John Singer Sargent Ponte della Canonica painting

John Singer Sargent Ponte della Canonica paintingJohn Singer Sargent Paul Helleu Sketching with his Wife paintingJohn Singer Sargent Morning Walk painting
trammels of human nature, and that I fill the principal place among you to your satisfaction-if I do-I solemnly assure you is quite enough for me: this is how I prefer to be remembered by posterity. If posterity believes me to have been worthy of my ancestors, watchful of your interest, unmoved in dangers and, in defence of the commonwealth, fearless of private enmities, I will be sufficiently remembered. The loving gratitude of the Senate and people of Rome and or our allies is the fairest temple I would raise-a temple not of marble but more enduring than marble, a temple of the heart. Marble -temples, when the hallowed beings to whom they are raised fall into disrepute, are despised as mere sepulchers. I therefore invoke Heaven to grant me until the end of my life an untroubled spirit and the power of clear discernment in all duties human and sacred: and therefore too I implore our citizens and allies that whenever dissolution comes to this mortal body of mine, they will celebrate my life and deeds (if they are so worthy) with inward thankfulness and praise rather than the outward pomp and temple-building and annual sacrifice. The true love that Rome felt for my father Augustus when he was