o cut the thread as it is spun out, has a slight trace of pity on
her fixed and unearthly lineaments. It is a faithful embodiment of the
old Greek idea of the Fates. I have wondered why some artist has not
attempted the subject in a different way. In the Northern Mythology they
are represented as wild maidens, armed with swords and mounted on fiery
coursers. Why might they not also be pictured as angels, with
countenances of a sublime and mysterious beauty--one all radiant with
hope and promise of glory, and one with the token of a better future
mingled with the sadness with which it severs the links of life?

There are many, many other splendid works in this collection, but it is
unnecessary to mention them. I have only endeavored, by taking a few of
the best known, to give some idea of them as they appear to me. There
are hundreds of pictures here, which, though gems in themselves, are by
masters who are rarely heard of in America, and it would be of little
interest to go through the Gallery, describing it in guide-book fashion.
Indeed, to describe galleries, however rich and renowned they may be, is
in general a work of so much difficulty, that I know not whether the
writer or the reader is made most tired thereby.

This collection possesses also the celebrated statue of Venus, by
Canova. She stands in the centre of a little apartment, filled with the
most delicate and graceful works of painting. Although undoubtedly a
figure of great beauty, it by no means struck me as possessing that
exquisite and classic perfection which has been ascribed to it. The
Venus de Medici far surpasses it. The head is larger in proportion to
the size of the body, than that of the latter, but has not the same
modest, virgin expression. The arm wrapped in the robe which she is
pressing to her breast, is finely executed, but the fingers of the other
hand are bad--looking, as my friend said, as if the ends were _whittled_
off! The body is, however, of fine proportions, though, taken as a
whole, the statue is inferior to many other of Canova's works.

Occupying all the hill back of the Pitti Palace, are the Boboli Gardens,
three times a week the great resort of the Florentines. They are said to
be the most beautiful gardens in Italy. Numberless paths, diverging from
a magnificent amphitheatre in the old Roman style, opposite the
court-yard, lend either in long flights of steps and terraces, or gentle
windings among beds sweet with roses, to