linger on my ear, and I never dream the wild and varied dream of my
travels over without feeling that these mysterious voices from many
lands have not spoken without a meaning, that "Life, with all its
dreams, shall be but as the passing bell."

From the Tzar Kolokol I took my way, under the guidance of Dominico,
to the tower of Ivan Veliki, which we ascended by the winding stairway
of stone. The view from the top of this tower is incomparably the
finest to be had from any point within the limits of Moscow. Here,
outspread before us in one vast circle, lay the whole wondrous city of
the Tzars--a perfect sea of green roofs, dotted over with innumerable
spires and cupolas. The predominant features are Asiatic, though in
the quarter to the west, called the Beloi Gorod, or White City, are
the evidences of a more advanced civilization. Apart from the
churches, which give the city its chief interest and most picturesque
effect, the public buildings, such as the theatres, hospitals,
military barracks, colleges, and riding-school possess no great
attractions in point of architectural display, and add but little to
the scenic beauties of the view. In gazing over this bewildering maze
of habitations and temples of worship, I was again strongly impressed
with some two or three leading characteristics, which, being directly
opposed to the idea I had formed of Moscow before seeing it, may be
worthy of repetition. The general colors of the buildings, roofs, and
churches are light, gay, and sparkling, so that the whole, taken in
one sweep of the eye, presents an exceedingly brilliant appearance,
more like some well-contrived and highly-wrought optical illusions in
a theatre--such, for example, as the fairy scenery of the
"Prophete"--than any thing I can now remember. The vast extent of the
city, compared with its population (the circuit of its outer wall
being twenty miles, while the population is but little over 300,000),
is another characteristic feature; but this is in some measure
accounted for by the great average of small houses, the amount of
ground occupied by the Kremlin, the inner and outer boulevards, and
the suburbs within the outer wall, the number of gardens and vacant
lots, and the large spaces occupied by the ploschads or public
squares.

Looking beyond the city and its immediate suburbs, a series of
undulating plains lies outstretched toward the eastward and southward,
while toward the northward and westward the h