I Can Give No Idea In Words Of The Pure Radiance Which Shone
From Every Object, Which Illumined Every Scene.
More remarkable,
when I thought of it next day, was the minute finish of these
pictures, the definiteness of
Every point on which my eye fell.
Things which I could not know, which my imagination, working in the
service of the will, could never have bodied forth, were before me
as in life itself. I consciously wondered at peculiarities of
costume such as I had never read of; at features of architecture
entirely new to me; at insignificant characteristics of that by-gone
world, which by no possibility could have been gathered from books.
I recall a succession of faces, the loveliest conceivable; and I
remember, I feel to this moment the pang of regret with which I lost
sight of each when it faded into darkness.
As an example of the more elaborate visions that passed before me, I
will mention the only one which I clearly recollect. It was a
glimpse of history. When Hannibal, at the end of the second Punic
War, was confined to the south of Italy, he made Croton his
head-quarters, and when, in reluctant obedience to Carthage, he
withdrew from Roman soil, it was at Croton that he embarked. He then
had with him a contingent of Italian mercenaries, and, unwilling
that these soldiers should go over to the enemy, he bade them
accompany him to Africa. The Italians refused. Thereupon Hannibal
had them led down to the shore of the sea, where he slaughtered one
and all.
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