wished to go, it was decided that I might do so.
    We passed through several streets of more or less considerable houses, and
at last turning round a corner we came upon a large piazza, at the end of which
was a magnificent building, of a strange but noble architecture and of great
antiquity. It did not open directly on to the piazza, there being a screen,
through which was an archway, between the piazza and the actual precincts of the
bank. On passing under the archway we entered upon a green sward, round which
there ran an arcade or cloister, while in front of us uprose the majestic towers
of the bank and its venerable front, which was divided into three deep recesses
and adorned with all sorts of marbles and many sculptures. On either side there
were beautiful old trees wherein the birds were busy by the hundred, and a
number of quaint but substantial houses of singularly comfortable appearance;
they were situated in the midst of orchards and gardens, and gave me an
impression of great peace and plenty.
    Indeed it had been no error to say that this building was one that appealed
to the imagination; it did more - it carried both imagination and judgment by
storm. It was an epic in stone and marble, and so powerful was the effect it
produced on me, that as I beheld it I was charmed and melted. I felt more
conscious of the existence of a remote past. One knows of this always, but the
knowledge is never so living as in the actual presence of some witness to the
life of bygone ages. I felt how short a space of human life was the period of
our own existence. I was more impressed with my own littleness, and much more
inclinable to believe that the people whose sense of the fitness of things was
equal to the upraising of so serene a handiwork, were hardly likely to be wrong
in the conclusions they might come to upon any subject. My feeling certainly was
that the currency of this bank must be the right one.
    We crossed the sward and entered the building. If the outside had been
impressive the inside was even more so. It was very lofty and divided into
several parts by walls which rested upon massive pillars; the windows were
filled with stained glass descriptive of the principal commercial incidents of
the bank for many ages. In a remote part of the building there were men and boys
singing; this was the only disturbing feature, for as the gamut was still
unknown, there was no music in the country which could be agreeable to a
European ear. The singers seemed to have derived their