"I spent three weeks in this most glittering of countries,and saw most of the usual wonders,--the Paestan Temples being to me much the most valuable.But Pompeii and all that it has yielded,especially the Fresco Paintings,have also an infinite interest.When one considers that this prodigious series of beautiful designs supplied the place of our common room-papers,--the wealth of poetic imagery among the Ancients,and the corresponding traditional variety and elegance of pictorial treatment,seem equally remarkable.The Greek and Latin Books do not give one quite so fully this sort of impression;because they afford no direct measure of the extent of their own diffusion.But these are ornaments from the smaller class of decent houses in a little Country Town;and the greater number of them,by the slightness of the execution,show very clearly that they were adapted to ordinary taste,and done by mere artisans.In general clearness,symmetry and simplicity of feeling,I cannot say that,on the whole,the works of Raffaelle equal them;though of course he has endless beauties such as we could not find unless in the great original works from which these sketches at Pompeii were taken.Yet with all my much increased reverence for the Greeks,it seems more plain than ever that they had hardly anything of the peculiar devotional feeling of Christianity.
"Rome,which I loved before above all the earth,now delights me more than ever;--though at this moment there is rain falling that would not discredit Oxford Street.The depth,sincerity and splendor that there once was in the semi-paganism of the old Catholics comes out in St.
Peter's and its dependencies,almost as grandly as does Greek and Roman Art in the Forum and the Vatican Galleries.I wish you were here:but,at all events,hope to see you and your Wife once more during this summer.
"Yours,"JOHN STERLING."
At Paris,where he stopped a day and night,and generally through his whole journey from Marseilles to Havre,one thing attended him:the prevailing epidemic of the place and year;now gone,and nigh forgotten,as other influenzas are.He writes to his Father:"I have not yet met a single Frenchman,who could give me any rational explanation _why_they were all in such a confounded rage against us.
Definite causes of quarrel a statesman may know how to deal with,inasmuch as the removal of them may help to settle the dispute.But it must be a puzzling task to negotiate about instincts;to which class,as it seems to me,we must have recourse for an understanding of the present abhorrence which everybody on the other side of the Channel not only feels,but makes a point to boast of,against the name of Britain.France is slowly arming,especially with Steam,_en attendant_a more than possible contest,in which they reckon confidently on the eager co-operation of the Yankees;as,_vice versa_,an American told me that his countrymen do on that of France.
One person at Paris (M.----whom you know)provoked me to tell him that 'England did not want another battle of Trafalgar;but if France did,she might compel England to gratify her.'"--After a couple of pleasant and profitable months,he was safe home again in the first days of June;and saw Falmouth not under gray iron skies,and whirls of March dust,but bright with summer opulence and the roses coming out.
It was what I call his "_fifth_peregrinity;"his fifth and last.He soon afterwards came up to London;spent a couple of weeks,with all his old vivacity,among us here.The AEsculapian oracles,it would appear,gave altogether cheerful prophecy;the highest medical authority "expresses the most decided opinion that I have gradually mended for some years;and in truth I have not,for six or seven,been so free from serious symptoms of illness as at present."So uncertain are all oracles,AEsculapian and other!
