His mind, he told me, became filled with a measureless yearning for the old culture of pagan philosophy, and as the past became clearer and more real, so the present grew dimmer, and his thoughts were gradually weaned entirely from all the natural objects of affection and interest which should otherwise have occupied them.

To what a terrible extent this process went on, Miss Maltravers's narrative shows.

Soon after reaching Naples he visited the Villa de Angelis, which Temple had built on the ruins of a sea-house of Pomponius.

The later building had in its turn become dismantled and ruinous, and Sir John found no difficulty in buying the site outright.
He afterwards rebuilt it on an elaborate scale, endeavouring to reproduce in its equipment the luxury of the later empire.

I had occasion to visit the house more than once in my capacity of executor, and found it full of priceless works of art, which, though neither so difficult to procure at that time nor so costly as they would be now, were yet sufficiently valuable to have necessitated an unjustifiable outlay.
The situation of the building fostered his infatuation for the past.