io6 With Feet to the Earth 







In Europe I made a practice of reaching 

 the cities after dark, gaining my first im- 

 pressions of them in the night. They are 

 dream towns in my memory, and the half 

 seen stays with me more securely than the 

 obvious. It is one of the delights of travel 

 that you do so much of it afterward, as 

 you sit before your fire or under your fig- 

 tree. Again I see the cathedral of Cologne 

 heaved, mountainous, above the roofs ; I sit 

 with Heidelberg students at their beer in 

 the Red Ox garden, watching the moon 

 through the Castle's ruined windows ; I 

 stumble through the winding alleys of 

 Mainz ; I hear the clamor of Seven Dials, 

 as I thread its maze of carts and jostle 

 cyprians and hucksters ; I lounge on the 

 Quay Malaquais, listening to the lap of the 

 Seine, watching its oily writhings, while the 

 hum and scum of Paris move dully here 

 and there ; I climb the hill of Lincoln 

 through streets three centuries old, and 

 Great Tom tolls midnight out of a cloud ; 

 the square of Antwerp glimmers as the 

 cathedral's silver voices sing the passing 

 of the time ; or it is in Lauterbrunnen that 



