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An artist, it is true, ht often thank his stars for those old houses,

so picturesquely ti in blotches

from the ancient brick-work The prison-like, iron-barred s, and

the wide arched, dis on one hand to the stable,

on the other to the kitchen, ht impress him as far better worth

his pencil than the newly painted pine boxes, in which--if he be an

American--his countrymen live and thrive But there is reason to suspect

that a people are waning to decay and ruin theeither in the poet's iination or the painter's

eye

As usual on Italian waysides, the wanderers passed great, black crosses,

hung with all the instruony and passion: there

were the crown of thorns, the hae; and perched over the whole, the cock that crowed to St

Peter's remorseful conscience Thus, while the fertile scene showed the

never-failing beneficence of the Creator towards man in his transitory

state, these syreater love for hi these consecrated

stations, the idea see the

otherwise aie At each of thehted to kneel and kiss the cross, and huainst its foot; and this so invariably, that the sculptor soon learned