Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/140

130 daughter home again; the day has an end. What the day is, we Cimmerians hardly know. In our eternal mist and fog, it is the same thing to us whether it be day or night; for how much time can we really pass and enjoy in the open air? Now, when night sets in, the day, which consisted of a morning and an evening, is decidedly past; four and twenty hours are gone; the bells ring, the rosary is taken in hand, and the maid, entering the chamber with the lighted lamp, says, "Felicissina notte." This epoch varies with every season; and a man who lives here in actual life cannot go wrong, because all the enjoyments of his existence are regulated, not by the nominal hour, but by the time of day. If the people were forced to use a German clock, they would be perplexed, for their own is intimately connected with their nature. About an hour and a half, or an hour, before nightfall, the nobility begin to ride out. They proceed to the Piazza della Bra, along the long, broad street, to the Porta Nuova, out at the gate, and along the city, and, when night sets in, they all return home. Sometimes they go to the churches to say their Ave Maria della sera; sometimes they keep on the Bra, where the cavaliers step up to the coaches, and converse for awhile with the ladies. The foot-passengers remain till a late hour of night; but I have never stopped till the last. To-day just enough rain had fallen to lay the dust, and the spectacle was most cheerful and animated.

That I may accommodate myself the better to the custom of the country, I have devised a plan for mastering more easily the Italian method of reckoning the hours. The accompanying diagram may give an idea of it. The inner circle denotes our four and twenty hours, from midnight to midnight, divided into twice twelve, as we reckon and as our clocks indicate. The middle circle shows how the clocks strike at the present season; namely, as much as twelve twice in