My life-work; (1902) (14597542190)

Identifier: mylifework00smit (find matches)
Title: My life-work;
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Smith, Samuel, 1836-1906
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Hodder and Stoughton



Text Appearing Before Image:
rvades the scene. No wonder that theNorthern barbarians gazed with rapture on the sunny plains ofItaly ! Often when descending from Alpine passes I have felt themagic of this fairy land. If Athens was the eye of Greece, Italyis the eye of Europe. A brief visit to Venice revived the memories of b\-gone tripsmade in the mellow autumn. Next to Rome no Italian citythrills the traveller like this enchanting daughter of the sea. Whohas not felt the spell which BjTon has thrown round it ? I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand : I saw from out the wave her structure rise As from the stroke of the enchanters wand ; A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying glory smiles Oer the far times, when many a subject land Looked to the winged lions marble piles, Where Venice sate in state, thrond on her hundred isles! Who can ever forget the palace, and church, and square of St.Mark, the Grand Canal, its ancient palaces, the song of the gon-
Text Appearing After Image:
BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VliMCl.Photo by Frith &• Co.. I tJ SECOND VISIT TO INDIA 177 doliers, the soft evening light along the Lido, as your gondola takesyou to the Armenian convent ? And who has not admired thewealth of art created by Titian, Paul Veronese and Canaletto ?The Byzantine style of Venice reminds one of its close connexionwith the Orient, when once for a short time its winged lion flew over Constantinople, and when for centuries it was the bul-wark of Europe against the Turks. What strikes the travellerin Italy beyond all other lands is the individuality of its cities;Each has its own character, its art, its architecture, giving it theair of a small republic, as indeed most of these cities were in theMiddle Ages. Hence Rome, Naples and Florence, Milan, Bolognaand Perugia, Venice and Verona, Genoa and Pisa are each a creationof human genius, distinctly marked off by man) centuries of inde-pendent life. In some respects the mediaeval cities of Germanypartake of this characte