324 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



an expedition to the Pont du Card, a strong bridge over the 

 torrent, constructed for a Roman aqueduct in the time of 

 Augustus, in a solitary mountain valley, as high as the highest 

 cathedral. Rousseau is reported to have said of this that it 

 was the only thing he had seen in his life that had exceeded 

 his anticipations. The expedition takes at least five hours, and 

 we discussed whether it were worth devoting the day to a 

 fragment of Roman aqueduct when we had seen so many. 

 But we felt like Rousseau, save that it was not the first time 

 we had had such an experience. . . . 



' Here we have spent two very pleasant days, with a Passion 

 Play in the Theatre, which was very remarkable, with a great 

 Procession, and so on. ... The Theatre is a vast building for 

 four thousand spectators, well proportioned and comfortably 

 arranged, so that our northern Court Theatres would be put 

 to shame by it. The old Passion Play was given in the 

 Catalonian dialect, which of course we could not understand, 

 since we are much in the same plight with modern Spanish. 

 It was cleverly staged with all modern accessories, and 

 frightfully realistic in every detail, so that the whole per- 

 formance succeeded in impressing one as the reading of it 

 never does. . . . The Procession on Palm Sunday was escorted 

 by a troop of Roman warriors in costume, with a band and a 

 captain There was a great crowd of people, long processions 

 of Catholic Guilds, students and young men in strange costumes 

 of shiny black linen, cut with trains like women's clothes with 

 gauffred frills, dragged the figure of the Christ, which was 

 drawn along on boards, and represented the bowed Christ of 

 the Mount of Olives. . . . L. urged us to visit his friend, the 

 Professor of Chemistry, Don Ramon Manjarez, in his labora- 

 tory, and allow him and the other professors to take us round 

 the new University buildings. I had the satisfaction of finding 

 my acoustical apparatus fairly complete/ 



' Madrid, Good Friday, March 26. The Escorial, gigantic 

 burying-place of the Spanish Kings, lies some distance from 

 Madrid in a rocky waste among the mountains, and gives 

 a certain idea of serious grandeur and artistic taste in the 

 fanatical Philip II which raised him above his childish 

 successors. One can see that he was in terrible earnest over 

 what he wanted, and what he designed for himself is simple 



