Note 401 — Chapter V · RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE

Thus Paul Jove describes the villa on the Lake of Como, in which he wrote his Elogia: a villa fanned by gentle breezes, hung on a hillside dominating the lake, so rich in classic memories, so pure, so blue; in the episcopal dining-room, Apollo and the Muses presided; the drawing-room, dedicated to Minerva, contained busts of several great writers of antiquity; thence one passed to the library, then into the Hall of the Sirens, then the Hall of the Three Graces. Large windows opened upon green flower-bedecked mountains, luxuriant valleys, rugged granite peaks, a majestic horizon of eternal snow, and indestructible glaciers, above which hung the beautiful transparent blue sky.