It is the same crowd in the Raphael Stanze, but rather silenter, for by
now we have taught ourselves enough from our Baedekers at least to read
them under our breaths, and we talk low before the frescos and the
canvases. Some of us are even mute in the presence of the School of
Athens, whatever reserves we may utter concerning the Transfiguration.
If we are honest, we more or less own what our impressions really are
from those other famous works, concerning which our impressions are
otherwise altogether and inexpressibly unimportant; it is a question of
ethics and not aesthetics, as most of our simple-hearted company suppose
it to be; and, if we are dishonest, we pretend to have felt and thought
things at first-hand from them which we have learned at second-hand from
our reading. I will confess, for my small part, that I had more pleasure
in the coloring and feeling of some of the older canvases and in here
and there a Titian than in all the Raphaels in the Stanze of his name.
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