ Of a life lived somewhere,--I know not
+ In what diviner sphere,--
+ Of memories that stay not and go not,"
+
+which eludes all translation into words. Nor does the spell dissolve and
+vanish when put to the test of one's actual sojourn in the Dream City.
+It is an experience outside the boundaries of the ordinary day and
+daylight world, as if one were caught up into the ethereal realm to find
+a city
+
+ "... of gliding and wide-wayed silence
+ With room in the streets for the soul."
+
+The sense of remoteness from common life could hardly be greater if one
+were suddenly swept away to some far star, blazing in the firmament; or
+if Charon had rowed him over the mystic river and he had entered the
+abodes of life on the plane beyond. Even the hotel becomes an enchanted
+palace whose salons, luxuriously decorated, open by long windows on
+marble balconies overhanging the Grand Canal. Dainty little tables piled
+with current reading matter, in French, English, and Italian, stand
+around; the writing-desks are sumptuous, filled with every convenience
+of stationery; and the matutinal coffee and rolls are served the guest
+in any idyllic niche wherein he chooses to ensconce himself, regardless
+of the regulation _salle-à-manger_. One looks across the Grand Canal to
+the beautiful Church of Santa Maria della Salute. The water plashes
+against the marble steps as gondolas glide past; the blue sky of Italy
+reflects itself in the waters below, until one feels as if he were
+floating in the air between sea and sky. In the heart of the city, with
+throngs of people moving to and fro, all is yet silence, save the cry of
+the gondolier, the confused echo of voices from the people who pass, and
+here and there the faint call of a bird. No whir and rush of electric
+cars and motors; no click of the horses' feet on the asphalt
+pavement--no pavement, indeed, and no horses, no twentieth-century rush
+of life. It is Venice, it is June, and the two combine to make an
+illuminated chapter. To live in Venice is like being domesticated in the
+heart of an opal. How wonderful it is to drift--a sky above and a sky
+below--on still waters at sunset, with the Dream City mirrored in the
+depths, every shade of gold and rose and amber mirrored back,--the very
+atmosphere a sea of color, recalling to one Ruskin's words that "none of
+us appreciate the nobleness and the sacredness of color. Of all God's
+gifts to man," he continues, "color is the holiest, the most divine,
+the most solemn. Color is the sacred and saving element." If the
+enthusiasm in these words savor of exaggeration, Venice is the place
+that will lure one to forgetfulness of it. One is simply conscious of
+being steeped in color and revelling in a strange loveliness. One no
+longer marvels at the glory of Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese. They but
+interpreted on canvas the shining reality. A charming writer on Venice
+has well said:--
+
+ "The aspects of Venice are as various, as manifold, as the hues
+ held in solution upon her waters beneath a sirocco sky. There is a
+ perpetual miracle of change; one day is not like another, one hour
+ varies from the next; there is no stable outline such as one finds
+ among the mountains, no permanent vista, as in a view across a
+ plain. The two great constituents of the Venetian landscape, the
+ sea and the sky, are precisely the two features in nature which
+ undergo most incessant change. The cloud-wreaths of this evening's
+ sunset will never be repeated again; the bold and buttressed piles
+ of those cloud-mountains will never be built again just so for us;
+ the grain of orange and crimson that stains the water before our
+ prow, we cannot be sure that we shall look upon its like again....
+ One day is less like another in Venice than anywhere else. The
+ revolution of the seasons will repeat certain effects; spring will
+ chill the waters to a cold, hard green; summer will spread its
+ breadth of golden light on palace front and water way; autumn will
+ come with its pearly-gray sirocco days, and sunsets flaming a
+ sombre death; the stars of a cloudless winter night, the whole vast
+ dome of heaven, will be reflected in the mirror of the still
+ lagoon. But in spite of this general order of the seasons, one day
+ is less like another in Venice than anywhere else; the lagoon wears
+ a different aspect each morning when you rise, the sky offers a
+ varied composition of cloud each evening as the sun sets. Words
+ cannot describe Venice, nor brush portray her ever-fleeting,
+ ever-varying charm. Venice is to be felt, not reproduced; to live
+ there is to live a poem, to be daily surfeited with a wealth of
+ beauty enough to madden an artist to despair."
+
+It was in the autumn of 1882 that the Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks, later
+Bishop of Massachusetts, visited Venice and wrote of San Marco:--
+
+ "Strange how there is nothing like St. Mark's in Venice, nothing of
+ the same kind as the great church. It would have seemed as if,
+ standing here for so many centuries, and always profoundly loved
+ and honored, it would almost of necessity have influenced the minds
+ of the generations of architects, and shown its power in their
+ works. But there seems to be no sign of any such influence. It
+ stands alone."
+
+Dr. Brooks noted that Venice had "two aspects, one sensuous and
+self-indulgent, the other lofty, spiritual, and even severe. Both
+aspects," he continues, "are in its history and both are also in its
+art. Titian often represents the former. The loftier, nobler Tintoretto
+gives us the second. There is something in his greatest pictures, as,
+for instance, in the Crucifixion, at St. Rocco, which no other artist
+approaches. The lordly composition gives us an impression of
+intellectual grasp and vigor. The foreground group of prostrate women is
+full of a tenderness. The rich pearly light, which floods the centre,
+glows with a solemn picturesqueness, and the great Christ, who hangs
+like a benediction over the whole, is vocal with a piety which no other
+picture in the world displays. And the Presentation of the Virgin, in
+Santa Maria dell'Orto, is the consummate presentation of that beautiful
+subject, its beauty not lost in its majesty."
+
+Of other pictures Dr. Brooks said:--
+
+ "In the Academia there is the sunshine of three hundred years ago.
+ Paris Bordone's glowing picture of the Fisherman who brings the
+ Ring of St. Mark to the Doge, burned like a ray of sunlight on the
+ wall. Carpaccio's delightful story of St. Ursula brought the old
+ false standards of other days back to one's mind, but brought them
+ back lustrous with the splendor of summers that seemed forever
+ passed, but are perpetually here. Tintoretto's Adam and Eve was, as
+ it always is, the most delightful picture in the gallery, and
+ Pordenone's great St. Augustine seemed a very presence in the vast
+ illuminated room."
+
+Tennyson loved best, of all the pictures in Venice, a Bellini,--a
+beautiful work, in the Church of Il Redentore; and he was deeply
+impressed by the "Presentation of the Virgin," from Tintoretto, in the
+Church of the Madonna dell'Orto. "He was fascinated by St. Mark's,"
+writes the poet's son, "by the Doge's Palace and the Piazza, and by the
+blaze of color in water and sky. He climbed the Campanile, and walked to
+the library where he could scarcely tear himself away from the Grimani
+Breviary."
+
+Venice, though not containing any single gallery comparable with the
+Pitti and the Uffizi, is still singularly rich in treasures of art, and
+rich in legend and story. The school of encrusted architecture is
+nowhere so wonderfully represented as here, and it is only in this
+architecture that a perfect scheme of color decoration is possible. In
+all the world there is no such example of encrusted architecture as that
+revealed in St. Mark's. It is a gleaming mass of gold, opal, ruby, and
+pearl; with alabaster pillars carved in designs of palm and pomegranate
+and lily; with legions of sculptured angels looking down; with altars of
+gold ablaze with scarlet flowers and snowy lilies, while clouds of
+mystic incense fill the air. One most impressive place is the
+baptistery, where is the tomb of St. Mark and also that of the Doge
+Andrea Dandolo, who died at the age of forty-six, having been chosen
+Doge ten years before. His tomb is under a window in the baptistery, and
+the design is that of his statue in bronze, lying on a couch, while two
+angels at the head and the feet hold back the curtains.
+
+The sarcophagus that is said to contain the body of St. Mark is of the
+richest description, encrusted with gold and jewels on polished ebony
+and marble. There is a legend that after St. Mark had seen the people of
+Aguilia well grounded in religion he was called to Rome by St. Peter;
+but before setting off he took with him in a boat the holy Bishop
+Hennagoras and sailed to the marshes of Venice. The boat was driven by
+wind to a small island called Rialto, on which were some houses, and St.
+Mark was suddenly snatched into ecstasy and heard the voice of an angel
+saying, "Peace be to thee, Mark; here shall thy body rest."
+
+There is also a legend that in the great conflagration which destroyed
+Venice in 976 A.D., the body of St. Mark was lost and no one knew where
+to find it. Then the pious Doge and the people gave themselves to
+fasting and prayer, and assembled in the church, asking that the place
+be revealed them. It was on the 25th of June that the assemblage took
+place. Suddenly one of the pillars of the church trembled, and opened to
+disclose the sarcophagus,--a chest of bronze. The legend goes on to say
+that St. Mark stretched his hand out through the side and that a noble,
+Dolfini by name, drew a gold ring off the finger.
+
+The place where this miracle is said to have been wrought is now marked
+by the Altar of the Cross.
+
+Ruskin declares that "a complete understanding of the sanctity of color
+is the key to European art." Nowhere is this sanctity of color so felt
+as at San Marco. The church is like the temple of the New Jerusalem.
+
+The origin of Venice is steeped in sacred history. It is pre-eminently
+the city founded in religious enthusiasm. The chronicles of De Monici,
+written in 421, give this passage: "God, who punishes the sins of men by
+war, sorrow, and whose ways are past finding out, willing both to save
+the innocent blood, and that a great power, beneficial to the whole
+world, should arise in a place strange beyond belief, moved the chief
+men of the cities of the Venetian province both in memory of the past,
+and in dread of future distress, to establish states upon the nearer
+islands of the Adriatic, to which, in the last extremity, they might
+retreat for refuge.... They laid the foundation of the new city under
+good auspices on the island of the Rialto, the highest and nearest to
+the mouth of the Brenta, on March 25, 471."
+
+The first Doge of Venice was Paolo Lucio Anafesto, elected by the
+tribunal of commonalty, tribunals, and clergy, at Heraclea, in 697. The
+period of the subjection of the ecclesiastical to the ducal and
+patrician powers followed. The "Council of Ten" was established in 1335,
+and the last Doge elected was Lodovico Manin in 1789, who exclaimed,
+"_Tolè questo: no la doperò più_," as the French Revolution destroyed
+the Republic of Venice.
+
+The finest example of Renaissance architecture in Venice is that of the
+_Libreria Vecchia_, the work of Jacobo Sansovino, completed in the
+sixteenth century. Never were the creations of poet and philosopher more
+fittingly enshrined. The rich Doric frieze, the Ionic columns, the
+stately balustrade, with statues and obelisks, the resplendent richness
+of ornamentation, offer a majesty and beauty seldom found even in the
+best classical architecture of Europe. On the ceiling of one sala is a
+picture by Titian representing "Wisdom" as a woman, reclining on a
+cloud, her right hand outstretched to take a book that Genius is
+offering her. There are two beautiful caryatides by Vittoria and rich
+mural work by Battista Franco and De Moro.
+
+Petrarca, returning from his wanderings in 1362, pleaded with the Senate
+of Venezia to give him a house, in return for which he offered the
+inheritance of his library. This was the nucleus of the fine collection
+which since 1812 has been included in the Palace of the Doges. In it are
+some magnificent works by Paolo Veronese, one portrait by Tintoretto,
+and others by Salviati and Telotti.
+
+The Doge's Palace is a treasure house of history. One enters the Porta
+della Carta, which dates back to 1638, erected by Bartolomeo Buon. The
+portal is very rich in sculpture, and among the reliefs is a heroic one
+of Francesco Foscari, kneeling before the lion at St. Mark's. One
+recalls his tragic fate and passes on. Perhaps, _en passant_, one may
+say that his pilgrimage through Venice and Florence is so constantly in
+the scenes of tragedy that he is prone to sink almost into utter
+sadness, even, rather than seriousness. The air is full of ghosts. One
+feels the oppression of all the life that has there been lived, all the
+tragedies that have been enacted in these scenes.
+
+In Renaissance nothing more wonderful in Europe can be found than the
+court of the Palace of the Doges. Antonio Rizzo began the east façade of
+the building in 1480, and it was continued by Lombardo, and completed by
+Scarpagnino. "Words cannot be found to praise the beauty of these
+sculptures," says Salvatico, "as well as of the single ornaments of the
+walls and of the ogres which have been carved so delicately and richly
+that they cannot be excelled by the Roman antique friezes."
+
+By the golden staircase one goes to the council chambers,--the hall of
+the Senate, the Council of Ten, and the Council of Three. In the great
+council chamber is that most celebrated mural painting in the world,
+"The Glory of Venice," by Paolo Veronese, which covers the ceiling. In a
+frieze are the portraits of seventy-six of the Doges, but in one space
+is a black tablet only, with the inscription: "This in place of M. F.,
+who was executed for his crimes."
+
+The "Sala del Maggior Consiglio" (hall of the grand council) is very
+rich in paintings. Above the throne is Tintoretto's "The Glory of
+Paradise," and the walls are covered with battle pieces and symbolic and
+allegorical paintings. There is "Venice Crowned by Fame," by Paolo
+Veronese, "Doge Niccolò da Ponte Presenting the Senate and Envoys of
+Conquered Cities to Venice," by Tintoretto; "Venice Crowned by the
+Goddess of Victory," by Palma Giovane, and many another of the richest
+and most wonderful beauty.
