Life and Select Discourses of REV. Samuel H. Stearns (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1838 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. EXTRACTS FROM HIS NOTE BOOK--LETTERS. " Dec. 9, 1836.--We soon crossed the boundary of Lucca, passed the last custom-house, and were fairly within the limits of Tuscany, looking earnestly for our resting-place for the night, more earnestly to catch a glimpse, before total darkness should preclude the sight, of an object which our infant imagination had seen and admired, --when, lo the towers, the dome, the churches, and the palaces of Pisa. Here stood, the 'leaning tower.' It was no illusion. Here it stood actually before our eyes, leaning just as it has always leaned, before the ' mind's eye, ' since the moment when we first saw it in our nursery. We gazed upon it with silence, and with throbbing hearts, till the thickening mist and the growing darkness of the night veiled it from our eyes still fixed to see. It was not long, however, before we passed the massive gates, and were within the ancient walls of venerable Pisa. " Dec. 14.--This morning, at 8 o'clock, we left Pisa and the ' Albergo di ussero, ' with pleasant impressions and recollections, both of the place and our accommodations and entertainment, and commenced, with animating anticipations, the last stage of our journey to Florence, ' Firenze La Bella, '--the birth place and the home of genius and the arts, --of the beautiful and the grand, --of noble, ingenious and lofty minds. Our route lay along the banks of the Arno, and, with the exception of a short distance, where the river seems to flow through a narrow pass in a low ridge of the Apennines, the country seemed as an extended level valley from Pisa to Florence. As we passed out of the ancient city, we had little to attract our attention by the way, except a throng of peasants, who were gathering in from the neighboring village...