e stirring association. In the Via San Felice, Raphael
used to paint when a boy; near the Ponte Santa Trinita stands Michael
Angelo's house, with his pictures, clothes, and painting implements,
just as he left it three centuries ago; on the south side of the Arno is
the house of Galileo, and that of Machiavelli stands in an avenue near
the Ducal Palace. While threading my way through some dark, crooked
streets in an unfrequented part of the city, I noticed an old,
untenanted house, bearing a marble tablet above the door. I drew near
and read:--"In this house of the Alighieri was born the Divine Poet!" It
was the birth-place of Dante!

_Nov. 1._--Yesterday morning we were apprised of the safe arrival of a
new scion of the royal family in the world by the ringing of the city
bells. To-day, to celebrate the event, the shops were closed, and the
people made a holiday of it. Merry chimes pealed out from every tower,
and discharges of cannon thundered up from the fortress. In the evening
the dome of the Cathedral was illuminated, and the lines of cupola,
lantern, and cross were traced in flame on the dark sky, like a crown of
burning stars dropped from Heaven on the holy pile. I went in and walked
down the aisle, listening for awhile to the grand choral, while the
clustered tapers under the dome quivered and trembled, as if shaken by
the waves of music which burst continually within its lofty concave.

A few days ago Prince Corsini, Prime Minister of Tuscany, died at an
advanced age. I saw his body brought in solemn procession by night, with
torches and tapers, to the church of Santa Trinita. Soldiers followed
with reversed arms and muffled drums, the band playing a funeral march.
I forced myself through the crowd into the church, which was hung with
black and gold, and listened to the long drawn chanting of the priests
around the bier.

We lately visited the Florentine Museum. Besides the usual collection of
objects of natural history, there is an anatomical cabinet, very
celebrated for its preparations in wax. All parts of the human frame are
represented so wonderfully exact, that students of medicine pursue their
studies here in summer with the same facility as from real "subjects."
Every bone, muscle, and nerve in the body is perfectly counterfeited,
the whole forming a collection as curious as it is useful. One chamber
is occupied with representations of the plague of Rome, Milan, and
Florence. They are executed with h