The several schools of the old masters were represented by a Madonna of Raphael, a Virgin of Leonardo da Vinci, a nymph of Corregio, a woman of Titan, an Adoration of Veronese, an Assumption of Murillo, a portrait of Holbein, a monk of Velasquez, a martyr of Ribera, a fair of Rubens, two Flemish landscapes of Teniers, three little "genre" pictures of Gerard Dow, Metsu, and Paul Potter, two specimens of Gericault and Prudhon, and some sea-pieces of Backhuysen and Vernet.
Amongst the works of modern painters were pictures with the signatures of Delacroix, Ingres, Decamps, Troyon, Meissonier, Daubigny, etc.; and some admirable statues in marble and bronze, after the finest antique models, stood upon pedestals in the corners of this magnificent museum.
Amazement, as the Captain of the Nautilus had predicted, had already begun to take possession of me.
"Professor," said this strange man, "you must excuse the unceremonious way in which I receive you, and the disorder of this room." "Sir," I answered, "without seeking to know who you are, I recognise in you an artist." "An amateur, nothing more, sir.

Formerly I loved to collect these beautiful works created by the hand of man.

I sought them greedily, and ferreted them out indefatigably, and I have been able to bring together some objects of great value.

These are my last souvenirs of that world which is dead to me.

In my eyes, your modern artists are already old; they have two or three thousand years of existence; I confound them in my own mind.