+
+Descending into the prisons and dungeons brings one into a vivid
+realization of the grim history of which these were the scenes. The
+Bridge of Sighs has two covered passages, one for the political and one
+for the criminal prisoners. Here is shown a narrow ledge on which the
+condemned man stood, with a slanting stone passageway before him, which,
+when the guillotine had done its swift and deadly work, conveyed the
+crimson flood into the dark waters of the canal below, while the body
+was thrown in the water on the other side. There are the "Chambers of
+Lead," where prisoners were confined, intensely hot in the summer, and
+as intensely cold in the winter. Many of these dark, close, narrow
+cells--in which the one article of furniture allowed was the wooden
+slanting rack, that served as a bed--still remain. In many of these are
+inscriptions that were written by the prisoners. One reads (in
+translation): "May God protect me against him whom I trust; I will
+protect myself against him whom I do not trust."
+
+The murderer, Giovanni M. Borni, wrote in his cell: "G. M. B. was
+confined very unjustly in this prison; if God does not help it will be
+the last desolation of a poor, numerous, and honest family."
+
+All visitors to these gloomy dungeons recall the lines of Byron:--
+
+ "I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
+ A palace and a prison on each hand."
+
+The piazza of St. Mark's is a distinctive feature, even in all Europe.
+It is not large; it is surrounded on three sides with shops, which are
+merely glittering bazaars of jewels and bric-a-brac; the sidewalk is
+blockaded with cafés _al fresco_, the ground is half covered with the
+dense flocks of white doves, but here all lingers and loiters. The
+façade of St. Mark's fills one end--a mass of gleaming color. At one
+corner is the tall clock tower (Torre dell'Orologio) in the Renaissance
+style of 1400, crowned with the gilded lion of St. Mark. On the festa
+days three figures, the Three Wise Men, preceded by an angel, come forth
+on the tower and bow before the Madonna, in a niche above,--a very
+ingenious piece of mechanism. With its rich architecture and sculptures
+and masses of color, the piazza of San Marco is really an open-air hall,
+where all the town congregates from morning till midnight.
+
+To study the art of the Venetian school is a work of months, and one
+that would richly repay the student. The churches and galleries of
+Venice give a truly unique opportunity. In the Church of San Sebastiano
+lies Paolo Veronese, the church in which he painted his celebrated
+frescoes, now transformed into a temple for himself. Here one finds his
+"Coronation of the Virgin," "The Virgin in the Gloria," "Adoration of
+the Magi," "Martyrdom of San Sebastian," and many others. In the Scuola
+di San Rocco are the great works of Tintoretto, "St. Magdalene in the
+Wilderness," the "Visitation," and the "Murder of the Innocents."
+
+In the San Maria dei Frari is the tomb of Titian,--an exquisite grouping
+of sculpture in Carrara marble, erected in 1878-80 by the command of the
+Emperor of Austria, the work of Zandomenighi. In this church is Titian's
+most famous painting, the "Madonna of the Pessaro," the work of which is
+probably, too, the greatest in all Venetian art. The Hall of Heaven is
+shown, supported by colossal columns. St. Peter, Francis, and Antoninus
+are commending the Pessaro family to the Virgin, who is enthroned on
+high. The beauty of line, the splendor of color, and the marvellous
+composition render this immortal masterpiece something whose sight marks
+an epoch in life. Canova's tomb in San Maria dei Frari is a wonderful
+thing. It is a pyramid of purest marble, with a door opening for the
+sarcophagus, above which is a portrait of Canova in relief, and on
+either side the door angels and symbolic figures are sculptured.
+
+The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, to which one is always
+returning, is a wonderful example of artistic architecture, as its snowy
+towers and dome seem to rise out of the water and float in the air.
+
+The fall of the Campanile in 1904 was regarded as a calamity by all the
+civilized world. For a thousand years it had stood at the side of St.
+Mark's; but the disaster aroused the attention of experts to the
+condition of the great cathedral itself, and it was found that the vast
+area of over fifty thousand square feet of matchless mosaic needed
+restoration in order that they should be preserved.
+
+The Palazzo Rezzonico, which dates to Clement XIII, usually known as the
+"Browning Palace," has been for many years one of the special interests
+to the visitor in Venice. In the early months of 1907 it passed out of
+the hands of Robert Barrett Browning, who had purchased it in 1888, and
+had held it sacredly, with its poetic and personal associations, since
+the death of his father, the poet, in 1889. To Mr. Barrett Browning is
+due the grateful appreciation of a multitude of tourists for his
+generous and never-failing courtesy in permitting them the privilege of
+visiting this palace in which his father had passed many months of
+enjoyment. It was from this residence that the poet Browning wrote, in
+October of 1880, to a friend:--
+
+ "Every morning at six I see the sun rise; far more wonderfully, to
+ my mind, than his famous setting which everybody glorifies. My
+ bedroom window commands a perfect view; the still, gray lagune, the
+ few sea-gulls flying, the islet of San Giorgio in deep shadow and
+ the clouds in a long purple rock behind which a sort of spirit of
+ rose burns up till presently all the rims are on fire with gold,
+ and last of all the orb sends before it a long column of its own
+ essence apparently; so my day begins."
+
+Later, of his son's palace, Mr. Browning wrote:--
+
+ "Have I told you that there is a chapel which he has restored in
+ honor of his mother--putting up there the inscription by
+ Tommaseo,[3] now above Casa Guidi in Florence?"
+
+
+In this palace Mr. Browning wrote some of his later poems, and it may
+well be that it was when he was clad in his singing robes that he
+perhaps most deeply felt the ineffable charm of Venice:--
+
+ "For the stars help me, and the sea bears part;
+ The very night is clinging
+ Closer to Venice' streets to leave one space
+ Above me...."
+
+It was from these lofty salons in the Browning Palace that the poet
+passed to the "life more abundant" on that December day of 1889, on the
+very day that his last volume, "Asolando," was published and also the
+last volume of Tennyson's. Regarding these Mr. Gladstone said, in a
+letter to Lord Tennyson: "The death of Browning on the day of the
+appearance of your volume, and we hear of one of his own, is a touching
+event."
+
+From the time of Mrs. Browning's death in Florence (in June of 1861) Mr.
+Browning never felt that he could see Italy again, until the autumn of
+1878, when he, with his sister, Miss Sarianna Browning, came to Venice
+by way of the Italian lakes and Verona. At this time they only remained
+for a fortnight, domiciled in the old Palazzo Brandolin-Rota, which was
+transformed into the Albergo dell'Universo. This palace was on the Grand
+Canal below the Accadémia, and here he returned through two or three
+subsequent years. Mr. Browning became very fond of Venice, and he
+explored its winding ways and gardens and knew it, not merely from the
+gondola view, but from the point of view of the curious little dark and
+narrow byways, the bridges, and the piazzas.
+
+It was in 1880 that Mr. Browning first met, through the kind offices of
+Mr. Story, a most charming and notable American lady, Mrs. Arthur
+Bronson (Katherine DeKay), who had domiciled herself in Casa Alvisi, an
+old palace on the Grand Canal opposite the Church of Santa Maria della
+Salute. She was a woman of very interesting personality, and had drawn
+about her a circle including many of the most distinguished people of
+her time, authors, artists, poets, and notable figures in the social
+world. She was eminently _simpatica_ and her lovely impulses of generous
+kindness were rendered possible to translate into the world of the
+actual by the freedom which a large fortune confers on its possessor.
+Between Mrs. Bronson and Mr. Browning there sprang up one of those rare
+and beautiful friendships that lasted during his lifetime, and to her
+appreciation and many courtesies he owed much of the happiness of his
+later years. In the autumn of 1880 Mrs. Bronson made Mr. Browning and
+his sister her guests, placing at their disposal a suite of rooms in the
+Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati--a palace adjoining her own--and each night
+they dined and passed the evening with her, with music and conversation
+to enchant the hours. After Mr. Browning's death, Mrs. Bronson was the
+friend whom all pilgrims to his shrine in Venice felt it a special
+privilege to meet and to hear speak of him. In her palace was a large
+easy-chair, with a ribbon tied across the arms, in which Browning was
+accustomed to sit, and which was held sacred to him. Mrs. Bronson was an
+accomplished linguist, and the _habitués_ of her salon represented many
+nationalities. Among these was the Princess Montenegro, the mother of
+the present Queen of Italy.
+
+It is little wonder that the Browning Palace was for so many years a
+focus for all who revered and loved the wedded poets, Robert and
+Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
+
+In the marble court, roofed only by the blue Venetian sky, stood Mr.
+Barrett Browning's statue of "Dryope" in bronze, on its marble
+pedestal,--a beautiful conception of the Dryope of Keats,--the dweller
+in forest solitudes whom the Hamadryads transformed into a poplar. Here
+a fountain makes music all day long, and the court is also adorned in
+summer by great Venetian jars of pink hydrangeas in full bloom. The
+grand staircase, with its carved balustrade and the wide landing where a
+rose window decorates the wall, leads to the lofty salons which were yet
+as homelike as they were artistic during the residence of the Brownings.
+Mr. Story's bust of Mrs. Browning, other portrait busts of both the
+poets, sculptured by their artist son, and by others, and other
+memorials abound. In the library were gathered many interesting volumes,
+autographed from their authors, and many rare and choice editions, among
+which was one of the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" in a sumptuous volume
+whose artistic beauty found a fitting setting to Mrs. Browning's
+immortal sonnets. Among other volumes were a collection of signed
+"Etchings" by Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema; presentation copies from
+Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Aubrey De Vere, Walter Savage Landor, and many
+another known to fame; and a copy, also, of a study of Mrs. Browning's
+poetry[4] by an American writer.
+
+There is one memento over which the visitor always smiled--a souvenir of
+a London evening in 1855 when the Brownings had invited Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti and his brother and Lord Madox Brown to meet Tennyson and
+listen to his reading of his new poem, "Maud," then still unpublished.
+During the reading Rossetti drew a caricature representing Tennyson with
+his hair standing on end, his eyes glowering and his hand theatrically
+extended, as he held a manuscript inscribed,
+
+ "I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood."
+
+A reproduction of John Singer Sargent's painting, "The Gypsy Dance,"
+bore the inscription, "To _mon ami_, Browning." From the library is a
+niche, decorated in gold, with memorial entablatures to the memory of
+Mrs. Browning. On the outer wall of the palace is an inscription that
+runs:--
+
+ "Robert Browning died in this house 12th December, 1889.
+
+ "Open my heart and you will see
+ Graven inside it 'Italy.'"
+
+There is a sadness in the fact that this palace, consecrated to the
+memory of the immortal poets, husband and wife, has passed into the
+hands of strangers; but that is a part of the play in a world in which
+we have no continuing city. In the spring of 1905, Miss Sarianna
+Browning died in the home of her nephew, near Florence, and her body was
+buried in the new Protestant cemetery in that city; the old one, where
+all that was mortal of Elizabeth Barrett Browning was laid to rest,
+being now closed. Mr. Barrett Browning, in his Tuscan villa, is again
+dwelling near Florence, his native city, which must forever hold to him
+its atmosphere of consecrated beauty as the beloved home of his
+mother,--the noblest and greatest of all woman poets.
+
+The centenary of Carlo Goldoni was celebrated in Venice in the spring
+of 1907 by the publication of all his works and a monograph on his life;
+an exhibition of personal relics; the presentation of one of his dramas
+set to music by Baldassare Galuppi, the great Venetian composer of his
+time, and by a procession to lay a wreath of laurel on his monument in
+the Campo San Bartolommeo. The drama given, entitled the "Buranello,"
+was the last work of the author, and it was presented in the theatre
+Goldoni. The Municipal Council of Venice voted the sum of fifty thousand
+lire for the _édition de luxe_, which consists of twenty volumes, in
+octavo. In each volume is a different portrait of Goldoni, facsimile of
+manuscripts, and the reproduction of literary curiosities.
+
+The monograph of Goldoni was issued by the press of the Venetian
+Institute of Graphic Art in a limited number of copies.
+
+It contains more than three hundred printed pages and a series of very
+interesting illustrations. Among these are the reproductions of ancient
+engravings which are most rare (such as the view of the Grimani Theatre
+at San Giovanni Crisostomo, a famous theatre existing in the days of the
+Venetian republic, but now demolished), frontispieces of destroyed
+editions, and other personal memorials. The revival of the splendid work
+of the famous artist was one of the attractions of the festa of
+celebration. The art exhibition of Venice in this spring of 1907 was
+very picturesque. One special salon was allotted to the artists of Great
+Britain, and there was a fine loan collection of the portraits of
+English noblemen painted by Mr. Sargent. This salon was decorated with
+panels by Frank Brangwyn.
+
+Venice forever remains a dream, a mirage, an enchantment. Has it a
+recognized social life, with "seasons" that come and go? Has it trade,
+commerce, traffic? Has it any existence save on the artist's canvas, in
+the poet's vision? Has it a resident population to whom it is a home,
+and not the pilgrimage of passionate pilgrims?
