Another chapter meets the eye in the church of Saint Peter. Here is the statue of the "bearer of the keys of heaven": he is still in his strength and his majesty, though made of bronze, not flesh and blood; and the witness to his majesty is his right foot, one of whose toes has melted away from the touch of worshipping lips... "Michelangelo" wished them to worship him in the worship of their religion — and to worship him too in his masterpiece the "Pietà"... the Mother bereaved of her son; the sorrowful Virgin and the slack body upon her lap. The artist made this work of his speak in the body's delicate veins, and in the mute tears on the Mother's cheek...

And the artist who made of the Christian religion a cornerstone that remains immortal as long as the colors of his brush and the traces of his magic chisel endure was not content with worship alone: he accompanied man outside the temple, saw him in his vigor and his weakness, in his joys and his sorrows, and left a marvel for every passing thought. The palace of the "Medici" in Florence is one of several witnesses: in one of its halls are four figures, each representing a time of the day — here the lilac dawn, there the drowsy dusk, this the strong day, and that the terrifying darkness!...

What is said of Michelangelo is said also of "Raphael"... I content myself with a single witness from the "Sistine" church — the room of the Emperor Constantine, on whose walls he left five hundred and twelve figures, representing persons who differ in their ages, in the shapes of their faces, in their costumes, and even in their postures and glances. And the people of Rome remember the artist "Bernini" whenever they drink from a fountain or pass along a street, for he has left them a monument at every turning: his statues guard the springs of water and the corners of the streets, and adorn the halls of kings. The "Villa Borghese" museum today contains many of his marvels — the most famous of them "Paolina," the sister of Napoleon, who married one of the princes of that family, and the statue of "The Abductor of the Beautiful Girl," in which are the most delicate expressions and details... As for "Paolina," she still reclines upon her silken bed, dreaming with the generations of the brother whom everyone abandoned — save her... The reader will say I have gone too far, perhaps; but this is only part of the preface to the first chapter.

Day... one of Michelangelo's marvels in the "Medici" palace in Florence.

The Abductor of the Beautiful Girl. By the artist Bernini, from the "Villa Borghese" museum

... "Emily the bride," in the course of her honeymoon wanderings among the realms