k 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



There was nothing in any of the museums 

 which I visited, to show that an advancement 

 had been made in the art of preserving spe- 

 cimens for natural history ; in that of Bologna, 

 I saw two male turkeys with a very thick and 

 long tuft of feathers on their heads ; their necks 

 were bare. I was informed that these strange 

 looking birds were mere varieties of the tribe, 

 and that they had been reared from the egg in 

 the immediate vicinity. 



At Florence, my old friend Professor Nesti 

 showed us through the well-stored apartments 

 of the public museum ; we had not seen each 

 other for more than twenty years : as I looked 

 at him, I could perceive that age had traced 

 his brow with furrows ; and he, no doubt, must 

 have observed that Time's unerring hand had 

 been employed upon my own for a similar pur- 

 pose. Professor Nesti first introduced me to 

 the celebrated sculptor Bartolini of Florence. 

 On calling at his studio after an absence of 

 twenty years, I found him at work on a classic 

 group, which he had composed with great taste, 

 and was finishing in the first style of elaborate 

 sculpture. The group consisted of Andromache 

 in the imploring attitude of utter despair, 