+
+There are those who find this Venice of all the year round a society of
+stately nobles whose ancestral claims are identified with the history of
+the city and who are at home in its palaces and gondolas, but of this
+resident life the visitor is less aware than of that in any other city
+in Italy. For him it remains forever in his memory as the crowning
+glory of June evenings when the full, golden moon hangs over towers and
+walls, when gondolas freighted with Venetian singers loom up out of the
+shadows and fill the air with melody that echoes as in dreams, and that
+vanishes--one knows not when or where. Mr. Howells, in his delightful
+"Venetian Days," has interpreted much of that life that the tourist
+never recognizes, that eludes his sight; and the Dream City still, to
+the visitor who comes and goes, shrouds itself in myth and mystery. One
+of the poetic visions of Venice is that given in Robert Underwood
+Johnson's "Browning at Asolo" (inscribed to Mrs. Arthur Bronson), of
+which the opening stanzas run:--
+
+ "This is the loggia Browning loved,
+ High on the flank of the friendly town;
+ These are the hills that his keen eye roved,
+ The green like a cataract leaping down
+ To the plain that his pen gave new renown.
+
+ "There to the West what a range of blue!--
+ The very background Titian drew
+ To his peerless Loves. O tranquil scene!
+ Who than thy poet fondlier knew
+ The peaks and the shore and the lore between?
+
+ "See! yonder's his Venice--the valiant Spire,
+ Highest one of the perfect three,
+ Guarding the others: the Palace choir,
+ The Temple flashing with opal fire--
+ Bubble and foam of the sunlit sea."
+
+Edgar Fawcett, always enchanted with his Venetian days, pictures the
+northern lagoon, some six miles from Venice, as "a revel of pastoral
+greenness, with briery hedges, numberless wild flowers and the most
+captivating of sinuous creeks, overarched by an occasional bridge, so
+old that you greet with respect every moss-grown inch of its drowsy and
+sagging brickwork. The cathedral, the ineludible cathedral of all
+Italian settlements, is reached after a short ramble, and you enter it
+with mingled awe and amusement," he continues. "Some of its mosaics,
+representing martyrs being devoured by flames and evidently enjoying
+themselves a great deal during this mortuary process, challenge the
+disrespectful smile. But others are vested with a rude yet sacred
+poetry, and certain semi-Oriental marble sculptures, adjacent to the
+altar, would make an infidel feel like crossing himself for the crime of
+having yielded to a humorous twinge. This duomo dates far back beyond
+the Middle Ages, and so does the small Church of Santa Fosca, only a
+step away. What renders Torcello so individual among all the islands and
+islets of the lagoon, I should say, is her continual contrast between
+the ever-recurrent idyllicism of open meadows or wilding clusters of
+simple rustic thickets, and the enormous antiquity of these two hoary
+ecclesiastic fanes. History is in the air, and you feel that the very
+daisies you crush underfoot, the very copses from which you pluck a
+scented spray, have their delicate rustic ancestries, dating back to
+Attila, who is said once to have brought his destructive presence where
+now such sweet solemnity of desertion and quietude unmolestedly rules."
+
+History and legend and art and romance meet and mingle to create that
+indefinable sorcery of Venice. It is like nothing on earth except a
+poet's dream, and his poetic dream is of the ethereal realm. The
+wonderful music that floats over the "silver trail" of still waters; the
+mystic silences; the resplendence of color,--all, indeed, weave
+themselves into an incantation of the gods; it is the ineffable
+loveliness of Paradise where the rose of morning glows "and the June is
+always June," and it is no more earth, but a celestial atmosphere,--this
+glory of June in Venice.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] This inscription and a description in detail of all the memorials of
+Elizabeth Barrett Browning are given in full in a volume entitled "A
+Study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.
+
+[4] "A Study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Little, Brown, & Co.
+
+
+
+
+ _Dear Italy! The sound of thy soft name
+ Soothes me with balm of Memory and Hope.
+ Mine, for the moment, height and sweep and slope
+ That once were mine. Supreme is still the aim
+ To flee the cold and gray
+ Of our December day,
+ And rest where thy clear spirit burns with unconsuming flame._
+
+ _Thou human-hearted land, whose revels hold
+ Man in communion with the antique days,
+ And summon him from prosy greed to ways
+ Where Youth is beckoning to the Age of Gold;
+ How thou dost hold him near
+ And whisper in his ear
+ Of the lost Paradise that lies beyond the alluring haze!_
+
+ ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON.
+
+
+
+
+ _Great ideas create great peoples. Let your life be the living
+ summary of one sole organic idea. Enlarge the horizon of the
+ peoples. Liberate their conscience from the materialism by which it
+ is weighed down. Set a vast mission before them. Rebaptize them._
+
+ MAZZINI.
+
+
+ _All parts array for the progress of souls: all religion, all solid
+ things, arts, governments,--all that was or is apparent upon this
+ globe, or any globe, falls into niches and comes before the
+ procession of Souls along the grand roads of the universe.... Of
+ the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of
+ the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and
+ sustenance._
+
+ WALT WHITMAN.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE MAGIC LAND
+
+ More than five hundred years have passed over the country of Dante
+ since the death of his mortal part--years of glory and of shame, of
+ genius and intolerable mediocrity, of turbulent liberty and mortal
+ servitude; but the name of Dante has remained, and the severe image
+ of the poet still rules the destinies of Italian generations, now
+ an encouragement and now a reproach. The splendor of no other
+ genius has been able to eclipse or dim the grandeur of Dante; never
+ has there been a darkness so profound that it could conceal this
+ star of promise from Italian eyes; neither the profanations of
+ tyrants and Jesuits, nor the violations of foreign invaders, have
+ been able to efface it. "_Sanctum Poetæ nomen quod nunquam
+ barbaries violavit._"
+
+ MAZZINI.
+
+
+The true life of Italy is not read in any record of contemporary facts
+or statistics. Mazzini once said of Dante, in an essay on the immortal
+poet, that "the life, the true life of Dante does not lie in the series
+of the material facts of his existence. The life of Dante consists in
+the sufferings and aspirations of his soul; in its dominant impulses; in
+the ceaseless development of the idea which was at once his guide,
+inspiration, and consolation; in his belief as a man and as an Italian."
+The real life of Italy is, by analogy, to be read in that atmosphere
+of aspiration and of noble purpose which characterizes the nation rather
+than in the material facts of its general progress at the present time.
+As a country Italy is young. It is still less than forty years since her
+unity was declared, and to merge the large number of separate States
+into one harmonious whole is a task requiring the evolutionary progress
+of time; for a nation, like a university, cannot be a matter of
+instantaneous creation. It must germinate and grow. The country that,
+previous to so comparatively a recent date as the year 1870, was, in the
+phrasing of Prince Metternich, "a geographical expression," can hardly
+be judged by present national standards after an existence of only
+thirty-seven years, although it need be said in no spirit of apology;
+for Italy is advancing in scientific development, in manufactures, and
+in the problems involved in civil and hydraulic engineering to a notable
+degree in the northern part. Milan and Naples are separated by far more
+than geographical distance. In modern progress Milan is divided by
+centuries from all Southern Italy.
+
+Between Italy and the United States the _entente cordiale_ is not
+merely that of diplomatic and ceremonial courtesy, but of an exceptional
+degree of mutually sympathetic comprehensions. In noble ambitions and
+lofty purposes Americans and Italians are closely akin. In zeal for
+contemporary scientific progress, in an intense susceptibility to the
+glories of art, and in hospitality to all that makes for progress, both
+nations meet in mutual recognition. Of no people is it more deeply true
+than of Americans that "each man has two countries: his own and Italy."
+The average traveller sees this fair land with a breadth and
+thoroughness seldom called into requisition elsewhere. In England he is
+usually content with London, the tour of the cathedral towns and the
+lake region of the poets. France is summed up to him in Paris and in the
+chateaux of outlying districts. But Italy beguiles the traveller into
+every lonely foot-trail in the mountains; to every "piazza grande" of
+lonely hamlets, isolated on a rocky hillside; to every "fortezza" that
+crowns a mountain summit. The unexplored byways of Italy are magnetic in
+their fascination, and one special source of congratulation on the part
+of those fortunate tourists who travel with their own motor car is that
+they are thus enabled to penetrate into untrodden byways in Italy in a
+manner impossible to those who must depend entirely on the regulation
+railroad service. All lovers of Italy are devoted to these original
+tours of private exploration. A recent trip to Saracinesco, in the
+region of Tivoli, was made by Mrs. Stetson (Grace Ellery Channing) with
+her husband, and in a descriptive record of the little journey into an
+unfrequented mountain region this paragraph occurs:--
+
+ "Roused by 'an awful rose of dawn' which turned every solemn slope
+ to strange amber and amethyst, we left that rocky eyrie next day,
+ returning by way of Anticoli--beloved of artists. And if the ascent
+ had qualified us for Alpine climbers, the descent qualified us as
+ members of the Italian cavalry corps. Pictures of officers riding
+ down the face of cliffs will never impress us again; we know now it
+ is the very simplest of 'stunts.' Our way down was diversified by
+ the tinkling of thousands of sheep-bells, by the far too close
+ proximity of bulls to Maria's crimson headdress, which nothing in
+ the world would induce her to remove, and by sundry meetings with
+ relations, long-unseen friends, and strangers, from whom we culled
+ the whole register of deaths, births, marriages, and happenings for
+ a month past. At last, beside a little bridge near the railroad
+ station, Leonardo addressed his ten-thousandth adjuration to
+ Beppino, whose poor little legs trembled under him. It was no
+ longer, 'Ah, sacred one!--don't you see Anticoli!'--or 'the rock,'
+ or whatever it might be; now he said, 'Ah, sacred one!--don't you
+ comprehend?--the Signora descends'--and Beppino looked distinctly
+ pleased.
+
+ "Here we demanded the reckoning, skilfully evaded hitherto.
+
+ "'Well--a franc for each beast,--and half a franc for the
+ room,--the rest was nothing--a _sciocchezza_.'
+
+ "A franc apiece!--half a franc!--were _we_ brigands that we should
+ do this thing?"
+
+This typical picture of idyllic days in Italy, enjoyed in the impromptu
+excursion and trip, reveals the delicacy of feeling and the sunny
+kindness that characterize the _contadini_ and which imparts to any
+social contact with them a grace and sweetness peculiar to Italian
+life. There are parts of Italy where it is still the Middle Ages and no
+hint of the twentieth century has yet penetrated. The modern spirit has
+almost taken possession of Rome; it is largely in evidence in Florence
+and even Venice, and it dominates Milan; but in most of the "hill towns"
+and in the little hamlets and lonely haunts where a house is perhaps
+improvised out of the primeval rock, the prevailing life is still
+mediæval, and only awakens on festa days into any semblance of activity.
+
+Somewhere, away up in the hills, several miles from Pegli,--on the
+Mediterranean coast near Genoa,--is one of these sequestered little hill
+towns called _Acqua Sacra_. The name is obvious, indeed, for the sound
+of the "sacred water" fills the air, falling from every hillside and
+from the fountain of the _acqua sacra_ by the church. Pilgrims come from
+miles around to drink of these waters. Each house in this remote little
+hamlet is of solid stone, resembling a fortress on a small scale, and
+the houses cling to the hillsides like mosses to a rock. Though far up
+in the mountains, the hills rise around the hamlet like city walls,
+as if the life of all the world were kept outside. The unforeseen visit
+to these remote hamlets, suddenly chancing upon some small centre of
+happy and half-idyllic life, is one of the charms of tourist travel in
+this land of ineffable loveliness.
+
+ [Illustration: RUINS OF THE GREEK THEATRE, TAORMINA, SICILY
+ _Page 429_]
+
+The approach to Italy, by whatever direction, by land or by sea, one
+enters, is one of magical beauty. Whether one enters from the
+Mediterranean or from the Adriatic, or by means of the Mont Cenis, the
+Simplon, or the St. Gothard pass, through the sublime mountain wall,
+each gateway is marvellous in attraction. Approaching from the seas that
+completely surround Italy except on one side, the almost undreamed-of
+splendor of Naples, Genoa, and Venice, as seen from off the shore,
+exceeds all power of painter or poet to reproduce. The precipitous coast
+of Sicily; the picturesque city of Palermo; the wonderful ruins of the
+Greek theatre on the heights in Taormina,--all enchant the tourist. To
+anchor off Naples, in the beautiful bay, serves the purpose of an hotel
+out at sea. It is like living in Venice--only more so! By the little
+rowboats one may go, at any moment, to Naples, and it is more delightful
+than passing the days in the city itself. For at night as one strolls
+or sits on deck what a picture is before the eye! All Naples, on her
+semicircular shores, with her terraced heights rising above, defined in
+a blaze of electric lights! Genoa, _la Superba_, is still more
+magnificent when seen from the sea; and Venice, rising dream-enchanted,
+completes the wonders of the approach by water.
+
+As the new Italy has not yet achieved any homogeneous unity, Naples,
+Rome, Florence, Venice, and Milan differ in their characteristics to
+such a degree that no general interpretation of the residents of any one
+would appropriately describe those of another. Paris and Vienna hardly
+differ as much as do Milan and Rome; and Venice, Florence, and Rome,
+each rich in art treasures, have little else in common. Certain
+characteristics of each of the large cities reveal themselves
+prominently, even to a superficial observer. Milan, as has been said, is
+a centre of activity, as Florence is of culture and accomplishments.
