eBooks Base 2000

That time is past, however, and the result is very melancholy; for
great beauty has been produced, but it can be enjoyed in its perfection
only at the peril of one's life. . . . . For my part, and judging from my
own experience, I suspect that the Roman atmosphere, never wholesome, is
always more or less poisonous.
We came to another and larger casino remote from the gateway, in which
the Prince resides during two months of the year. It was now under
repair, but we gained admission, as did several other visitors, and saw
in the entrance-hall the Aurora of Guercino, painted in fresco on the
ceiling. There is beauty in the design; but the painter certainly was
most unhappy in his black shadows, and in the work before us they give
the impression of a cloudy and lowering morning which is likely enough to
turn to rain by and by. After viewing the fresco we mounted by a spiral
staircase to a lofty terrace, and found Rome at our feet, and, far off,
the Sabine and Alban mountains, some of them still capped with snow.


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