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Goethe discovered during his Italian journey that the common people seldom had what he called "disinterested admiration for a noble work of art. It was utterly beyond them." Just as Emerson was left quite unimpressed by the uniforms and ceremonials of the religion he found in Italy--a "mummery" he called it--so was Goethe, who wrote of his stay in Rome and visits to the churches: "I felt that I am too old for anything but Truth. Rites or processions, they all run off me like water off a duck's back; but Nature like the sunset seen from the villa or a work of art like my revered Juno leaves a deep impression."

-- Notebooks Category 14: The Arts in Culture > Chapter 1 : Appreciation > # 67