+Florence has the largest and the most choice circulating library in all
+Italy and one that ranks among the best on the Continent. Her galleries
+are treasure stores of art, and her social life is unsurpassed--one
+might almost say unrivalled--in its fine quality. Music, philosophic
+culture, learning in all lines of research characterize Florentine
+society. Education has always been regarded in Florence as a matter of
+prime importance, and when the government grant of funds is insufficient
+the sum is made up by private contributions, so that the _Scuola del
+Popolo_ gives free instruction, yearly, to eighteen hundred pupils, in
+every branch of technical and art education. This fact alone offers its
+own explanation of that general intelligence of the people which so
+impresses the visitor in Florence. But this is a municipal rather than
+national fact. Every special development in any direction in Italy will
+always be found to be the characteristic of the city or locality, not of
+the country as a whole; and thus the unity of Italy is still a political
+expression rather than a political fact. It is a theory which is not yet
+developed into an experience. Italy is in the making. Practically, she
+is the youngest of countries, with less than forty years of experimental
+attempt at _national_ life behind her. Not until 1919 will she have
+attained the first half century of her united life. Educational
+facilities, inclusive of schools, libraries, and museums; railroads,
+telegraph and telephone service, electric lighting and electric
+trams,--all the ways and means of the modern mechanism of life are,
+inevitably, in a nebulous state in Italy. The political situation is
+extremely interesting at the present time. That the "Blacks" and the
+"Whites" are diametrically opposed to each other is in the nature of
+history rather than that of contemporary record or of prophecy; and that
+this is a traditional attitude in this city of the Cæsars is not a fact
+by any means unknown; but the situation is complicated by the third
+party--the Socialists--who, by allying themselves with either, would
+easily turn the scales and command the situation. If they were ardent
+Catholics and were advocates of the Papal supremacy, the temporal power
+of the Pope would be restored in less time almost than could be
+recorded, and Pius X would be in residence in the Palazzo Quirinale
+rather than Victor Emanuele III. But this great modern uprising in
+Italy--a movement that is gathering force and numbers so rapidly that no
+one can venture to prophesy results even in the comparatively immediate
+future--this great modern movement is neither for church nor state. The
+Socialist uprising is very strong in Milan and through Northern Italy.
+It is much in evidence in the Umbrian region--in Foligno, Spoleto,
+Nervi, and those towns; and from Frascati to Genzano and in the Lake
+Nemi chain of villages--Rocca di Papa, Castel Gandolpho, Ariccia,
+Albano--these villages within some fifteen miles of Rome. In these there
+is a veritable stronghold of Socialism, where its purposes and policy
+are entrenched. Yet when one alludes to its policy, the term is rather
+too definite. If it had a settled and well-formulated policy on which
+all its adherents were in absolute accord they would carry all before
+them. But Socialism is still a very elastic term and covers, if not a
+multitude of sins, at least a multitude of ideas and ideals. There is
+now a rumor that the situation is forcing the absolutely inconceivable
+union of church and state--of the Vatican and the Quirinale--that they
+may thus withstand their common foe. A more amazing and extraordinary
+turn of affairs could not be imagined; and if the rumor (which is now
+becoming more coherent in Rome) should prove to be the forerunner of
+any truth, the situation will be one of the most amazing in all history.
+
+ [Illustration: PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE
+ _Page 430_]
+
+Epoch-making events in the course of progress are always preceded by
+circumstances that form to them a natural approach and chain of
+causation. They are the results of which the causes stretch backward in
+the past. One of the things that has an incalculably determining
+influence on the present situation is that of the character of the
+present Pope. His Holiness, Pius X, brings to the Papacy an entirely new
+element. He is no ascetic or exclusive ecclesiastic; he is no diplomat
+or intriguant, but rather a simple, kindly man, of a simplicity totally
+unprecedented in the annals of the Palazzo Vaticano. Instead of clinging
+with unswerving intensity of devotion to the idea of the restoration of
+the temporal power of the church, Pope Pius X would not be disinclined
+to the uniting of church and state as in England; the Vatican to remain,
+like the See of Canterbury, the acknowledged head of the spiritual
+power, while the Quirinale remained the head of the government to which
+the church should give its political adherence, the Quirinale in return
+giving to the Vatican its religious adherence. Perhaps it is not too
+much to say that something not unlike this might easily become--if it is
+not already--the dream of Pius X. But in the mean time there is another
+factor with which to reckon, and that is the present Papal Secretary of
+State, Cardinal Merry del Val. He it is who really holds the mystic key
+of St. Peter's. He is a diplomatist, an ecclesiastic, an embodiment of
+all that is severe and archaic in authority. The Pope is by no means
+able to set his course by his own watch-lights. The College of Cardinals
+surrounds him, and the College of Cardinals is practically one Cardinal,
+the keen scholar and the all determining Cardinal Merry del Val, whose
+personality dominates the court of the Vatican. This remarkable prelate
+represents the most advanced and progressive thought of the day in many
+ways,--as has been noted in preceding pages,--but as a Jesuit he is
+unalterably devoted to what he considers the only ideal,--the
+restoration of the temporal power of the Pope. Spain revealed her
+attitude when King Alphonso asked of all the monarchs of Europe that the
+name of each should be borne by his infant son, the heir-apparent; and
+for Italy he asked the name of the Pope and not of the King, thus
+recognizing Pius X rather than Victor Emmanuel III as the head of the
+nation.
+
+That the Socialists have very logical and serious grounds for complaint
+is true. That their leader, Signor Enrico Ferri, an Italian journalist
+and a Senator, is one of the most able men in Italy since the time of
+Cavour is equally undeniable. The Socialists are fortunate, too, in
+other leading men. Turati, the editor of the _Critica Sociale_,
+Pantaleoni, Colajanni, and others are absolutely the hope of Italy at
+the present time in the struggle for better conditions. For the
+conditions of life in Italy, as regards taxation, the problems of
+transit, the government restrictions on agricultural production and on
+manufactures, are absolutely intolerable and should not be endured for a
+day. The taxation is so exorbitant that it is a marvel Italy is not
+depopulated. On land the tax rate is from thirty to fifty per cent; the
+income tax is not merely, as one would suppose, levied on a legitimate
+income derived from a man's possessions, but is levied on salaries,
+ranging from ten to twenty per cent of these, and also, not content with
+this unheard-of extortion, the tax is levied on the nature and source
+of his salary, and even the smallest wage is thus subject to an income
+tax. Again, there is a most absurd tax on salt, which, like sugar and
+tobacco, is held as a government monopoly. No poor person living on the
+seacoast in Italy is allowed to take even a pail of water from the sea
+to his house, as the government assumes that, by evaporation, it might
+yield a few grains of salt. The tax on sugar effectually checks an
+industry that might be made most profitable, that of putting up fruit in
+jams, jellies, and compote, and renders the price of these commodities
+absurdly high. Again, when taxes are paid the process is even worse than
+the unjust and exorbitant tax itself. No one is allowed to send a check
+or postal order; no tax gatherer calls at the home or the office. Each
+person must go himself or send a personal representative to a given
+place between certain hours. Here stand a long procession, each person
+in town going up, filling out pages of written formalities; talking of
+each item and discussing it according to the national custom, until the
+office hours are over for that day, and often not one-fourth of the
+persons waiting have been served. All then must take their chances the
+next day, and perhaps even a third or a fourth day,--a loss of time and
+energy that in no other country would be tolerated for a moment. But
+time has not yet any recognizable value in Italy. Every enterprise and
+manufacture is taxed in Italy, and as the returns of these are
+inevitably revealed so that no evasion is possible, and as the exactions
+of the government consume nearly all the profits, the result is that all
+business enterprises are discouraged and that Italy swarms with a great
+idle population, while nearly all articles and supplies are imported
+from other countries, with the payment of enormous duties, making their
+cost far greater, proportionately, than their value.
+
+There are great tracts of country in Southern Italy suitable for tobacco
+raising, but (as it is one of the government monopolies) people are
+forbidden to raise it; and in private gardens only three plants are
+permitted. Again, all industries are crippled, if not paralyzed, by the
+tax at the frontier, and also by the tax at every gate of every city. At
+every _porta_ in Rome are stationed government officers who scrutinize
+every box, basket, and package; and all fruit, eggs, garden stuff,
+milk, and commodities of every kind are taxed as they are brought inside
+the walls.
+
+The railroads of Italy are, at present, very poor in all facilities of
+transit. Within a year the Italian government has "taken over" these
+roads and better conditions are promised, which are, alas! not yet in
+sight. There are many "counts" to the indictment against the Italian
+railroads which are only suitable to adorn the very lowest circles of
+the Inferno described by Dante. They are uncleanly; the roadbeds are so
+rough that the miserably built compartments jolt and jostle over the
+tracks; the seats are so high that the feet can hardly touch the floor,
+and the facilities for light and air are as badly managed as is possible
+to conceive. As is well known, these are divided into first, second, and
+third class, these compartments all being in the same train, and between
+the first and second there is little difference save that of price.
+Curiously, the price of even second-class travelling in Italy is over
+half a cent a mile higher than that of the splendid trains in America,
+with their swift time, their smooth roadbeds, their admirable
+conveniences in every way. Again, no luggage is carried free, and the
+prices asked for it are extortionate beyond words. One may check all his
+impedimenta from San Francisco to New York without extra charge; but in
+going from Rome to Naples, or from Florence to Genoa to sail, the same
+luggage will cost from six to eight dollars to convey it to the steamer.
+Again, these railroads pay their employés so poorly that only the most
+inefficient service can be retained at all; only those persons who are
+the absolute prisoners of poverty will consent to accept such meagrely
+paid service.
+
+The Italian government consists, like that of most countries, of an
+upper and lower house, the Senate and the House of Deputies. But the
+former is rather a matter of miscellaneous honors than one of political
+initiative. There is no limit to the number of Senators; they are
+created by being named by the King, and the office is for life. If a man
+attracts the favorable notice of the King,--because he is a good artist,
+engineer, archæologist, chemist, or financier,--presto, he is liable to
+be made a Senator. Canova, the celebrated sculptor, was made a Senator
+because, indeed, he was a great artist! There is one condition,
+however, that a Senator must be one who pays annually not less than
+three thousand lire in taxes. The Senators receive no salary, and their
+times of meeting are uncertain and no man's presence is obligatory. The
+House of Deputies has five hundred and eight members, all of whom must
+be Italian subjects over thirty years of age. They have no salary, but
+are given the entire freedom of the realm in all transit on railroads
+and steamers. The Chamber of Deputies is largely made up of professional
+men, and it is little wonder that the Socialists are demanding an entire
+reform in the government of the country. There was never in any country
+more defective conditions than now prevail in Italy. The very fact that
+the young King is an estimable gentleman, who is personally not in the
+least to blame for the prevailing status of unfortunate conditions, is
+in one way an added misfortune, as the personal loyalty he justly
+inspires militates by so much against the revolution in government which
+is so deeply a necessity of Italy before her better and more prosperous
+life can begin. It is now a country of stagnation. All Southern and
+Central Italy simply lives off its tourists; and every year prices and
+fees and extortion in general from the visitors to Italy become greater.
+
+Senator Enrico Ferri, the leader of Socialism in Italy, was born in 1856
+in Mantua. He had a university education, was admitted to the bar, and
+in 1881 was called to the chair of penal law in the University of
+Bologna. The Senator is a scientific Socialist,--a man of the most
+exceptional gifts and qualities, and the author of a noted work,
+entitled "Criminal Sociology," which is translated into several
+languages. Senators Ferri and Lombroso are special friends and also
+co-workers.
+
+On taking his seat in the University of Bologna, Professor Ferri
+delivered a lecture, entitled "New Horizons in Penal Law," which was a
+most impressive effort. In it he said:--
+
+ "It was in this inaugural discourse that I affirmed the existence
+ of the positivist school of criminal law, and assigned to it these
+ two fundamental rules: First, while the classical schools of
+ criminal law have always studied the crime and neglected the
+ criminal, the object of the positivist school was, in the first
+ place, to study the criminal, so that, instead of the crime being
+ regarded merely as a juridical fact, it must be studied with the
+ aid of biology, of psychology, and of criminal statistics as a
+ natural and social fact, transforming the old criminal law into a
+ criminal sociology. Secondly, while the classical schools, since
+ Beccaria and Howard, have fulfilled the historic mission of
+ decreasing the punishments as a reaction from the severity of the
+ mediæval laws, the object of the positivist school is to decrease
+ the offence by investigating its natural and social causes in order
+ to apply social remedies more efficacious and more humane than the
+ penal counteraction, always slow in its effects, especially in its
+ cellular system, which I have called one of the aberrations of the
+ nineteenth century."
+
+Such is the man to whom it is no extravagance to allude as one of the
+present leaders of progress in Italy. He is in the early prime of mature
+life; he is a man of education, culture, great original gifts, and of
+sympathies with humanity as wise and judicious as they are liberal and
+all-embracing. Scientific Socialism tolerates no lawlessness, no
+violence, nor does it, like the so-called Christian Socialism, attempt
+to graft impossible conditions on society. It regards the laws of
+economics, and it is practicable and possible as well as considerate and
+just. And the great inspirer, proclaimer, and leader of scientific
+Socialism is Enrico Ferri.
