"Because," He Replied, "Those To Whom The Charge Of These Matters Belongs,
Will Not Take The Trouble.
Somebody must devise a plan for the purpose,
and somebody must take upon himself the labor of seeing it executed.
They
find it easier to put it off."
The antiquities of Volterra consist of an Etruscan burial-ground, in
which the tombs still remain, pieces of the old and incredibly massive
Etruscan wall, including a far larger circuit than the present city, two
Etruscan gates of immemorial antiquity, older doubtless than any thing at
Rome, built of enormous stones, one of them serving even yet as an
entrance to the town, and a multitude of cinerary vessels, mostly of
alabaster, sculptured with numerous figures in _alto relievo_. These
figures are sometimes allegorical representations, and sometimes embody
the fables of the Greek mythology. Among them are some in the most perfect
style of Grecian art, the subjects of which are taken from the poems of
Homer; groups representing the besiegers of Troy and its defenders, or
Ulysses with his companions and his ships. I gazed with exceeding delight
on these works of forgotten artists, who had the verses of Homer by
heart - works just drawn from the tombs where they had been buried for
thousands of years, and looking as if fresh from the chisel.
We had letters to the commandant of the fortress, an ancient-looking
stronghold, built by the Medici family, over which we were conducted by
his adjutant, a courteous gentleman with a red nose, who walked as if
keeping time to military music.
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