eBooks Base 2000

. . . . Were he
to send a Cupid to America, he need not trouble himself to stain it
beforehand.

April 25th.--Night before last, my wife and I took a moonlight ramble
through Rome, it being a very beautiful night, warm enough for comfort,
and with no perceptible dew or dampness. We set out at about nine
o'clock, and, our general direction being towards the Coliseum, we soon
came to the Fountain of Trevi, full on the front of which the moonlight
fell, making Bernini's sculptures look stately and beautiful, though the
semicircular gush and fall of the cascade, and the many jets of the
water, pouring and bubbling into the great marble basin, are of far more
account than Neptune and his steeds, and the rest of the figures. . . . .
We ascended the Capitoline Hill, and I felt a satisfaction in placing my
hand on those immense blocks of stone, the remains of the ancient
Capitol, which form the foundation of the present edifice, and will make
a sure basis for as many edifices as posterity may choose to rear upon
it, till the end of the world.


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