Perhaps, for most people, the best results of travel are that they
return with a sense of grateful security to the familiar scene: the
monotonous current of life has been enlivened, the old
relationships have gained a new value, the old gossip is taken up
with a comfortable zest; the old rooms are the best, after all; the
homely language is better than the outlandish tongue; it is a
comfort to have done with squeezing the sponge and cramming the
trunk: it is good to be at home.
But to people of more cultivated and intellectual tastes there is
an abundance of good reasons for the pursuit of impressions. It is
worth a little fatigue to see the spring sun lie softly upon the
unfamiliar foliage, to see the delicate tints of the purple-
flowered Judas-tree, the bright colours of Southern houses, the old
high-shouldered chateau blinking among its wooded parterres; it is
pleasant to see mysterious rites conducted at tabernacled altars,
under dark arches, and to smell the "thick, strong, stupefying
incense-smoke"; to see well-known pictures in their native
setting, to hear the warm waves of the canal lapping on palace-
stairs, with the exquisite moulded cornice overhead.
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