The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-02-01
CORRESPOND NOE.
Letter on Italy.


MeSsrS. Editors,-The journey from
Florence to Pisa by the Valley of the
Arno, abounds with beautiful prospects,
picturesque edifces, fields which resem-
bic gardens, and fruit trees round which
vines cling, forming garlands with their
INTERVIEWING branches. Upon leaving the
country, however, and entering the city
a strange melancholy seizes one. Broad
rows of fine buildings there are, and
really elegant houses-but an air of gloom
and melancholy hovers over the place
We never believed there could be in this
world city of such solitude. A stranger
once laid wager that he would go round
the walls of Pisa on horseback without
meeting a living person. We traversed
the city, and contemplated its beauty
its bridges, its cleanliness, and its church
es, without happening upon any human
being save poor English consumptive
who had taken refuge in Pisa for the
shelter of its mountains from the keen
northern winds, and for the security of
It's solitude from all great emotions. We
cannot but agree that the town is called
with good reason
Dead Pisa.
And yot thnra ypoo +irao whom thie o;ty
astonished Italy with her life, and her
quays were thronged with the ships
which brought to her gates the tribute
OF the world s commerce. Her light YES
sells transported the crusaders to Asia
her warriors aided the German Emperors
against the Roman Pontiffs, and the Sar-
acens on the coast of Africa trembled at
nl Of t.
the darkness of the middle ages that her
masters of mosaic filled with brilliant
stones the arches of her monuments, her
painters animated her walls and cloisters
with imperishable figures, and her sculp-
tors chiseled her marble into those fig
ures which appear as the early visions of
a new era of artistic inspiration. But
the republic perished, and Pisa is a
corpse Its chief glory now is a Gene
terry. Pisa predicted her sad destiny by
erecting
The Campo Santo,
rectangular court of vast size, surround
ed with sort of Gothic arcade, the walls
OF which are painted in fresco The
middle ages gravitated about the sepul-
chTe of Christ. The Pisans, as all the
southern Europeans, were infected with
the superstition that the Crusade was the
great war, and turned their boats toward
the eastern seas, imagining that religion
consisted in hewing their way to Jerusa-
lem with the cross on their bosoms and
battle-axe in hand, and that the earnest
OF heaven was to die in the battle for that
sacred sepulchre and be covered with that
earth which was sancti6ed by the tears
OF the mother Of Christ and by the blood
OF Calvary. The citizens who remained
at home desired also to share this privi-
lege. An enormous heap of earth was
therefore, brought back by the returning
Crusaders. Nine feet deep and coverino
an area OF two acres, it must have re-
CURED squadron of one hundred such
vessels as were then in use to TRANSPORT
so great mass of sanctifed mould. It
Is believed that this earth has devour-
ing quality and speedily consumes the
bodies buried in it, as if it was an earth
OF fire. The salts which performed this
prodigy have evaporated in great part,
but still, according to the Pisans, it Gre
mates dead body in forty-eight hours.
We would prefer the miracle to be con-
hrmed by scientific experiment, however.
before accepting its truth.
we enjoyed with great zest our visit
10 thls remarkable cemetery
The Birthplace of Modern Art
in which it is possible to trace the GENE
alogy OF sculpture and painting in their
successive developments from the period
Of the middle ages to the grand barfec-
tlon OF the 10th century. In the Parian
marble Of those ancient sarcophaoi
amounting in number to more than SIX
hundred, and ornamented with mytho-
logical subjects see the suggestions Of