Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7 | Page 2

whose influence has circled the globe, and
in which historians, in a spiritual sense, have seen a survival of
Imperial Rome. But here are tales that every schoolboy hears.
Sicily is reached in a night by steamer from Naples to Palermo, or the
tourist may go by train from Naples to Reggio, and thence by ferry
across the strait to Messina. Its earliest people were contemporaries of
the Etruscans. Phoenicians also made settlements there, as they did in
many parts of the Mediterranean, but these were purely commercial
enterprises. Real civilization in Sicily dates from neither of those races,
but from Dorian and Ionic Greeks, who came perhaps as early as the
founding of Rome--that is, in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The
great cities of the Sicilian Greeks were Syracuse, Segesta and Girgenti,

where still survive colossal remains of their genius. In military and
political senses, the island for 3,000 years has been overrun, plundered
and torn asunder by every race known to Mediterranean waters. Beside
those already named, are Carthaginians under Hannibal, Vandals under
Genseric, Goths under Theodoric, Byzantines under Belisarius,
Saracens from Asia Minor, Normans under Robert Guiscard, German
emperors of the thirteenth century, French Angevine princes (in whose
time came the Sicilian Vespers), Spaniards of the house of Aragon,
French under Napoleon, Austrians of the nineteenth century, and
then--that glorious day when Garibaldi transferred it to the victorious
Sardinian king.
The tourist who seeks Greece from northern Europe may go from
Trieste by steamer along the Dalmatian coast (in itself a trip of fine
surprizes), to Cattaro and Corfu, transferring to another steamer for the
Piræus, the port of Athens; or from Italy by steamer direct from
Brindisi, the ancient Brundusium, whence sailed all Roman expeditions
to the East, and where in retirement once dwelt Cicero. No writer has
known where to date the beginnings of civilization in Greece, but with
Mycenæ, Tiryns, and the Minoan palace of Crete laid bare, antiquarians
have pointed the way to dates far older than anything before recorded.
The palace of Minos is ancient enough to make the Homeric age seem
modern. With the Dorian invasion of Greece about 1000 B.C., begins
that Greek civilization of which we have so much authentic knowledge.
Dorian influence was confined largely to Sparta, but it spread to many
Greek colonies in the central Mediterranean and in the Levant. It
became a powerful influence, alike in art, in domestic life, and in
political supremacy. One of its noblest achievements was its help in
keeping out the Persian, and another in supplanting in the
Mediterranean the commercial rule of Phoenicians. Attica and Sparta
became world-famous cities, with stupendous achievements in every
domain of human art and human efficiency. The colossal debt all
Europe and all America owe them, is known to everyone who has ever
been to school.
F. W. H.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII
Italy, Sicily, and Greece--Part One
INTRODUCTION TO VOLS. VII AND VIII--By the Editor.
I--ROME PAGE FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY--By Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe 1
THE ANTIQUITIES--By Joseph Addison 10
THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS--By Rodolfo Lanciani 17
THE COLISEUM--By George S. Hillard 24
THE PANTHEON--By George S. Hillard 29
HADRIAN'S TOMB--By Rodolfo Lanciani 32
TRAJAN'S FORUM--By Francis Wey 35
THE BATHS OF CARACALLA--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 37
THE AQUEDUCT BUILDERS--By Rodolfo Lanciani 41
THE QUARRIES AND BRICKS OF THE ANCIENT CITY--By
Rodolfo Lanciani 45
PALM SUNDAY IN ST. PETER--By Grace Greenwood (Mrs.
Lippincott) 53
THE ELECTION OF A POPE--By Cardinal Wiseman 55
AN AUDIENCE WITH PIUS X.--By Mary Emogene Hazeltine 59
THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S--By George S.
Hillard 64

SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 67
CATACOMBS AND CRYPTS--By Charles Dickens 69
THE CEMETERY OF THE CAPUCHINS--By Nathaniel Hawthorne
73
THE BURIAL PLACE OF KEATS AND SHELLEY--By Nathaniel
Parker Willis 75
EXCURSIONS NEAR ROME--By Charles Dickens 78
II--FLORENCE
THE APPROACH BY CARRIAGE ROAD--By Nathaniel Hawthorne
83
THE OLD PALACE AND THE LOGGIA--By Theophile Gautier 86
THE ORIGINS OF THE CITY--By Grant Allen 92
THE CATHEDRAL--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 96
THE ASCENT OF THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI--By Mr. and
Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield 102
ARNOLFO, GIOTTO AND BRUNELLESCHI--By Mrs. Oliphant 106
GHIBERTI'S GATES--By Charles Yriarte 116
THE PONTE VECCHIO--By Charles Yriarte 119
SANTA CROCE--By Charles Yriarte 121
THE UFFIZI GALLERY--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 125
FLORENCE EIGHTY YEARS AGO--By William Cullen Bryant 131
III--VENICE

THE APPROACH FROM THE SEA--By Charles Yriarte 138
THE APPROACH BY TRAIN--By the Editor 140
A TOUR OF THE GRAND CANAL--By Theophile Gautier 143
ST. MARK'S CHURCH--By John Ruskin 148
HOW THE OLD CAMPANILE WAS BUILT--By Horatio F. Brown
155
HOW THE CAMPANILE FELL--By Horatio F. Brown 161
THE PALACE OF THE DOGES--By John Ruskin 163
THE LAGOONS--By Horatio F. Brown 174
THE DECLINE AMID SPLENDOR--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine
177
THE DOVES OF ST. MARK'S--By