title: The Myths of Rome
author:  T.P. Wiseman 
description: <br>"... this brilliant book will create a storm of argument, raising again the old question: what do we mean by myth?"--<em>BBC History</em> <br>
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  # From A Roman Note-Book
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Henry James
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  This page copyright © 2004 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
      
  
  EText by Ian Hillman
  
  
  DECEMBER 28, 1872.—In Rome again for the last three days—that
  
  
  second visit, which, if the first is not followed by a fatal illness in
  
  
  Florence, the story goes that one is doomed to pay. I didn't drink of
  
  
  the Fountain of Trevi when I was here before; but I feel as if I had
  
  
  drank of the Tiber itself. Nevertheless, as I drove from the station in
  
  
  the evening, I wondered what I should think of Rome at this first
  
  
  glimpse if I didn't know it. All manner of evil, I am afraid. Paris,
  
  
  as, I passed along the Boulevards three evenings before, to take the
  
  
  train, was swarming and glittering as befits a great capital. Here, in
  
  
  the black, narrow, crooked, empty streets, I saw nothing for a city to
  
  
  build an eternity upon. But there were new gas lamps round the spouting
  
  
  Triton in