It is not matter of wonder that she acquired universal dominion.

I am only surprised that it was so late before she came to it." In the midst of his meditations among the relics of Rome, Petrarch was struck by the ignorance about their forefathers, with which the natives looked on those monuments.

The veneration which they had for them was vague and uninformed.

"It is lamentable," he says, "that nowhere in the world is Rome less known than at Rome." It is not exactly known in what month Petrarch left the Roman capital; but, between his departure from that city, and his return to the banks of the Rhone, he took an extensive tour over Europe.

He made a voyage along its southern coasts, passed the straits of Gibraltar, and sailed as far northward as the British shores.