the present time. They seem
real growths of his habitual mind,--fruits of Nature, full of joy and
freedom. His spaniels and other frisky poppets would please Apollo far
better than most of the marble nymphs and muses of the present day.

Our Crawford has just finished a bust of Mrs. Crawford, which is
extremely beautiful, full of grace and innocent sweetness. All its
accessaries are charming,--the wreaths, the arrangement of drapery,
the stuff of which the robe is made. I hope it will be much seen on
its arrival in New York. He has also an Herodias in the clay, which is
individual in expression, and the figure of distinguished elegance.
I liked the designs of Crawford better than those of Gibson, who is
estimated as highest in the profession now.

Among the studios of the European painters I have visited only that of
Overbeck. It is well known in the United States what his pictures are.
I have much to say at a more favorable time of what they represented
to me. He himself looks as if he had just stepped out of one of
them,--a lay monk, with a pious eye and habitual morality of thought
which limits every gesture.

Painting is not largely represented here by American artists at
present. Terry has two pleasing pictures on the easel: one is a
costume picture of Italian life, such as I saw it myself, enchanted
beyond my hopes, on coming to Naples on a day of grand festival in
honor of Santa Agatha. Cranch sends soon to America a picture of the
Campagna, such as I saw it on my first entrance into Rome, all light
and calmness; Hicks, a charming half-length of an Italian girl,
holding a mandolin: it will be sure to please. His pictures are full
of life, and give the promise of some real achievement in Art.

Of the fragments of the great time, I have now seen nearly all that
are treasured up here: I have, however, as yet nothing of consequence
to say of them. I find that others have often given good hints as to
how they _look_; and as to what they _are_, it can only be known by
approximating to the state of soul out of which they grew. They should
not be described, but reproduced. They are many and precious, yet is
there not so much of high excellence as I had expected: they will not
float the heart on a boundless sea of feeling, like the starry night
on our Western prairies. Yet I love much to see the galleries of
marbles, even when there are not many separately admirable, amid the
cypresses and ilexes of Roman villas; and