'for know you , that your gold and marble city of wonder is only the sum of what you have seen and loved in youth ... the glory of boston 's hillside roofs and western windows aflame with sunset ; of the flower-fragrant common and the great dome on the hill and the tangle of gables and chimneys in the violet valley where the many-bridged charlotte flows drowsily ... this loveliness , moulded , crystallised , and polished by years of memory and dreaming , is your terraced wonder of elusive sunsets ; and to find that marble parapet with curious urns and carven rail , and descend at last those endless balustraded steps to the city of broad squares and prismatic fountains , you need only to turn back to the thoughts and visions of your wistful boyhood . '