But I always picture people or places which I hear much praised, as much more beautiful than I ever find the reality." "The balance of difference, which is to the disadvantage of reality," answered Hadrian, "stands not so much to its discredit, as to the credit of the eager and beautifying power of your youthful imagination.

I--I--" and the Emperor stroked his beard and gazed out into the distance.

"I learn by experience that the older I grow, the more often I find it possible so to imagine men, places, and things that I have not seen as that when I meet them in real life for the first time, I feel justified in fancying that I have known them long since, visited them, and beheld them with my bodily eyes.

Here, for instance, I feel as if I saw nothing new, but only gazed once more at what has long been familiar.

But that is no wonder, for I know my Strabo, and have heard and read a hundred accounts of this city.