"'Tis o'er--the dawn of our deliverance breaks!
"Up from his sleep of centuries awakes
"The Genius of the Old Republic, free
"As first he stood, in chainless majesty,
"And sends his voice thro' ages yet to come,
"Proclaiming ROME, ROME, ROME, Eternal ROME!"
[1] Rienzi.
[2] The fine Canzone of Petrarch, beginning _"Spirto gentil,"_ is
supposed, by Voltaire and others, to have been addressed to Rienzi; but
there is much more evidence of its having been written, as Ginguene
asserts, to the young Stephen Colonna, on his being created a Senator of
Rome.
[3] This image is borrowed from Hobbes, whose words are, as near as I can
recollect:--"For what is the Papacy, but the Ghost of the old Roman
Empire, sitting crowned on the grave thereof?"
EXTRACT XIV.
Rome.
_Fragment of a Dream.--The great Painters supposed to be Magicians.--The
Beginnings of the Art.--Gildings on the Glories and Draperies.--
Improvements under Giotto, etc.--The first Dawn of the true Style in
Masaccio.--Studied by all the great Artists who followed him.--Leonardo da
Vinci, with whom commenced the Golden Age of Painting.--His Knowledge of
Mathematics and of Music.--His female heads all like each other.--
Triangular Faces.--Portraits of Mona Lisa, etc.--Picture of Vanity and
Modesty.
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