Among them are Dante, the virtual founder of the Italian language, and one of the three great epic poets of the world; Boccaccio, singer of love; Petrarch, composer of the unrivaled sonnets; Machiavelli, the Mephistopheles of statesmen; Galileo, the astronomer; Bru-nelleschi, the architect; Giotto, the morning-star of the Renaissance; Guicciardini, the historian; Savonarola, the reformer; Amerigo Vespucci, the discoverer, who gave to our continent his name; Fra Bar-tolommeo, Andrea del Sarto, and Carlo Dolci, the painters; Benvenuto Cellini, Donatello, and Ghiberti, the sculptors; and last, and greatest of them all, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. What other city in the world, save Athens, possesses such a glorious galaxy of genius ?

Guicciardini.

The statue in this portico, representing Benvenuto holding the miniature model of his Perseus, recalls the half-pathetic, half-humorous ac-• count which he himself gives of the casting of his masterpiece. The excitement attending it had made him ill, and he was obliged to take to his bed during the all-important process, leaving his workmen to complete the task. As he lay tossing in a burning fever, a man whose body, he says, was as crooked as the letter "s," entered the room, and said in a sepulchral voice, "Oh, Benvenuto! your work is ruined past earthly remedy." "When I heard the words of this wretch," says Benvenuto," I uttered a shriek which might have been heard in the infernal regions, rose from my bed, and hurried on my clothes, giving kicks and blows to all who came near me." He then rushed to the furnace, encouraged the workmen, and at last, after tremendous exertions, saw that the mold was filled; whereupon he ate a hearty meal with his assistants, went to bed again with a light heart, and slept as sweetly as if he had never been ill in his life. The portrait of Benvenuto Cellini, painted when he was advanced in years, would seem to indicate a good old man, wrinkled with age and care, approaching the end of a well-spent life. But Benvenuto was no saint, nor was his life a tranquil one. On the contrary, it was so full of reckless adventure that his own account of it reads like a romance. Rash, boastful and immoral, he handled a sword as skillfully as a chisel, and his career was marked by continual quarrels and not a few assassinations, - for which, however, he usually obtained prompt pardon on account of his wonderful genius. At the same time there was another side to his character. It is to be remembered to his credit that he took into his house his widowed sister and her six children, and supported them with the greatest kindness.

Benvenuto Cellini.

The only way to retain agreeable memories of a vast gallery, like the Uffizi, is to pay it several visits and invariably seek the open air the instant that one feels fatigued. It is unfortunate that travelers do not always follow this simple rule; for, surely, it is a thousand times better to see, enjoy, and recollect a few choice masterpieces, than to gaze on and on, till one is forced to retire with senses too fatigued to think of anything save physical exhaustion. Especially is this true in Florence, where, in the galleries of the Pitti and Uffizi, which are connected by a covered passageway and bridge, the tourist can walk for several miles through an unbroken series of long corridors and spacious rooms, the walls of which are lined with paintings or adorned with statues.

Benvenuto Cellini In Old Age.

For those who insist on "doing" both museums in a single visit, electric tram-cars should be run from one end to the other. Some of the most unhappy-looking persons I have ever seen, I encountered in the Pitti and Uffizi. They should have been supremely happy there; but, on the contrary, they were limping wearily and reluctantly from room to room, as if they were going to a dentist's chair. " An art museum," said a connoisseur to me one day, "is like an artichoke; it should be enjoyed, leaf by leaf".

Nicola Pisano.