From time to
time the sweet bells of Florence rang out, and I was loath to come down
into the lower world, knowing that I shall never again look heavenward
from an old tower-top in such a soft calm evening as this. Yet I am not
loath to go away; impatient rather; for, taking no root, I soon weary of
any soil in which I may be temporarily deposited. The same impatience I
sometimes feel or conceive of as regards this earthly life. . . . .
I forgot to mention that Powers showed me, in his studio, the model of
the statue of America, which he wished the government to buy. It has
great merit, and embodies the ideal of youth, freedom, progress, and
whatever we consider as distinctive of our country's character and
destiny. It is a female figure, vigorous, beautiful, planting its foot
lightly on a broken chain, and pointing upward. The face has a high look
of intelligence and lofty feeling; the form, nude to the middle, has all
the charms of womanhood, and is thus warmed and redeemed out of the cold
allegoric sisterhood who have generally no merit in chastity, being
really without sex.
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