The whole place seemed to me filled with the presence of the poet to whom it had given birth.

Certainly the reading of that poem formed an era in my existence: to this day I cannot acknowledge the faults or weaknesses which your criticisms pointed out; I believe because they are in unison with my own nature, which yearns for harmony, and, finding that, rests contented.

I shrink from violent contrasts, and can discover nothing tame and insipid in a continuance of sweetness and serenity.

But it was not till after I had read "La Gerusalemme" again and again, and then sat and brooded over it, that I recognized the main charm of the poem in the religion which clings to it as the perfume clings to a flower,--a religion sometimes melancholy, but never to me sad.

Hope always pervades it.