+
+Italy not only inspires the enthusiasm of the lover of beauty in nature
+and art, she inspires a vital and abiding interest in all that shall
+make for her true progress, and she inspires, as well, absolute faith in
+her ultimate future. At present her monarchy is among the most liberal
+and progressive of Europe. King Victor Emmanuel is a man of integrity,
+of intelligence, and of devotion to the best interests of his country as
+he understands these interests to be. If they might be better served by
+a more democratic form of government, it is hardly to be asked or
+expected that such a view should present itself to an hereditary
+monarch. Among the most liberal element there are not wanting men who
+believe that for the immediate future the present form of government is
+the most feasible. In their conviction Italy is by no means prepared to
+be a republic. The masses of the people are uneducated; and a great
+work, requiring time, must be effected in the popularization of
+intelligence and of instruction, before democratic government could be
+adopted. Yet there is no faltering in the outlook on a glorious future.
+The noble words of Mazzini still ring in the Italian air: "Walk in
+faith, and fear not. Believe, and you will conquer." By way of enforcing
+his convictions Mazzini said:--
+
+ "Upon a day in the sixteenth century, at Rome, some men bearing the
+ title of _Inquisitors_, who assumed to derive wisdom and authority
+ from God himself, were assembled to decree the immobility of the
+ earth. A prisoner stood before them. His brow was illumined by
+ genius. He had outstripped time and mankind, and revealed the
+ secret of a world.
+
+ "It was Galileo.
+
+ "The old man shook his bold and venerable head. His soul revolted
+ against the absurd violence of those who sought to force him to
+ deny the truths revealed to him by God. But his pristine energy was
+ worn down by long suffering and sorrow; the monkish menace crushed
+ him. He strove to submit. He raised his hand, he too, to declare
+ the immobility of the earth. But as he raised his hand, he raised
+ his weary eyes to that heaven they had searched throughout long
+ nights to read thereon one line of the universal law; they
+ encountered a ray of that sun which he so well knew motionless amid
+ the moving spheres. Remorse entered his heart: an involuntary cry
+ burst from the believer's soul: _Eppur si muove!_ and yet it moves.
+
+ "Three centuries have passed away.
+ Inquisitors,--inquisition,--absurd theses imposed by force,--all
+ these have disappeared. Naught remains but the well-established
+ movement of the earth, and the sublime cry of Galileo floating
+ above the ages.
+
+ "Child of Humanity, raise thy brow to the sun of God, and read upon
+ the heavens: _It moves._ Faith and action! The future is ours."
+
+"Poetry," added Mazzini, "will teach the young the nobleness of
+sacrifice, of constancy, and silence; of feeling one's self alone
+without despairing, in an existence of suffering unknown or
+misunderstood; in long years of bitterness, wounds, and delusion,
+endured without murmur or lament; it will teach them to have faith in
+things to come, and to labor unceasingly to hasten their coming, even
+though without hope of living to witness their triumph;" and his final
+word in this great invocation to the new potencies of the opening future
+is an exhortation to believe in all greatness and goodness. "Faith," he
+said, "which is intellect, energy, and love, will put an end to the
+discords existing in a society which has neither church nor leaders;
+which invokes a new world, but forgets to ask its secret, its Word, from
+God." In universal education must lie the first national aid to the
+development of Italy. "_L'anima del gran mondo è l'allegria._"
+
+As Florence is pre-eminently the city of culture, so is Milan of
+activities. Her keynote is _modernité_. The visitor is at once impressed
+by her energy, her enterprise, and her commercial prosperity. Milan has
+the best municipal facilities and conveniences in all Italy. The
+electric lighting of streets, public buildings, and residences, the
+street transit, the arrangement and conduct of shops and all industrial
+matters, are in such contrast to any other city in Italy as to lead the
+sojourner to ask himself whether he can still be on the southern side of
+the Alpine range. In the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Milan has the most
+wonderful structure in all Europe. This arcade was built in 1865, and
+under the magnificent glass dome it includes nearly one hundred of the
+most attractive and well-stocked shops, bazaars, and establishments. The
+dome is decorated with frescoes and caryatides, and with the statues of
+numbers of eminent men, among whom are Dante, Raphael, Savonarola, and
+Cavour. The offices and banks in Milan are centres of incessant energy.
+
+For all this stress of activity the visitor does not, however, forget
+the art features; the visit to the antique Church of St. Ambrosio; to
+the old convent where Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated fresco, "The Last
+Supper," is to be seen, though so faded that it is now difficult to
+discern all the figures. Nor does he fail to climb the wonderful
+cathedral that lifts its airy grace, as if about to float upward in the
+skies. Every flight of the steps, in the ascent, brings one to a new
+vision of beauty. On the roof of this cathedral one wanders as in a very
+forest of sculpture. Its scheme of decoration includes more than two
+thousand statues, two of which are by Canova. From the summit, when the
+air is clear, there are beautiful views of the Alps.
+
+To the savant and scholar the Ambrosian library in Milan is one of the
+special treasures of Europe. It contains some of the most rare and
+valuable manuscripts in the entire world,--some of Virgil's with
+annotations from Petrarcha; a manuscript of Dante's; drawings by
+Leonardo da Vinci, and other interesting matters of which no other
+copies exist.
+
+The Magic Land is seen under its most bewitching spell in the region of
+the Italian lakes. The palace of Isola Bella; the charming gardens; the
+lake of Como, green-walled in hills whose luxuriant foliage and bloom
+form a framework for the white villas that cluster on their terraced
+slopes,--all form a very fairyland of ethereal, rose-embowered beauty.
+At night the lakes are a strange, unreal world of silver lights and
+shadows.
+
+The completion of the Simplon tunnel has opened between Italy and Paris
+a route not only offering swifter facilities for transit, but adding
+another to the regions of beauty. This route has also still further
+increased the commercial importance of Milan, the portal and metropolis
+of Northern Italy. Milan has become the national centre of all
+scientific and technical pursuits, and it is fairly the Mecca for young
+men of Central and Southern Italy who are entering into the professions,
+or into civil and electrical engineering and other of the technical arts
+and industries.
+
+Bologna, with her historic University, with the long covered arcades of
+the streets, the fountain, which is the work of Giovanni di Bologna, and
+the gallery where many of Guido's best works are placed, has its
+individual interest for the tourist; and Verona, Pavia, Modena, Parma,
+and Turin all repay a visit from the leisurely saunterer in Italy.
+
+Pisa offers to the visitor four interesting architectural monuments in
+the Duomo, the Baptistery, the Leaning Tower, and the Campo Santo, all
+of which are unique. The cathedral has unique designs in its black and
+white marbles that render it almost as much an object of artistic study
+as is the cathedral in Siena. The view from the summit of the Leaning
+Tower reveals the Mediterranean six miles in the distance, gleaming like
+a sea of silver. The Campo Santo dates from the thirteenth century,
+when the earth of which it is composed was brought (in 1228) from the
+holy places in Jerusalem, conveyed to the city (then a seaport) by fifty
+galleys sent out by the Republic of Pisa. The interior walls of the
+Campo Santo are covered with fresco paintings by Orcagna which are one
+of the artistic spectacles of the country in their extravagant portrayal
+of theological beliefs, so realistically presented in their dramatic
+scenes from Paradise and from Hades, as to leave nothing to the
+imagination. The fantasies in this emblematic sculpture of memorial
+monuments over a period of seven hundred years can be seen in the Campo
+Santo of Pisa,--a strange and often a most grotesque medley.
+
+Genoa is well named La Superba. Her thoroughfares are streets of
+palaces. Her terraced gardens and villas, reached by the subterranean
+funicular street railway, are regions of unique and incomparable beauty,
+with the blue Mediterranean at their feet. Genoa is the paradise for
+walking. The streets are largely inaccessible to carriages, but the
+admirable street electric railway penetrates every locality. It passes
+in dark tunnels under the hills, reappears on the high terraces, and
+climbs every height. From the crest of one of these Corsica can often be
+seen. All the hill-slopes are a dream of pictorial grandeur, with their
+terraces, their palaces, their sculpture, fountains, and flowers. On the
+summit of almost every hill there is a fortress, and often ramparts
+which are silhouetted, in dark masses, against the sky. Orange groves
+abound on the terraces, often showing the golden fruit, buds, and
+blossoms all at the same time.
+
+Genoa is fairly a metropolis of sculpture. The great families have
+themselves perpetuated in portrait statues rather than in painted
+portraits. In one of the grand ducal palaces in the Via Balbi the
+visitor may see, not only the life-size statues and the busts of the
+family ancestry, but one group comprising nine figures, where three
+generations are represented, in both sitting and standing poses,
+ingeniously combined.
+
+The churches of Genoa are among the richest in Europe. That of the
+Annunziata, the special monument of the Lomellini family, glitters and
+gleams with its gold ceilings and rich frescoes. The cathedral has the
+special allurement of the emerald dish which King Solomon received as
+a gift from the Queen of Sheba. The little "street of the jewellers" is
+an alluring place,--so narrow that one can almost stand in the centre of
+the road and touch the shop windows on either hand, and these windows
+dazzle the eye with their fascinating glitter of gold and silver
+filigree work and their rich jewels.
+
+ [Illustration: CAMPO SANTO, GENOA
+ _Page 453_]
+
+Beyond all other curious excursions that even a Magic Land can offer is
+that to the Campo Santo of Genoa. A cloistered promenade encloses a
+square, and above are terraced colonnades, each and all revealing
+statues, and monuments, and groups of sculpture whose varied beauty,
+oddity, or bizarre effects are a curious study. Some memorials--as one
+of an angel with outstretched wings; another of a flight of angels
+bearing the soul away; another combining the figure of Christ with the
+cross, and angels hovering near--are full of beauty. Others are a marvel
+of ingenious and incongruous combination. One of the latter represents
+the man whose memory it commemorates as lying on his bed in his last
+illness; the physician stands by, his fingers on the patient's pulse;
+on the opposite side a maid is approaching with a dish holding some
+article of food, and near the physician are grouped the wife, with a
+little child clinging to her skirts; the son, holding his hat with both
+hands and looking down on it, and the daughter, a young girl, with her
+eyes raised to heaven. Each of these figures is in life size; the bed is
+reproduced in marble, with the pillows and all the coverings in the most
+absolute realism, and the entire effect is so startling in its bizarre
+aspect that one could hardly believe in its existence until by personal
+observation he had verified so singular a monument.
+
+Yet there is beauty and symbolic loveliness, too, in many of the
+memorial sculptures of this Campo Santo, and turning away from this
+cemetery in which lies the body of the noble Mazzini, one hears on the
+air the refrain of his words on Dante:--
+
+ "It appeared to him of more importance to hasten to accomplish his
+ mission upon earth, than to meditate upon the inevitable hour which
+ marks for all men the beginning of a new task. And if at times he
+ speaks of weariness of life, it is only because he sees evil more
+ and more triumphant in the places where his mission was appointed.
+ He concerned himself, not about the length or the shortness of
+ life, but about the end for which life was given; for he felt God
+ in life, and knew the creative virtue there is in action."
+
+Eighty thousand people followed Mazzini to his tomb, and his name lives
+in the Italy of to-day as one to be associated with that of Dante as
+prophet and inspirer.
+
+The enchantment of approaching Genoa from the sea at night is an
+experience to remain as one of the pictorial treasures of memory. The
+magnificent _lanterna_, the lighthouse with its revolving light, that
+can be seen for fifty miles out from the coast; the brilliant
+illumination defining the _fortezza_ on the summit of one hill; the
+curving lights of the terraced residential district and the illumination
+of the very forest of shipping clustered in the bay,--all combine into a
+scene not easily effaced from the memories of foreign scenes.
+
+It is only in close relations with Italian literature that Italy can be
+adequately enjoyed and that the sojourner may enter into sympathetic
+associations with contemporary Italian life. Dr. Richard Garnett
+believes that the literature of Italy "is a less exhaustive
+manifestation than elsewhere of the intellect of the nation," and that
+"the best energies of the country are employed in artistic production.
+It is, indeed, remarkable," he continues, "that out of the nine Italians
+most brilliantly conspicuous in the first rank of genius and
+achievement,--Aquinas, Dante, Columbus, Leonardo, Michael Angelo,
+Raphael, Titian, Galileo, Napoleon,--only one should have been a man of
+letters."
+
+Contemporary Italian literature follows the trend of the day in
+reflecting the life of the people. The novels of Fogazzaro, the poems of
+Carducci, the biography and history written by Villari, to say nothing
+of several other writers who, while not approaching these authors, have
+still a definite place in the literature of the present, offer
+illumination on the outer scenery of life, and offer interpretation of
+the life itself. Art has declined; literature has advanced in Italy,
+even within the past decade. The law of progress is as inevitable as is
+the law of gravitation.
+
+ "Onward the chariot of the Unvarying moves;
+ Nor day divulges him nor night conceals;
+ Thou hear'st the echo of unreturning hooves,
+ And thunder of irrevocable wheels."
+
+The future of Italy inspires faith in the renewal of its noblest ideals
+of achievement. Its ineffable beauty is a heritage of joy to every
+visitor who comes under the indescribable spell of its attraction and
+finds that, in all the panorama of foreign life which haunts his memory,
+it is Italy which shines resplendent as the Magic Land!
