35．The Beauty Of Pisa In The Afternoon（在线收听）

35．The  Beauty  Of  Pisa  In  The  Afternoon

　　On  each  side  of  a  bright  river  he  saw  rise  a  line  of  brighter  palaces,arched   and   pillared,   and   inlaid   with   deep   red   porphyry,   and   withserpentine(2); along the quays before their gates were riding troops ofknights, noble in face and form, dazzling in crest and shield; horse andman one labyrinth of quaint colour and gleaming light(3)--the purple, andsilver,  and  scarlet  fringes  flowing  over  the  strong  limbs  and  clashingmail, like sea-waves over rocks at sunset. Opening on each side from theriver  were  gardens,  courts,  and  cloisters;  long  successions  of  whitepillars  among  wreaths  of  vine;  leaping  of  fountains  through  buds  ofpomegranate and orange; and still along the garden-paths, and under andthrough the crimson of the pomegranate shadows, moving slowly, groups ofthe  fairest  women  that  Italy  ever  saw  fairest,  because  purest  andthoughtfulest; trained in all high knowledge, as in all courteous art--indance, in song, in sweet wit, in lofty learning, in loftier courage,-illloftiest  love-  able  alike  to  cheer,  to  enchant,  or  save,  the  souls  ofmen(4).  Above  all  this  scenery  of  perfect  human  life,  rose  dome  andbell-tower,  burning  with  white  alabaster  and  gold:  beyond  dome  andbell-tower the slopes of mighty hills, hoary with olive; far in the north,above a purple sea of peaks of solemn Apennine(5), the clear, sharp- clovenCarrara mountains(6) sent up their steadfast flames of marble summit intoamber  sky;  the  great  sea  itself,  scorching  with  expanse  of  light,stretching from their feet to the Gorgonian isles(7); and over all these,ever present, near or far--seen through the leaves of vine, or imaged withall  its  march  of  clouds  in  the  Arno's  stream,(8)  or  set  with  its  depthof  blue  close  against  the  golden  hair  and  burning  cheek  of  lady  andknight,-- that untroubled and sacred sky, which was to all men, in thosedays of innocent faith, indeed the unquestioned abode of spirits, as theearth  was  of  men;  and  which  opened  straight  through  its  gates  of  cloudand veils of dew into the awfulness of the eternal world; a heaven in whichevery cloud that passed was literally the chariot of an angel and  everyray  of  its  Evening  and  Morning  streamed  from  the  throne  of  God.(9)