ion
of Man, of the Judgment of the World, which is really the
Resurrection,--so here he has thought only of Death, of the death of the
body, of the soul, and of the wistful life of the disembodied spirit
that wanders disconsolate, who knows where?--that sleeps uneasily, who
knows how long?

FOOTNOTES:

[108] Not of the Evangelists, but of St. John: the medallions are the
Four Evangelists.

[109] See _Donatello_, by Lord Balcarres, p. 136 (London, 1904), where a
long comparison is made of the doors of Donatello, Ghiberti, and Luca
della Robbia.

[110] Even politically, too, as Guicciardini tells us.

XIX. FLORENCE

CHURCHES NORTH OF ARNO: OGNISSANTI--S. TRINITA--SS. APOSTOLI--S.
STEFANO--BADIA--S. PIERO--S. AMBROGIO--S. MARIA MADDALENA DE'
PAZZI--ANNUNZIATA--OSPEDALE DEGLI INNOCENTI--LO SCALZO--S. APOLLONIA--S.
ONOFRIO--S. SALVI

To pass through Florence for the most part by the old ways, from church
to church, is too often like visiting forgotten shrines in a museum.
Something seems to have been lost in these quiet places; it is but
rarely after all that they retain anything of the simplicity which once
made them holy. To their undoing, they have been found in possession of
some beautiful thing which may be shown for money, and so some of them
have ceased altogether to exist as churches or chapels or convents; you
find yourself walking through them as through a gallery, and if you
should so far forget yourself as to uncover your head, some official
will eagerly nudge you and say, "It is not necessary for the signore to
bare his head: here is no longer a church, but a public monument." A
public monument! But indeed, as we know, the Italian "public" is no
longer capable of building anything that is beautiful. If it is a bridge
they need, it is not such a one as the Trinita that will be built, but
some hideous structure of iron, as in Pisa, Venice, and Rome. If it is a
monument they wish to carve, they will destroy numberless infinitely
precious things, and express themselves as vulgarly as the Germans could
do, as in the monument of Vittorio Emmanuele at Rome, which is founded
on the ruined palaces of nobles, the convents of the poor. If it is a
Piazza they must make, they are no longer capable of building such place
as Piazza Signoria, but prefer a hideous and disgusting clearing, such
as Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele in Florence. How often have I sat at the
little cafe there on the far side of the square,