sea, so as to excite amazement.

But the horses have not been spoken of, though one pair drew Apollo's
car at Delphos. The other, which we call modern, and laugh while we call
them so, were made however before the days of Constantine the Great.
They are of bright yellow brass, not black bronze, as I expected to find
them, and grace the glorious church I am never weary of admiring; where
I went one day on purpose to find out the red marble on which Pope
Alexander III. sate, and placed his foot upon the neck of the Emperor:
the stone has this inscription half legible round it, _Super aspidem et
basiliscum ambulabis_[Footnote: Thou shalt tread on the asp and the
basilisk]. How does this lovely Piazza di San Marco render a
newly-arrived spectator breathless with delight! while not a span of it
is unoccupied by actual beauty; though the whole appears uncrowded, as
in the works of nature, not of art.

It was upon the day appointed for making a new chancellor, however, that
one ought to have looked at this lovely city; when every shop, adorned
with its own peculiar produce, was disposed to hail the passage of its
favourite, in a manner so lively, so luxuriant, and at the same time so
tasteful--there's no telling. Milliners crowned the new dignitary's
picture with flowers, while columns of gauze, twisted round with
ribband, in the most elegant style, supported the figure on each side,
and made the prettiest appearance possible. The furrier formed his skins
into representations of the animal they had once belonged to; so the
lion was seen dandling the kid at one door, while the fox stood courting
a badger out of his hole at the other. The poulterers and fruiterers
were by many thought the most beautiful shops in town, from the variety
of fancies displayed in the disposal of their goods; and I admired at
the truly Italian ingenuity of a gunsmith, who had found the art of