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MARGARET FULLER.
CHAPTER XII.
MARGARET'S FIRST DAYS IN ROME.—ANTIQUITIES.—VISITS TO STUDIOS AND GALLERIES.—HER OPINIONS CONCERNING THE OLD MASTERS.—HER SYMPATHY WITH THE PEOPLE.—POPE PIUS.—CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTHDAY OF ROME.—PERUGIA.—BOLOGNA.—RAVENNA.—VENICE.—A STATE BALL.—ON THE GRAND CANAL.—MILAN—MANSONI.—THE ITALIAN LAKES.—PARMA.—SECOND VISIT TO FLORENCE.—GRAND FESTIVAL.
In this first visit to Rome, Margaret could not avoid some touch of the disenchantment which usually comes with the experience of what has been long and fondly anticipated. She had soon seen all that is preserved of "the fragments of the great time," and says: "They are many and precious; yet is there not so much of high excellence as I looked for. They will not float the heart on a boundless sea of feeling, like the starry night on our Western prairies." She confesses herself more interested at this moment in the condition and
