282 AUSTRALIA AND HOMEWARD. 



Some have been produced by men of remarkable 

 genius, whose piety was as intense as their love of art. 

 Fra Angelica, whose paintings here and there adorn 

 these venerable walls, never commenced a picture 

 without long fasting and prayer, when he claimed he 

 got his general idea from the Spirit, and nothing could 

 induce him to depart from the ideal impressed upon 

 his mind. 



We visited the tombs of the Medici within a chapel 

 connected with the church of San Lorenzo. The 

 chapel of the Medici is an octagon, covered in the 

 interior almost entirely with all manner of precious 

 stones. Here are the most delicate and perfect 

 mosaics which can be found anywhere in the world. 

 The traveller can hardly persuade himself that these 

 beautiful pictures and designs are mosaics till he has 

 made a careful examination of them. What patience! 

 What intense application, not merely for months, but 

 in some cases for years, must have been here ! Though 

 the chapel consists of one room, probably not more 

 than sixty feet across it, around which are arranged the 

 tombs, the entire cost of the building and its internal 

 decorations is estimated at 900,000 or $4,500,000. 



From Florence we came to Milan, and of course paid 

 a visit to the great cathedral, which, perhaps, for out- 



