304 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 



annual recurrence. I fancy we owe this very much 

 to Mr. Eliot's influence. 



So you see my mind is much at peace about 

 Radcliffe matters, and I feel more and more inclined 

 for the restful influences here which creep into my 

 life more and more a little like the Lotos-eaters, 

 perhaps, in the land where it was "always afternoon " ; 

 but I give myself up to it for the time being very 

 contentedly. 



Perarolo, July 26, 1895 



. . . THERE were three or four interesting masses 

 sung in St. Mark's on successive days just before 

 we left Venice, and I went to all but one. The first 

 was at sunset, an hour which is so beautiful at St. 

 Mark's because there are high windows which throw 

 the light shortly before sunset into the upper part 

 of the church and light up those wonderful mosaics 

 and make them as fresh as yesterday with their 

 gilded backgrounds. The music was very fine and 

 the scene is always so engrossing the figures mov- 

 ing about or kneeling, the priests coming and going, 

 the mingling of rich and poor. But in Venice where 

 are there not pictures? In the boats, on the church 

 steps, in the by-ways those little narrow calle, where 

 the land traffic goes on, the markets, etc., one 

 grows monotonous in calling attention every minute 

 to these things, which from their frequency might 

 seem commonplace, but every group is different. I 

 could never see a grass boat coming in from the is- 

 lands with its green load built up in perfect symme- 