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+ Accademia des Arcades, Rome, 334.
+
+ Accadémia di San Luca, oldest art school, 44;
+ location of, 45;
+ galleries of, 46, 47, 48.
+
+ Acqua Sacra, 428.
+
+ Akers, Paul, in Rome, 10;
+ early death of, 53;
+ work of, 54, 55;
+ quoted, 56;
+ Hawthorne's estimate of, 57.
+
+ Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, quoted, 387.
+
+ Allen, Elizabeth Akers, quoted, 53.
+
+ Amalfi, 253-257;
+ destruction of, 258, 259.
+
+ Ambrosian library, Milan, 449.
+
+ American Academy, Rome, 214.
+
+ American Embassy, Rome, location of, 153;
+ ball at, 164-167;
+ receptions at, 169.
+
+ Anderson, Hendrick Christian, in Rome, 10.
+
+ Angelo, Michael, work of, 22, 23, 312;
+ message of, 117;
+ friendship with Vittoria Colonna, 290;
+ Longfellow's poem on, 308-310;
+ art of, 313, 314;
+ quoted, 314, 316, 317, 318, 323;
+ gift to Vittoria Colonna, 318;
+ meeting with Francesco d'Ollanda, 322, 323, 324;
+ Walter Pater's estimate of, 327, 328, 329.
+
+ Annunziata Cathedral, Genoa, 452.
+
+ Aquinas, Thomas, birthplace of, 276;
+ tomb of, 331;
+ monastery of, 333.
+
+ Aquinum, 277.
+
+ "Arcadians," meetings of, 150.
+
+ Ariosto, 306.
+
+ Art, as leader of popular taste, 115;
+ inspired by religious ideals, 116;
+ Renaissance in, 117;
+ national importance of, 117;
+ ignored, 118;
+ relation to ugliness, 119;
+ falseness of, 121;
+ influence on life, 122;
+ united with religion, 123.
+
+ Assisi, pilgrimage to, 341, 344;
+ founding of, 345;
+ points of interest in, 345, 346;
+ Canon Knox Little's description of, 348;
+ as a shrine, 385.
+
+ Assisi, Bishop of, 354, 364.
+
+ Assisi, St. Francis of, 123, 124;
+ message of, 342;
+ birthplace of, 345;
+ impress of, 347;
+ parents of, 348, 349;
+ early life of, 350;
+ legends regarding, 351;
+ quoted, 352, 354, 356;
+ supreme aim of, 353;
+ Rule of, 353, 354;
+ prayer of, 356;
+ character of, 357;
+ incident in early life of, 360;
+ first ministry of, 363;
+ first disciple of, 364;
+ at the Portiuncula, 365;
+ friendship with Clara, 365, 367, 368;
+ legends regarding, 370;
+ death of, 372;
+ miracles of, 375;
+ tomb of, 378.
+
+
+ Bagot, Richard, in Rome, 11, 13.
+
+ Baia, 241.
+
+ Baldwin, Rev. Dr., in Rome, 10, 171.
+
+ Ball, Thomas, work of, 52.
+
+ Balzac, quoted, 120.
+
+ Barberini, Cardinal, 72.
+
+ Baths of Caracalla, 139.
+
+ Baths of Diocletian, 184.
+
+ Bell, John, grave of, 216.
+
+ Bembo, Cardinal, 306.
+
+ Benedictines, 354, 365.
+
+ Benton, Dwight, grave of, 221;
+ estimate of, 221.
+
+ Bernardino of Siena, 382, 383;
+ quoted, 383.
+
+ Bernini, Lorenzo, work of, 22.
+
+ Besant, Mrs. Annie, 174.
+
+ Biblioteca Sarti, 48.
+
+ "Blacks," 145, 146.
+
+ Bologna, 450.
+
+ Bonaparte, Princess Christina, death of, 203.
+
+ Boni, Commendatore, opinion of, 244.
+
+ Boni, Giovanni M., 403.
+
+ Bronson, Mrs. Arthur, 409, 410.
+
+ Brooks, Rev. Phillips, in Rome, 15;
+ quoted, 16, 39, 388, 394, 395.
+
+ Brownell, W. C., quoted, 96.
+
+ Browning, Elizabeth B., in Rome, 11;
+ quoted, 60, 114, 125, 389;
+ death of, 80, 408;
+ meeting with Mrs. Bronson, 410, 411.
+
+ Browning Palace, 406, 410, 411, 412, 413.
+
+ Browning, Robert, quoted, 3, 407, 408;
+ in Rome, 11, 70;
+ in Venice, 406;
+ death of, 408.
+
+ Browning, Miss Sarianna, 408, 413.
+
+ Buono, 236.
+
+ Byron, Lord, in Rome, 22;
+ quoted, 22, 403.
+
+
+ Campagna, 73, 205.
+
+ Campanile, fall of, 406.
+
+ Campo Verano, 76.
+
+ Campo Santo of Pisa, 450, 451, 453.
+
+ Campidoglio, buildings on, 25.
+
+ Campriani, 237.
+
+ Canova, in Rome, 7;
+ his genius, 33;
+ masterpiece of, 42;
+ realism of, 118.
+
+ Capella Sistina, 27.
+
+ Capo Miseno, 241.
+
+ Capri, island of, 262, 263, 264;
+ roses of, 266.
+
+ Capuano, Cardinal, legends of, 256.
+
+ Capuccini, convent of, 255.
+
+ Carducci, 143.
+
+ Carter, Professor Jesse Benedict, in Rome, 169.
+
+ Carter, Mrs. Jesse Benedict, 34, 37, 169.
+
+ Casa Buonarroti, 312.
+
+ Casino Borghese, 185.
+
+ Castel d'Ischia, 292, 293, 294.
+
+ Castellammare, 250.
+
+ Castle Gandolfo, 286.
+
+ Castiglione, 306.
+
+ Cecioni's "La Madre," 121.
+
+ Cestius, Caius, tomb of, 215.
+
+ Channing, Grace Ellery, 10, 91.
+
+ Chapel of Holy Sacrament, 202.
+
+ Chateaubriand, in Rome, 21;
+ quoted, 21.
+
+ Cicero's villa, remains of, 207.
+
+ Cimabue, 376, 378.
+
+ Cole, Thomas, in Rome, 9.
+
+ Coleman, Charles Caryl, home of, 263.
+
+ College of Cardinals, 435.
+
+ Colonna, Fabrizio, 290.
+
+ Colonna family, 285, 288, 289, 306, 307.
+
+ Colonna palace and gardens, 131.
+
+ Colonna, Vittoria, home of, 282;
+ quoted, 283, 303;
+ parents of, 285;
+ early childhood of, 286, 288;
+ horoscope of, 289;
+ destiny of, 290;
+ betrothal of, 290;
+ marriage of, 294, 295;
+ early married life of, 295, 296;
+ quoted, 297, 298, 300, 303, 305, 319, 320, 321;
+ in Pope Leo's court, 302;
+ her husband's death, 302;
+ removal of, 304;
+ fame of, 306;
+ return to Rome of, 307;
+ Longfellow's picture of, 308, 309, 310, 325, 326, 327;
+ travels of, 308, 311;
+ her influence with Michael Angelo, 313;
+ life in Rome and Orvieto, 314;
+ receives letters and sonnet from Michael Angelo, 317;
+ receives present from Michael Angelo, 318;
+ arranges meeting of Michael Angelo and Francesco d'Ollanda,
+ 322, 323, 324;
+ Walter Pater's comments on, 328;
+ death of, 329;
+ last prayer of, 330;
+ burial of, 331;
+ tomb of, 332;
+ bust of, 334;
+ fame of, 335, 336;
+ Margaret J. Preston's poem on, 337.
+
+ Condivi, quoted, 313.
+
+ Contarini, Cardinal, 306.
+
+ Corsini chapel, 152.
+
+ Crawford, Marion, in Rome, 11, 13.
+
+ Crawford, Thomas, in Rome, 49;
+ career of, 51;
+ poem on, 52.
+
+ Crow, Hon. Wayman, 61.
+
+ Cumæ, 241.
+
+ Cumæan Sibyl, 242.
+
+
+ da Bisticci, Vespasiano, 383.
+
+ Dalbano, Edoardo, 236.
+
+ Dana, Richard Henry, 219.
+
+ Dante, quoted, 267-270;
+ Mazzini's estimate of, 454.
+
+ d'Avalos, Donna Constanza, 291.
+
+ d'Avalos, Francesco, 290, 294, 295.
+
+ De Castro, Consul General, in Rome, 169.
+
+ Decline of art, 31.
+
+ d'Ollanda, Francesco, 322-324.
+
+ del Val, Cardinal Merry, 146-149, 435.
+
+ del Vasto, Marchese, 299.
+
+ De Monici, chronicles of, 398.
+
+ de Staël, Mme., in Rome, 11, 22.
+
+ Dietsch, C. Percival, in Rome, 10.
+
+ di Francavilla, Duchess, 291-293.
+
+ di Mercanti, Pica, 349, 350.
+
+ di Mercanti, Pietro Bernardone, 348, 349.
+
+ di Pescara, Marchesa, 296, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 306, 311, 312,
+ 322, 331, 332, 335.
+
+ di Pescara, Marchese, 292, 296, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 331,
+ 332.
+
+ Doges, Palace of, 400-403.
+
+ Dolce, Ludovico, 306.
+
+ Don Erasmo Gattola, 273.
+
+ Duca de Torlonia, family of, 205.
+
+ Duff, Lina Gordon, quoted, 374.
+
+ Dupaty, quoted, 16.
+
+ Duran, M. Carolus, in Rome, 166, 167.
+
+
+ Elena, Queen, 140, 142, 179.
+
+ Eliot, George, quoted, 252.
+
+ Emerson, Mary Moody, letters to, 12.
+
+ Emerson, Ralph Waldo, in Rome, 12;
+ quoted, 85.
+
+ Emmons, Miss Elise, in Rome, 167.
+
+ Esposito, 237.
+
+ Ezekiel, Moses, in Rome, 10;
+ studios of, 97.
+
+
+ Fawcett, Edgar, quoted, 417.
+
+ Ferrara, Duca and Duchessa of, 311.
+
+ Ferri, Signor Enrico, 436, 442;
+ quoted, 442.
+
+ Festus, quoted, 30.
+
+ Field, Kate, in Rome, 12.
+
+ Florence, culture of, 430, 431.
+
+ Fra Ambrosia, 322.
+
+ Franciscan, 367.
+
+ Frascati, visited, 205.
+
+
+ Galileo, in Rome, 139, 445.
+
+ Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, 448.
+
+ Garibaldi, villa of, 239.
+
+ Garnett, Dr. Richard, quoted, 456.
+
+ Genoa, 430;
+ features of, 451;
+ as a metropolis of sculpture, 452;
+ churches of, 452;
+ enchantment of, 455.
+
+ Ghiberto, Bishop, 311.
+
+ Gibson, John, in Rome, 10, 36;
+ quoted, 34, 37, 59;
+ grave of, 221.
+
+ Giotto, 376, 377, 379.
+
+ Giovio, Paolo, 306.
+
+ Gladstone, in Rome, 11.
+
+ Goethe, in Rome, 11, 20;
+ quoted, 20.
+
+ Goethe, August, grave of, 216.
+
+ Goldoni, Carlo, centenary of, 413;
+ memorial of, 414.
+
+ Good Friday, service in Rome, 200, 201.
+
+ Greenough, Horatio, in Rome, 10;
+ work of, 49;
+ death, 50.
+
+ Greenough, Mrs. Horatio, 335.
+
+ Greenough, Richard, in Rome, 10, 58;
+ grave of, 217.
+
+ Greenough, Sarah B., tomb of, 218.
+
+ Grotto de Matrimonia, 263.
+
+ Grotto Ferrata, 209.
+
+ Guili, Commendatore Conte, 214.
+
+ Guthers, Carl, work of, 236.
+
+
+ Hare, Augustus William, grave of, 221.
+
+ Hawthorne, Nathaniel, quoted, 45, 57, 67, 195.
+
+ Healy, Mr., in Rome, 19.
+
+ Herculaneum, 242;
+ excavations in, 244;
+ Professor Spinazzola on, 242, 243;
+ destruction of, 244;
+ theatre in, 247.
+
+ Hillard, George Stillman, in Rome, 12;
+ quoted, 23, 24, 51, 230, 248.
+
+ Holy Week, in Rome, 200.
+
+ Hosmer, Harriet, in Rome, 10, 59, 60, 61;
+ work of, 62.
+
+ Howe, Dr. Samuel Gridley, in Rome, 12.
+
+ Howe, Julia Ward, in Rome, 12.
+
+ Howells, William Dean, in Rome, 13, 416.
+
+ Howitt, William and Mary, graves of, 216.
+
+ Hugo, Victor, 41.
+
+
+ Ischia, 281;
+ romantic impressions of, 282;
+ home of Vittoria Colonna, 282;
+ the d'Avalos castle in, 291;
+ as an enchanted island, 296;
+ Vittoria's return to, 299, 305.
