from observation and description of the human heart, that part of
creation which is the most youthful, varied, unstable, and
destructible, to observation of that Son of Nature, which is the
oldest, deepest, most stable, most indestructible.

The enthusiastic subjective realism of stormy youth was replaced by
the measured objective realism of ripe manhood. Hence the difference
between his letters from Switzerland and those from Italy, where this
inner metamorphosis was completed; as he said, 'Between Weimar and
Palermo I have had many changes.'

For all that, he revelled in the beauty of Italy. As he once said:

It is natural to me to revere the great and beautiful willingly
and with pleasure; and to develop this predisposition day by day
and hour by hour by means of such glorious objects, is the most
delightful feeling.

The sea made a great impression upon him:

I set out for the Lido...landed, and walked straight across the
isthmus. I heard a loud hollow murmur--it was the sea! I soon saw
it; it crested high against the shore as it retired, it was about
noon and time of ebb. I have then at last seen the sea with my
own eyes, and followed it on its beautiful bed, just as it
quitted it.

But further on he only remarks: 'The sea is a great sight.'
Elsewhere, too, it is only noticed very shortly.

Rome stimulated his mind to increased productiveness, and, partly for
this reason, he could not assimilate all the new impressions which
poured in upon him from without, from ruins, paintings, churches,
palaces, the life of the people. He drew a great deal too; from
Frascati he wrote (Nov. 15th, 1786):

The country around is very pleasant; the village lies on the side
of a hill, or rather of a mountain, and at every step the
draughtsman comes upon the most glorious objects. The prospect is
unbounded. Rome lies before you, and beyond it on the right is
the sea, the mountains of Tivoli, and so on.

In Rome itself (Feb. 2nd, 1787):

Of the beauty of a walk through Rome by moonlight it is
impossible to form a conception without having witnessed it.

During Carnival (Feb. 21st):

The sky, so infinitely fine and clear, looked down nobly and
innocently upon the mummeries.

In the voyage to Sicily:

At noon we went on board; the weather being extremely fine, we
enjoyed the most glorious of views. The corvette lay at anc