This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ...When in Milan, he found no more to say of Leonardo's " Last Supper," a work that by its extraordinary force and distinctness of characterization should have impressed him as a student of men than this: "Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper'is here--in the refectory of a suppressed convent, --but miserably injured, or rather destroyed by the dampness of three centuries and a half. An old man, who has charge of the place, told me that he was at the bridge of Lodi and was a sergeant at Marengo." The stage had no deep interest for him. Aside from the little people's theatres at Naples, he mentions none in his diaries, not even the Franjais when he was at Paris. Yet as a schoolboy we have seen him an eager and successful actor; and at the time of this journey he was very much given to the study of men. He seems early to have abandoned the histrionic art as completely as he did chemistry. Perhaps in common with many keen observers of character, he was repelled by the artificialities of theatrical presentation. It may be said, however, that although he was not a lover of the theatre, he would probably have gone oftener than he did to see a first-rate actor or play, if his eyes could have endured bright lights. Music was an unknown world to him; it never attracted him at any time of his life. Yet he liked the Fifth Symphony, and he had one favorite song in his last years, " Sam Hall," whose dramatic force, grim humor, virility, and anti-clerical sentiments delighted him. His appreciation of painting and the other fine arts grew somewhat with the greater development of his spiritual nature. In the later part of his life he spent much of his enforced idleness in looking at illustrations and photographs; he enjoyed the perfection of Japanese pictures of...