+
+ Italy, land of romance and song, 6;
+ Mazzini's opinion of, 65;
+ true life of, 423;
+ as a youthful country, 424;
+ relation with United States, 425;
+ traveller in, 425;
+ picture of idyllic days in, 427;
+ approach to, 429;
+ cities of, 429, 430;
+ in the making, 431;
+ politics of, 432;
+ Socialistic uprising in, 433;
+ taxation in, 436-438;
+ railroads in, 439, 440;
+ government of, 440, 441;
+ future of, 444, 457;
+ lakes of, 449;
+ contemporary literature of, 456.
+
+
+ James, Henry, in Rome, 11, 13.
+
+ Jameson, Mrs., in Rome, 67;
+ quoted, 193.
+
+ Johnson, Robert Underwood, quoted, 416, 421.
+
+ Juvenal, birthplace of, 277.
+
+
+ Keats, in Rome, 11, 132;
+ memorial, 133;
+ grave of, 216.
+
+ Kemble, Adelaide, in Rome, 68.
+
+ Kemble, Fanny, in Rome, 68.
+
+ Keynote of life, 359.
+
+ Khayyam, Omar, quoted, 1, 94.
+
+
+ Lacus Avernus, 240.
+
+ Lanciani, Professor, lectures by, 138, 139;
+ opinion of, 244, 333.
+
+ Leaning Tower of Pisa, 450.
+
+ Libraries of Rome, 214, 223.
+
+ Lister, Mrs., in Rome, 172.
+
+ Liszt, Abbé, in Rome, 18, 19.
+
+ Little, Canon Knox, quoted, 347, 348, 376, 377, 380.
+
+ Lodge, Sir Oliver, quoted, 120.
+
+ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, in Rome, 12;
+ quoted, 16, 17, 125, 253, 274, 279, 281, 308, 309, 310, 325, 327, 387.
+
+ Longfellow, Rev. Samuel, quoted, 18.
+
+ Lowell, James Russell, in Rome, 12.
+
+ Ludovisi collection, 185.
+
+ Luther, in Rome, 80;
+ ascent of the Scala Santa, 156.
+
+
+ Margherita, Queen Mother, 140, 141;
+ palace of, 142;
+ quoted, 143;
+ relations with artists, 144;
+ at requiem mass, 179.
+
+ Marino, 286, 287.
+
+ Mazzini, 191, 192; quoted, 64, 422, 423, 444, 446;
+ works of, 190, 191;
+ estimate of, 191;
+ tomb of, 454.
+
+ Mead, Larkin G., in Rome, 10;
+ work of, 53.
+
+ Mediæval Museum of Rome, 139.
+
+ Meredith, Owen, quoted, 2.
+
+ Metella, Cecilia, tomb of, 145.
+
+ Milan, activity of, 430, 447;
+ structures of, 448;
+ Ambrosian library of, 449;
+ as scientific centre, 450.
+
+ Mills, Clark, in Rome, 10.
+
+ Milton, in Rome, 11, 19.
+
+ Misenus, burial place of, 241.
+
+ Monte Aquino, 276.
+
+ Monte Cairo, 277.
+
+ Monte Cassino, 304.
+
+ Monte Catria, 348.
+
+ Monte Mario, 21, 133.
+
+ Monte Pincio, 188.
+
+ Monte San Mano, 304.
+
+ Morelli, Domenico, work of, 234, 235.
+
+ Moulton, Louise Chandler, in Rome, 13;
+ quoted, 13, 14, 95, 267, 340.
+
+ Myers, Frederick W. H., memorial tablet to, 220.
+
+
+ Naples, described, 227-231;
+ University of, 232;
+ Museum, 233;
+ natural attractions of, 237;
+ hotels of, 238;
+ Bay of, 265.
+
+ Nardi, Monsignore, in Rome, 18.
+
+ Nero's tomb, 78, 80.
+
+ Nisida, island of, 240.
+
+ Norton, Charles Eliot, quoted, 267.
+
+
+ Obelisk in Piazza del Popolo, 77.
+
+ Oldest art school, 44.
+
+ Oliphant, Mrs., quoted, 357, 368.
+
+ Orvieto, 314.
+
+ Osso, Professor Dall', opinion of, 244.
+
+ Oxenham, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Nutcombe, in Rome, 171.
+
+
+ Pæstum, 260, 261.
+
+ Page de Conti, 337.
+
+ Page, William, in Rome, 66.
+
+ Palatine Hill, 13, 112.
+
+ Palazzo Barberini, 72, 90.
+
+ Palazzo Bernini, 32.
+
+ Palazzo Bonaparte, 203.
+
+ Palazzo Brandolin-Rota, 409.
+
+ Palazzo Cesarini, 314, 329.
+
+ Palazzo del Drago, 163, 164.
+
+ Palazzo di Capodimonte, 233.
+
+ Palazzo di Donna Ana, 239.
+
+ Palazzo Margherita, 142.
+
+ Palazzo Municipio, 384.
+
+ Palazzo Quirinale, 142, 143, 432.
+
+ Palazzo Rezzonico, 406.
+
+ Palazzo Senni, 172.
+
+ Palazzo Tamagno, 104.
+
+ Palazzo Vaticano, 27.
+
+ Pantheon, 177;
+ ceremonies at, 179.
+
+ Papal supremacy, 432.
+
+ Parsons, Thomas William, quoted, 52, 276.
+
+ Pater, Walter, quoted, 327, 328.
+
+ Perugia, town of, 381-384.
+
+ Perugino, 384.
+
+ Petrarcha, 258, 259, 400.
+
+ Phlegræan Plain, 240.
+
+ Piazza Barberini, 18.
+
+ Piazza del Popolo, 76, 80, 134.
+
+ Piazza di Spagna, 70, 133, 146.
+
+ Piazza di Trinità, 133.
+
+ Piazza San Giovanni, 151.
+
+ Pietro da Cortona, work of, 194.
+
+ Pisa, architectural monuments of, 450.
+
+ Pistolesi, quoted, 43.
+
+ Pliny, the Younger, quoted, 244.
+
+ Poe, quoted, 136.
+
+ Pompeii, 243, 245, 248.
+
+ Pope Adrian, 302.
+
+ Pope Clement XII, tomb of, 152.
+
+ Pope Julius II, 23, 27, 28.
+
+ Pope Leo XII, 302.
+
+ Pope Leo XIII, tomb of, 154.
+
+ Pope Paschal, dream of, 157.
+
+ Pope Paul III, 313.
+
+ Pope Pio Nono, 64, 75.
+
+ Pope Pius X, 145, 147;
+ "passage" of, 196, 197;
+ ceremonial receptions of, 146;
+ residence of, 432;
+ character of, 434;
+ dream of, 435.
+
+ Portiuncula, 365, 366.
+
+ Posilipo, 239.
+
+ Powers, Hiram, in Rome, 10;
+ America's first sculptor, 49;
+ work, 50.
+
+ Pratello, 237.
+
+ Preston, Margaret J., quoted, 280, 337.
+
+ Principessa d'Antuni, 163, 164.
+
+
+ Quattro Fontane, Via delle, 72.
+
+
+ Raphael, work of, 22, 46, 47, 79;
+ genius of, 26;
+ masterpieces of, 27;
+ Franklin Simmons, opinion of, 29;
+ inspiration of, 30;
+ decline of art after, 31.
+
+ Ravello, Cathedral at, 260.
+
+ Ravenna, battle of, 296.
+
+ Read, Thomas Buchanan, in Rome, 67.
+
+ Realism, kinds of, 118.
+
+ _Regina Madre_, 140, 142.
+
+ Regio Palazzo del Quirinale, 143, 144.
+
+ Reid, Hon. Whitelaw, 105.
+
+ Reinhart, William, in Rome, 10.
+
+ Religion united with art, 123.
+
+ Renaissance in Italy, 117.
+
+ Richmond, Celia, 341.
+
+ Rocca di Papa, 287.
+
+ Rogers, Randolph, in Rome, 10;
+ early death of, 53.
+
+ Roman environment, 93.
+
+ Rome, features of, 1;
+ as artistic centre, 6, 10, 114;
+ under Pontifical régime, 8;
+ Longfellow's love for, 16;
+ Goethe's impressions of, 20;
+ work of Michael Angelo and Raphael in, 22;
+ oldest art school of, 44;
+ latter-day artists in, 49;
+ Brownings in, 67;
+ social life in, 113, 127;
+ new bridge of, 128;
+ in May, 129;
+ in winter, 129, 130;
+ in spring, 130, 132;
+ festas in, 136;
+ discussed by Professor Lanciani, 138;
+ society in, 140, 141, 170;
+ two courts of, 142;
+ modern features of, 145;
+ enchanting views in, 151;
+ poetic symbolism in, 158-160;
+ of the present day, breakfast-table talk in, 162;
+ American Embassy in, 163;
+ elevator service in, 164;
+ American consulate in, 169;
+ delightful hostesses in, 171, 172;
+ attitude toward modern thought in, 173;
+ Theosophical Society of, 173, 174;
+ demand for apartments in, 175;
+ sight-seeing in, 183;
+ great palaces in, 187;
+ famous drive of, 188;
+ birthday celebrations of, 189;
+ Republic of, 190;
+ rich years to artists in, 192, 193;
+ Papal ceremonies in, 195;
+ curious spectacle in, 198;
+ Holy Week in, 200;
+ Good Friday service in, 200, 201;
+ motoring from, 204, 205;
+ outlying towns of, 207;
+ American Academy in, 214;
+ libraries of, 214;
+ Protestant cemetery of, 215;
+ literature of, 223;
+ modern spirit in, 428.
+
+ Rosa, Salvator, 234.
+
+ Rosenkrans, Baroness, 173.
+
+ Rota, 329.
+
+ Ruskin, in Rome, 12;
+ quoted, 398.
+
+
+ Sabatier, Paul, quoted, 362, 365.
+
+ Sallust, Gardens of, 140.
+
+ Salvatico, quoted, 401.
+
+ San Agostino, church of, 198.
+
+ San Caterina di Viterbo, 314.
+
+ San Francesco, church of, 345.
+
+ San Giovanni, 153.
+
+ San Marco, 394.
+
+ San Maria della Pace, 27.
+
+ San Maria dei Frari, 405.
+
+ San Silvestre, 32.
+
+ Sansovino, Jacob, work of, 399.
+
+ Santa Anna, convent of, 314.
+
+ Santa Chiara (Clara), 365;
+ takes vows, 366, 367;
+ founds convent, 368;
+ family history of, 368;
+ friendship with St. Francis of Assisi, 368;
+ at death of Francis, 372;
+ personality of, 373;
+ preservation of body of, 374.
+
+ Santa Domenica Maggiore, church of, 303, 331, 333.
+
+ Santa Maria Degli Angeli, 345, 365, 380.
+
+ Santa Maria del Popolo, 78-80.
+
+ Santa Maria della Salute, 405.
+
+ Santa Monica, tomb of, 199.
+
+ Scala di Spagna, 72.
+
+ Scala Santa, 155;
+ Luther's ascent of, 156.
+
+ Scifi, Count Favorini, 368.
+
+ Scott, Sir Walter, in Rome, 20.
+
+ Sejanus, fall of, 263.
+
+ Sermoneta, Duke of, in Rome, 18.
+
+ Severn, Joseph, grave of, 216.
+
+ Shelley, in Rome, 22;
+ memorial, 133;
+ quoted, 215;
+ grave of, 216.
+
+ Simmons, Franklin, in Rome, 10, 15, 91, 98;
+ quoted, 29;
+ works of, 98-112;
+ early life, 100;
+ degrees conferred upon, 103;
+ marriage of, 103;
+ latest success of, 107;
+ studios of, 112;
+ realism of, 119;
+ beautiful creation of, 121;
+ grave of, 217.
+
+ Simmons, Mrs. Franklin, in Rome, 104;
+ death of, 112;
+ estimate of, 112;
+ grave of, 218.
+
+ Sindoni, Turillo, 144.
+
+ Sistine Chapel, art in, 177.
+
+ Sorrento, 251, 252.
+
+ Spearman, Frank Hamilton, in Rome, 167;
+ work of, 168.
+
+ Spinazzola, Professor, quoted, 242, 243.
+
+ St. Ambrosio, church of, 448.
+
+ St. Andrew, 256.
+
+ St. Benedict, work of, 270, 271;
+ tomb of, 272;
+ chapel of, 350.
+
+ St. Damian, chapel of, 356.
+
+ St. Gaudens, Augustus, in Rome, 10.
+
+ St. Gregory, feast of, 180.
+
+ St. Maria della Portiuncula, 351.
+
+ St. Mark's, Venice, 396, 397, 404.
+
+ St. Mark, tomb of, 397;
+ legend regarding, 397.
+
+ St. Paola d'Orvieto, 314.
+
+ Stebbins, Emma, in Rome, 58.
+
+ Stetson, Charles Walker, in Rome, 10, 91;
+ work of, 113.
+
+ Stetson, Mrs. Charles Walker, in Rome, 11;
+ quoted, 426.
+
+ Stillman, Mr., quoted, 39.
+
+ Story, Julian, in Rome, 91;
+ studio of, 97.
+
+ Story, Waldo, in Rome, 91;
+ studio of, 97;
+ works of, 98.
+
+ Story, William Wetmore, in Rome, 10;
+ first visit to Italy of, 62;
+ in Florence, 65;
+ quoted, 70, 80, 89, 90, 286;
+ in Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 71;
+ works of, 81-86;
+ estimate of, 82-90;
+ literary work of, 90;
+ grave of, 217.
