ny (60 miles) about 1
o'clock, P. M.

Florence (Italian _Firenze_) is pleasantly situated on both sides of the
Arno, some forty miles in a direct line from its mouth. The river is
here about the size of the Hudson at Sandy Hill or the Mohawk at
Canajoharie, but subject to rapid swellings from rains in the Apennines
above. One such occurred the night I was there, though very little rain
fell at Florence. I was awakened in the night by the rushing and roaring
of its waters, my window having only a street between it and the river,
which subsided the next day, without having done any material damage.

That day was the 4th of July, and I spent most of it, under the guidance
of friends resident at Florence, in looking through the galleries
devoted to Paintings and Statuary in the two famous palaces of the
reigning family and in the Academy. Although the collections embrace the
Venus de Medicis and many admirable Paintings, I cannot say that my
expectations were fully realized. Ill health may in part account for
this; my recent acquaintance with the immense and multiform treasures of
Art at Rome may also help explain my obtuseness at Florence. And yet I
saw nothing in Rome with greater pleasure or profit than I derived from
the hour I spent in the studio of our countryman POWERS, whose fame is
already world-wide, and who I trust is now rapidly acquiring that generous
competence which will enable him to spend the evening of his days in ease
and comfort in his native land. The abundance of orders constantly pouring
in upon him at his own prices does not induce him to abandon nor postpone
his efforts in the ideal and more exalted sphere of his art, but rather to
redouble those efforts; and it will yet be felt that his "Greek Slave" and
"Fisher Boy," so widely admired, are not his loftiest achievements. I defy
Antiquity to surpass--I doubt its ability to rival--his "Proserpine" and
his "Psyche" with any models of the female head that have come down to us;
and while I do not see how they could be excelled in their own sphere, I
feel that Powers, unlike Alexander, has still realms to conquer, and will
fulfill his destiny. If for those who talk of America quitting her proper
sphere and seeking to be Europe when she wanders into the domain of Art,
we had no other answer than POWERS, that name would be conclusive.

GREENOUGH is now absent from Florence. I met him at Turin, on his way to
America, on account (I casually heard) of sickne