mind, and
made it disagreeable, almost impossible to speak or exclaim: but it
was a style of grandeur, exciting rather than oppressive to the
imagination, nor did I experience any thing like that sombre and
reverential awe, I have felt on entering one of our Gothic minsters.
The interior of St. Peter's is all airy magnificence, and gigantic
splendour; light and sunshine pouring in on every side; gilding and
gay colours, marbles and pictures, dazzling the eye above, below,
around. The effect of the whole has not diminished in a second and
third visit; but rather grows upon me. I can never utter a word for
the first ten minutes after I enter the church.

For the Museum of the Vatican, I confess I was totally unprepared; and
the first and second time I walked through the galleries, I was so
amazed--so intoxicated, that I could not fix my attention upon any
individual object, except the Apollo, upon which, as I walked along
confused and lost in wonder and enchantment, I stumbled accidentally,
and stood spell-bound. Gallery beyond gallery, hall within hall,
temple within temple, new splendours opening at every step! of all the
creations of luxurious art, the Museum of the Vatican may alone defy
any description to do it justice, or any fancy to conceive the
unimaginable variety of its treasures. When I remember that the French
had the audacious and sacrilegious vanity to snatch from these
glorious sanctuaries the finest specimens of art, and hide them in
their villanous old gloomy Louvre, I am confounded.

I have been told and can well believe, that the whole _giro_ of the
galleries exceed two miles.

I have not yet studied the frescos of Raffaelle sufficiently to feel
all their perfection; and should be in despair at my own dullness,
were I not consoled by the recollection of Sir Joshua Reynolds. At
present one of Raffaelle's divine Virgins delights me more than all
his camere and logie together; but I can look upon them with due
veneration, and grieve to see the ravages of time and damp.

* * * * *

19.--Last night we took advantage of a brilliant full moon to visit
the Coliseum by moonlight; and if I came away disappointed of the
pleasure I had expected, the fault was not in me nor in the scene
around me. In its sublime and heart-stirring beauty, it more than
equalled, it surpassed all I had anticipated--but--(there must always
be a _but!_ always in the realities of this world something