The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1847-11-13


proach TO Italy, in whose scenes and asso
Citations the book is altogether laid, there
are many beauties As the author may be
supposed to step from the Alps into Italy,
he thus breaks forth:
1.-The trees and vines interlaced, are like
dancing nymphs and graces linked together;
the objects in the fields and upon the roads,
are but Just seen above the spring verdure
or the mountains are topped with impurpIed
autumn, as ii streaming with new made
wine and the red legs and arms OF men,
bacchanalian characters are dyed in the juice
Of the grape. The hills, groves, and build
ings, set in expresses, are the picturesque
soiourn of monks, who have chosen situa-
tons the most agreeable, the most resenb.
ling paradise in this world, if they find il
not in the other. The lakes bear fairy pal
aces on their bosoms, and on their shores
glittering i'm the sun-the waite. covered
with boats, like gliding insects-the frogs
croak like the tinkling bells Of sheep-the
many church towers, high and disjointed,
summon and dismiss the peasantry from
their labor, who are seen kneeling before
the burial places on the road side. praying
for the dead, those who are released from
all these absolute calls TO toll, vet conjuring
the living to remember and sylnpathise
with them. The pictured walls show their
bodies surrounded by the flames Of purgato-
~; in the corner, skulls seen through the
gratings of little house; croSs-bones and
skeletons drawn on The outside. claim for
these departed souls, the aims Of the pious,
Then nunnery appears, where the voice is
all that is LEFT of the living, and makes it
sound the more from heaven.
We can admire also this description Of
Venice; like Venice itself in fantastic ira
Gerry and brilliant colors.
lis il Venus in her she'll upon the ocean,
or the illusion of fancy, that has given some
rock the appearance Of ciy-a sculptur-
ed reef, flnrowing the seas, like coral grow
ing upon the waters, fashioned into fairy
loms-artihce palmed upon the ocean,
which she mistakes for her own creation,
and embraces without injury! Or is it some
mirage which presents itself 10 the eye when
the elements mimic the works of man, and
deceive the senses Wonderful, that yon
mass Of stone and towering edihces can bur.
den the light foundation Of the ocean !;
though the generality Of buildings assimilate
themselves to their situation, and bear upon
the bosom Of the waters, gently as a zephyr
breeze. The doges palace. St. Marks. are
Of an airy character the Giorgio Masgiore,
the Sestile, the Redentore, Marco Sebeto,
are more ponderous and majestic now all
grey, then red, then white, with the quick
successive alterations Of the evening. The
transparent palace Of the doge receives the
full reflection Of the setting sun, and looks
a rival beaming upon the see; the white
Bridge of Signs hanging without the impen-
etrable and gloomy prisons; big tear
trickling forth, formed from the many shed
within. Traversing this ocean labyrinth
through its canals, or on foot through its
alleys, not the winding mountain torrent
piercing its dark way through the disjointed
rocks, and thick y wooded sides Of the ra
vine, nor the river flowing through ever so
fair valley, surpass, in picturesque variety
and beauty, these serpentine canals be-
tween their lines Of palaces"
Many, too are the thoughts, by no means
unworthy recording, given forth in the fol.
lowing wild and whirling fashion:
"Virgil was born at the head, and buried
at the foot Of Italy; and poetry seems to have
flowed from the former, as If from an Alpine
river source; and from the latter sprung up
as If his ashes had been its seeds. Dante,
Petrarch, Ariosto, lived and died beside the
Adriatic; and Virgil in Pausilipo. and Tas-
50 on the opposite shore Of Sorrento, are like
the answers Of one syren 10 another, said
to have Inhabited formerly the sill magic
coast of the bay Of Naples"
An idea Of the Tiber, which We have sd.
mifed in the unpublished latin verse of an
accomplished poet and scholar.
Menia, Tibri, pater, tantum Romano tueris
Asst alias urbes despics stqu: fugus-
is embodied in this quaint fancy:
''ln its course this Roman river does not
water any other great towns, or pass by
many frequented ways; as il. contented
with the honor Of the imperial city, il avoid
ed and disdaincd all others: and after Rome,
il wends it way desolate and unknown, to
the sea; whilst the Arno, which rises on
the other side of the same hill in the Apen.
mines, for the short length Of its course, goes
through populous territory, and Two as glo-
rious towns as any in ltaly-Florence and
Pisa and the Nile, and all other great
rivers, wash iEnumerable cities
We think this remark just
s'The Northern invaders felt the unwhole. |
someness Of the climate, or an aversion 10
Rome; neither Goths nor Lombards estab- |
lished themselves in the capital Of the world; |
they never preferred other situations, and
Rome probably fell more to ruin, left TO it.
self and its original inhabitants, than it
would have done under the settled authority
Of the barbarians'
In MIR. Landor's admirable Pentan,eron
and Pentalogia, Boccacio tells Us that
when he was in Rome nothing reminded
him OF her former state ill he saw goose
N the grass under the Cspitoline hill. It
vas the only one Of her inhabitants that
lad not degeneratsd. This gooss was max !,