Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7 | Page 3

Horatio F. Brown 183
TORCELLO, THE MOTHER CITY--By John Ruskin 186
CADORE, TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE--By Amelia B. Edwards 189

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME VII
FRONTISPIECE
THE COLISEUM AND THE ARCH OF TITUS
PRECEDING PAGE 1
THE PANTHEON, ROME ROME: THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST.
ANGELO, AND DOME OF ST. PETER'S ROME: RUINS OF THE

PALACE OF THE CÆSARS ROME: THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE
THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY THE TARPIAN
ROCK IN ROME INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM THE COLISEUM,
ROME ST. PETER'S, ROME ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S
ROME: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE THE
CATHEDRAL, FLORENCE
FOLLOWING PAGE 96
FLORENCE: BRIDGE ACROSS THE ARNO FLORENCE: THE
OLD PALACE FLORENCE: THE LOGGIA DI LANZI FLORENCE:
CLOISTER OF SANTA MARIA NOVELLA FLORENCE:
CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO FLORENCE: THE PITTI PALACE
FLORENCE: HOUSE OF DANTE FRONT OF ST. MARK'S,
VENICE INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S, VENICE THE DUCAL
PALACE, VENICE VENICE: PIAZZA OF ST. MARK'S, DUCAL
PALACE ON THE LEFT VIEW OF VENICE FROM THE
CAMPANILE

[Illustration: THE PANTHEON OF ROME Courtesy John C. Winston
Co.]
[Illustration: THE TIBER, CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO, AND DOME
OF ST. PETER'S RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS]
[Illustration: THE SAN SEBASTIAN GATE OF ROME]
[Illustration: THE TOMB OF METELLA ON THE APPIAN WAY
Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]
[Illustration: THE TARPEIAN ROCK IN ROME]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM]
[Illustration: THE COLISEUM]
[ST. PETER'S, ROME Courtesy John C. Winston Co.]

[Illustration: ROME: INTERIOR OF ST. PETER'S]
[Illustration: ROME: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE]
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF FLORENCE]

I
ROME
FIRST DAYS IN THE ETERNAL CITY[1]
BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
At last I am arrived in this great capital of the world. If fifteen years
ago I could have seen it in good company, with a well-informed guide,
I should have thought myself very fortunate. But as it was to be that I
should thus see it alone, and with my own eyes, it is well that this joy
has fallen to my lot so late in life.
Over the mountains of the Tyrol I have as good as flown. Verona,
Vicenza, Padua, and Venice I have carefully looked at; hastily glanced
at Ferrara, Cento, Bologna, and scarcely seen Florence at all. My
anxiety to reach Rome was so great, and it so grew with me every
moment, that to think of stopping anywhere was quite out of the
question; even in Florence, I only stayed three hours. Now I am here at
my ease, and as it would seem, shall be tranquilized for my whole life;
for we may almost say that a new life begins when a man once sees
with his own eyes all that before he has but partially heard or read of.
All the dreams of my youth I now behold realized before me; the
subjects of the first engravings I ever remembered seeing (several
views of Rome were hung up in an anteroom of my father's house)
stand bodily before my sight, and all that I had long been acquainted
with, through paintings or drawings, engravings, or wood-cuts,
plaster-casts, and cork models are here collectively presented to my eye.
Wherever I go I find some old acquaintance in this new world; it is all

just as I had thought it, and yet all is new; and just the same might I
remark of my own observations and my own ideas. I have not gained
any new thoughts, but the older ones have become so defined, so vivid,
and so coherent, that they may almost pass for new ones....
I have now been here seven days, and by degrees have formed in my
mind a general idea of the city. We go diligently backward and forward.
While I am thus making myself acquainted with the plan of old and
new Rome, viewing the ruins and the buildings, visiting this and that
villa, the grandest and most remarkable objects are slowly and leisurely
contemplated. I do but keep my eyes open and see, and then go and
come again, for it is only in Rome one can duly prepare oneself for
Rome. It must, in truth, be confessed, that it is a sad and melancholy
business to prick and track out ancient Rome in new Rome; however, it
must be done, and we may hope at least for an incalculable gratification.
We meet with traces both of majesty and of ruin, which alike surpass
all conception; what the barbarians spared, the builders of new Rome
made havoc of....
When one thus beholds an object two thousand years old and more, but
so manifoldly and thoroughly altered by the changes of time, but, sees
nevertheless, the same soil, the same mountains, and often indeed the
same walls and columns, one becomes, as it were, a contemporary of
the great