+
+ Stowe, Harriet Beecher, in Rome, 11.
+
+ Strada Nuova di Posilipo, 239.
+
+ Symonds, John Addington, grave of, 220;
+ estimate of, 220;
+ quoted, 261, 264, 315, 316.
+
+
+ Tasso, 252, 253, 335.
+
+ Tennyson's choice of pictures in Venice, 395.
+
+ Thackeray, in Rome, 69.
+
+ Theocritus, quoted, 85.
+
+ Theosophical Society of Rome, 173.
+
+ Thomas, Edith, quoted, 82.
+
+ Thompson, Launt, in Rome, 10.
+
+ Thorwaldsen, in Rome, 7, 10;
+ quoted, 35;
+ realism of, 119.
+
+ Tiberius, summer palace of, 262;
+ baths of, 263.
+
+ Tilton, J. Rollin, in Rome, 10;
+ grave of, 219.
+
+ Titian, tomb of, 405.
+
+ Torlonia, Duca and Duchessa of, 334.
+
+ Trelawney, grave of, 216.
+
+ Trinità di Monti, church of, 133.
+
+ Tusculum, 207.
+
+
+ Umberto, King, 142.
+
+ Umbrians, 345.
+
+ Urbino, 285.
+
+
+ Vanderlyn, in Rome, 10.
+
+ Vaughn, Monsignor, 181.
+
+ Vatican, galleries of, 112.
+
+ Vatican palace, 196, 198.
+
+ Vedder, Anita, in Rome, 171.
+
+ Vedder, Elihu, in Rome, 10;
+ art of, 91-95;
+ appreciation of, 96;
+ works of, 96, 97;
+ country house of, 262.
+
+ Vedder, Mrs. Elihu, in Rome, 170.
+
+ Venice, first glimpses of, 389;
+ Grand Canal of, 390;
+ in June, 391;
+ color and loveliness of, 392;
+ art of, 395, 396;
+ origin of, 398;
+ first Doge of, 399;
+ Renaissance architecture in, 399;
+ Doge's Palace, 400-404;
+ art in, 404;
+ fall of Campanile in, 406;
+ Browning Palace in, 408-413;
+ centenary of Carlo Goldoni celebrated in, 413, 414;
+ art exhibition in, 415;
+ June evening in, 416;
+ as a poet's dream, 418.
+
+ Vernet, Horace, in Rome, 10.
+
+ Verona, 311.
+
+ Veronese, Paolo, 404.
+
+ Vesuvius, 229.
+
+ Via Bonella, 45.
+
+ Victor Emmanuel III, 118, 215, 432, 444.
+
+ Villa Aldobrandini, 208.
+
+ Villa Barberini, 209.
+
+ Villa Borghese, 14, 187.
+
+ Villa Doria, 211.
+
+ Villa Falconieri, 213.
+
+ Villa Jovis, 263.
+
+ Villa Medici, 4, 134.
+
+ Villa Nazionale, 238.
+
+ Villa Pamphilia Doria, 149.
+
+ Villa Torlonia, 206.
+
+ Virgil, quoted, 241;
+ grotto of, 242.
+
+ Visconti, 329, 330.
+
+ Vittorio Emanuele, 214.
+
+
+ Waldstein, Dr. Charles, quoted, 245.
+
+ Ward, Mrs. Humphry, quoted, 210, 212.
+
+ Watson, William, quoted, 9, 25, 86, 87.
+
+ Wellman, Walter, 9.
+
+ West, Benjamin, in Rome, 10.
+
+ White, Mr. and Mrs. Henry, in Rome, 165.
+
+ "Whites," 145.
+
+ Whitman, Walt, quoted, 422.
+
+ Whitney, Anne, in Rome, 10, 58.
+
+ Whittier, quoted, 339.
+
+ Wilberforce, Rev. Basil, quoted, 125, 341.
+
+ Woolson, Constance Fenimore, tomb of, 219.
+
+
+ Zuccaro, Federigo, 44.
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BY LILIAN WHITING
+
+
+ THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL. First, Second, and Third Series. 3 vols. 16mo.
+ $1.00 per vol. Decorated cloth, $1.25 per vol.
+
+Cannot help being uplifting and inspiring.--_New Church Messenger._
+
+
+ AFTER HER DEATH, 16mo. $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25.
+
+Should bring positive aid in sorrow.--_Hartford Post._
+
+
+ FROM DREAMLAND SENT. Verses of the Life to Come. 16mo. $1.00.
+ Decorated cloth, $1.25.
+
+Graceful, tender, true, appealing to what is best in the human
+heart.--_The Independent._
+
+
+ THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE; or, Death as an Event in Life. 16mo.
+ $1.00. Decorated cloth, $1.25.
+
+It suggests and hints at the ultimate significance of scientific
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+
+
+ KATE FIELD: A RECORD. With portraits, including one by Elihu
+ Vedder. 12mo. Decorated cloth, $2.00.
+
+A wonderfully vivid portrait.--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+
+ A STUDY OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, 16mo. Decorated cloth,
+ $1.25.
+
+The most virile picture of Mrs. Browning in all our literature.--_New
+York Times._
+
+
+ THE WORLD BEAUTIFUL IN BOOKS, 16mo. $1.00 net. Decorated cloth,
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+
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+
+A striking picture of Florence, doubly interesting because so many
+eminent persons appear in it.--_Philadelphia Ledger._
+
+
+ THE JOY THAT NO MAN TAKETH FROM YOU. 18 mo. 50 cents net.
+
+Emphasizes the reality of spiritual things with an intense
+conviction.--_Living Age._
+
+
+ FROM DREAM TO VISION OF LIFE. 16mo. $1.00 net. White and gold,
+ $1.25 net. Uniform with "The World Beautiful."
+
+A study of life from the mere transient dream to the radiant eternal
+vision.
+
+
+ THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT. From Pike's Peak to the Pacific. Fully
+ illustrated. 8vo. $2.50 net.
+
+A vivid presentation of the scenic marvels and resources of the
+Southwest.
+
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers, BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+ TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+ The original language, spelling, language and punctuation have been
+ preserved.
+ The following corrections were made to the original text:
+
+ Page xii: Vittoria Colonna, Galleria Buonarotti, Florence
+ Vittoria Colonna, Galleria Buonarroti, Florence
+
+ Page 6: artistic centre of the ninteenth century and
+ artistic centre of the nineteenth century and
+
+ Page 19: on the wall of the _casa_ in the Via delle Quattre Fontane
+ on the wall of the _casa_ in the Via delle Quattro Fontane
+
+ page 26: the Palazzo Sentoriale and the Palazzo dei Conservatore.
+ the Palazzo Senatoriale and the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
+
+ page 27: the Stanza della Incendio and the Sala di Constantino.
+ the Stanza dell'Incendio and the Sala di Constantino.
+
+ page 32: winds on the Pont San Angelo, and in the vast
+ winds on the Ponte San Angelo, and in the vast
+
+ page 32: the Music Nazionale--is the group of "Pluto
+ the Museo Nazionale--is the group of "Pluto
+
+ page 55: during hs stay in Rome are 'St. Elizabeth of
+ during his stay in Rome are 'St. Elizabeth of
+
+ page 72: The Via delle Quatre Fontane, on which the
+ The Via delle Quattro Fontane, on which the
+
+ page 138: given under the auspices of the Societa Archeologica,
+ given under the auspices of the Società Archeologica,
+
+ page 148: _gentilinomo_, who is gorgeously arrayed in knee
+ _gentiluomo_, who is gorgeously arrayed in knee
+
+ page 161: Jacomletti, and there is also a kneeling statue
+ Jacometti, and there is also a kneeling statue
+
+ page 163: and the Via dell Quattro Fontane. The
+ and the Via delle Quattro Fontane. The
+
+ page 163: for living purposes. The portere, the guards,
+ for living purposes. The portiere, the guards,
+
+ page 170: and in the Vedder villa, _Torre Quatro Venti_
+ and in the Vedder villa, _Torre Quattro Venti_
+
+ page 171: the American wife of Caviliere Cortesi, an
+ the American wife of Cavaliere Cortesi, an
+
+ page 178: Peruzzi, and Annibale Caracci. Raphael is
+ Peruzzi, and Annibale Carracci. Raphael is
+
+ page 185: that includes the "Ludovisi Mars;" Hercules,"
+ that includes the "Ludovisi Mars;" "Hercules,"
+
+ page 200: he may rest, _mens conscia recta_!
+ he may rest, _mens conscia recti_!
+
+ page 205: whose grand Roman palazzo is in the Boca di
+ whose grand Roman palazzo is in the Bocca di
+
+ page 213: The Villa Falconicri, in Frascati, which was
+ The Villa Falconieri, in Frascati, which was
+
+ page 234: Benvenuto Cellini at the Castel Sant Angelo;
+ Benvenuto Cellini at the Castel Sant'Angelo;
+
+ page 237: of the street scenes of Naples; Camprani and
+ of the street scenes of Naples; Campriani and
+
+ page 244: Forum, succeding Lanciani--believe that some
+ Forum, succeeding Lanciani--believe that some
+
+ page 244: equestrian statue of Bulbi, in the Naples Museum,
+ equestrian statue of Balbo, in the Naples Museum,
+
+ page 260: The cathedral at Revello has traces of the
+ The cathedral at Ravello has traces of the
+
+ page 260: of the Palazzo Rufelo might enchant Hafiz himself.
+ of the Palazzo Rufolo might enchant Hafiz himself.
+
+ page 272: Mignano (Ginodone Trieramosca) and also to
+ Mignano (Guidone Fieramosca) and also to
+
+ page 272: are a series of fresco paintings by Luca Gindano,
+ are a series of fresco paintings by Luca Giordano,
+
+ page 272: by Mazzarappi and Marco da Siena. Nothing
+ by Mazzaroppi and Marco da Siena. Nothing
+
+ page 274: Terre di Lavorno region:--
+ Terra di Lavoro region:--
+
+ page 276: to be a "Monumento Nazionali," and it is now
+ to be a "Monumento Nazionale," and it is now
+
+ page 286: in the "Inferno." The Colonna and the Orsino
+ in the "Inferno." The Colonna and the Orsini
+
+ page 286: look down from Castel Gondolfo on the gloomy,
+ look down from Castel Gandolfo on the gloomy,
+
+ page 287: Marino, Castel Gondolfo, and Frascati, with
+ Marino, Castel Gandolfo, and Frascati, with
+
+ page 295: for the country they left Naples for Pietzalba
+ for the country they left Naples for Pietralba
+
+ page 295: Musefico, il Givoio, and il Minturo. It was an
+ Musefico, il Giovio, and il Minturno. It was an
+
+ page 297: Per te narrar tre quante dubbie voglie,
+ Per te narrar tra quante dubbie voglie,
+
+ page 297: Fra quanti aspri martir, degliosa io vivo!_"
+ Fra quanti aspri martir, dogliosa io vivo!_"
+
+ page 304: San Mano that had formerly been its property.
+ San Magno that had formerly been its property.
+
+ page 305: world's sun; and not to add light to _mio vel solo_,
+ world's sun; and not to add light to _mio bel sole_,
+
+ page 332: "_Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma; quam ergo mercedem recipris?_"
+ "_Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma; quam ergo mercedem recipies?_"
+
+ page 380: Bonaventuri built over it, is preserved in this
+ Bonaventura built over it, is preserved in this
+
+ page 385: the Palazzo Rospigliosa in Rome.
+ the Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome.
+
+ page 399: Anopeste, elected by the tribunal of commonalty,
+ Anafesto, elected by the tribunal of commonalty,
+
+ page 400: mural work by Battesta Franco and De Moro.
+ mural work by Battista Franco and De Moro.
+
+ page 400: One enters the Porta delta Carta, which
+ One enters the Porta della Carta, which
+
+ page 405: Peter, Maucis, and Antoninus are commending
+ Peter, Francis, and Antoninus are commending
+
+ page 426: Saricinesco, in the region of Tivoli, was made
+ Saracinesco, in the region of Tivoli, was made
+
+ page 436: too, in other leading men. Zurati, the
+ too, in other leading men. Turati, the
+
+ page 452: in Europe. That of the Annunziati, the
+ in Europe. That of the Annunziata, the
+
+ page 461: Annunziati Cathedral, Genoa, 452.
+ Annunziata Cathedral, Genoa, 452.
+
+ page 462: Camprani, 237.
+ Campriani, 237.
+
+ page 463: del Vall, Cardinal Merry, 146-149, 435.
+ del Val, Cardinal Merry, 146-149, 435.
+
+ page 466: Ossi, Professor Dall, opinion of, 244.
+ Osso, Professor Dall', opinion of, 244.
+
+ page 467: Quatre Fontane, Via delle, 72.
+ Quattro Fontane, Via delle, 72.
+
+ page 467: Revello, Cathedral at, 260.
+ Ravello, Cathedral at, 260.
+
+ page 470: Villa Falconicri, 213.
+ Villa Falconieri, 213.
+
+On page 235: "Da Scala d'Oro" should be "La Scala d'Oro" or
+"Madonna della Scala d'Oro".
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Italy, the Magic Land, by Lilian Whiting
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