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whose excellent good sense and gentlemanly manners rendered him the most instructive and agreeable of companions . This is' one of the delights of travelling , that , among the great variety of characters with whom one is thrown together , there are some whose society it would be worth while going many miles to enjoy .
Florence , May 6 th . Made my first visit to some of the principal objects of curiosity in the town . The Church of Santa Croce is large but gloomy ; for the gothic windows are small , and the light is obstructed by the painted glass with which they are filled . The most interesting objects are the tombs of some of the great men by whom this city has been distinguished ; amon ^
others , Michel Angelo , Alfien , MachiavelH , * Pietro Arretino , Giovanni Lami , and Galileo . I was much struck with the observation of an Italian who accompanied me : " How different , " said he , "is this from St . Peter s ! We have here the monuments of men who did good to their species ; but there we see none but those of Popes and Cardinals , and all the other canaile who have infested the world !"
The Cathedral is famed for its Dome , which , at a distance , has a very noble appearance ; but on a nearer view , the red tiles with which it is covered , and the unfinished state in which it has been left , detract much from its beauty . It is not equal to that of St . Peter ' s , but it has at least the merit of having been built the first , which , considering the boldness of the undertaking , is no mean praise . Michel Angelo boasted that he would raise the Pantheon in the air ; and no one who stands under the Dome of St . Peter ' s ,
will say that he has failed : but as Forsyth observes , in speaking of the Cathedral of Florence , " This grand enterprise of Brunelleschi gave him the assurance of performing it . " The interior is painted in fresco , but there is not light enough to display the figures . Indeed , the whole church is very dark , and , like almost all the other public buildings in Florence , it is unfinished . The most beautiful thing about it , is an immensely high square tower , the Campanile , placed at one corner , apart from the rest of the
edifice ; but I could not reconcile my eye to the mixture of red , white , and black marble , with which it is incrusted . Opposite the Cathedral is the Baptistery , the doors of which are so beautiful , that Michel Angelo said , that they deserved to be the gates of Paradise . They are of bronze , and have scriptural subjects represented on the panels . On each side are suspended two enormous chains , which the Florentines brought from Pisa , after they had taken that unfortunate city : but what bad feeling , thus to perpetuate the recollection of a war in which the glory of the conquerors was effaced by their inhuman treatment of the conquered ; and more especially , when both parties are now united under the same government !
Attached to the Church of San Lorenzo is a magnificent Dome , surrounded by the tombs of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany . The walls are richly incrusted with marbles and precious stones , and if it were completed , it would far surpass every other mausoleum in the world ; but it presents a sad memorial of the folly of those who began to build and had not money to * The inscriptiou on the tomb of this singular writer is very brief and expressive : TANTO NOM 1 NI NULLUM PAR ELOGIUM . NICHOLAUS MACHIAVELLI . OBIIT . An . A . P . V . CIoloXXVIL but I did not quite assent to all this praise .
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Journal of a Tour on the Continent ^ 169
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VOL . Ill w
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 169, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/17/
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