Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/419

Rh church of the city and observing its curiosities. Being once on the move, we took a round of all the other public edifices. We were much pleased with a Moorish building, which is in excellent preservation,—not very large, but the rooms beautiful, broad, and well proportioned, and in excellent keeping with the whole pile. It is not perhaps suited for a northern climate, but in a southern land a most agreeable residence. Architects may perhaps some day furnish us with a plan and elevation of it.

We also saw, in most unsuitable situations, various remains of ancient marble statues, which, however, we had not patience to decipher.

, April 16, 1787.

As we are obliged to anticipate our speedy departure from this paradise, I hoped to-day to spend a thorough holiday by sitting in the public gardens, and, after studying the task I had set myself out of the Odyssey, taking a walk through the valley, and at the foot of the hill of St. Rosalie, meditating still further on my sketch of Nausicaa, and there trying whether this subject is susceptible of a dramatic form. All this I have managed, if not with perfect success, yet certainly much to my satisfaction. I made out the plan, and could not abstain from sketching some portions of it which appeared to me most interesting, and tried to work them out.

, Tuesday, April 17, 1787. It is downright misery to be pursued and hunted by many spirits! Yesterday I set out early for the public gardens, with a firm and calm resolve to realise some of my poetical dreams; but before I got within sight of them, another spectre which has been following me these last few days got hold of me. Many plants which hitherto I had been used to see only in pots and tubs, or under glass frames, stand here, fresh