m%- -

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

ITALIAI SIGHTS

PAPAL PBINCIPLE.S,

SEEN THROUGH

AMERICAN SPECTACLES.

JAMES JACKSON JARVES,
AUTHOR OP "ART-HINTS," "PARISIAN SIGHTS," &c, &e.

NEW TORE
HARPER it, BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQVARE.
1856.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thou
sand eight hundred and fifty-five, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.
" Simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vita?."
Some of these " Sights" were penned several years back,
while others are but of yesterday. I refer you, dear reader,
for farther insight, to the chapters themselves. Hoping
that, while you find amusement in the " Sights," you will
not fail to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the
Principles, I remain, Your obliged servant
Ever at command,
The Author.

ITALIAN SIGHTS
AND
PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION TO ITALY  GENOA  HOW MUCH TEMPER AND
MONEY IT COST TO GET TO FLORENCE.
Superb Genoa, shall I ever forget thee 1 thyself hut one
of a series of beautiful entrances to a land favored of God and
cursed of rulers ! By thy gates I first entered Italy. What
other country can boast such magnificent portals 1 Naples,
Genoa, Venice, and the Alps, announce thy treasures on the
very threshold of thy domains. By whichsoever side thou art
approached, thou welcomest son and stranger to a plentiful
feast provided hy nature and spread hy art.
Genoa the Superb ! and superb she is ; more beautiful even
now, when her power has departed, than when to be a doge
was to be more than king. The child of commerce has not
been forsaken in old age, because she has not despised the
hand that in her youth fashioned her to wealth and glory.
I hke Genoa. I like it the more from its contrast with Mar
seilles. True, it has but few streets, but they are streets of
palaces. Its other avenues are more like subterranean pas
sages than streets, for the houses are so lofty that only a ver-
A2

10 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
tical sun can light their depths. Even this is in general shut
out by projecting eaves that almost meet. Then they are so
irregular as to defy all calculation on the part of a stranger
who ventures to explore their intricacies. He doubles on his
own track, and thinks himself going east, when his face is to
ward the setting sun. Then, too, he finds streets far above
him ; others below ; some terminated abruptly by a rock ;
while many look as if they were about to leap into the sea.
At one moment carriages are rolling along, a hundred feet
over his head, on bridges which spring from one precipice to
another. The next instant he stands at the base of a lofty
palace, and yet finds himself looking into the chimneys of sev
en-story houses beneath. One edifice begins at an elevation
where another terminates, and thus they rise, layer upon layer
of buildings, far up the precipitous hills, down their sides, in
their crevices, spanning their chasms, clinging to the rocks
like shell-fish, or growing like moss wherever a foundation
can be had. In many places the streets are walled in to pre
vent wayfarers from falling off. If you wish to arrive quick
ly at any spot, you must walk. Comparatively few streets
are accessible to carriages, which makes Genoa the paradise
of pedestrians. At one angle opens a most charming sea-
view — the surf foams at your feet — if perfectly clear, the
mountains of Corsica can be seen. At another are disclosed
the forests of masts in the harbor, with a fleet of white sails
studding the horizon, and an occasional steamer's pipe leav
ing behind it a comet-like tail of black smoke. Turn, and
you see terraced gardens, fountains, statuary, bright flowers,
and perhaps smiling faces from latticed windows looking
down upon you. Farther back rise villas and vineyards upon
the sunny hill-sides. Their summits are crested with a dark
array of forts and bristling ramparts, standing out in strong
relief against the clear sky. Genoa is a perpetual ascent

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 11
or descent, but each pace brings with it something worth
seeing. I breakfasted at a cafe, amid an orange grove, loaded at the
same time with the ripe fruit, bud, and blossom. At home it
had already snowed in a latitude to the south of this.
Passing through the Strada Balbi, absorbed in admiration of
the exterior of the noble palaces built hy merchant princes,
and recognizing in them not only a taste, hut a humanity vast
ly superior to the castles of feudalism which had so recently
attracted my attention on the Rhone, I was accosted by a
rusty-looking individual, who, for the small consideration of
three francs, proposed to introduce me into their interiors, and
pilot me to all other lions of Genoa. He looked, withal, as
honest as he was poor, so I told him to be on hand at an early
hour the next morning. In the mean while, as there was some
daylight left, he might commence operations with the most dis
tinguished of the ecclesiastical museums, by the taste of man,
rather than by the will of God, called churches.
On entering the Holy Annunciation, second in size only to
the Cathedral, my eyes were fairly dazzled with the blaze of
gold from the ceilings, and the rich colorings of the frescoes.
This is, indeed, a magnificent temple, and as completely out
shines the Madeleine at Paris in richness of ornament as it ex
cels it in correct taste. The sumptuary laws of republican
Genoa forbade its trading Croesuses to expend their wealth in
personal prodigalities. Being thus deprived of the more vul
gar mode of display, they competed with each other in the
erection of churches, each distinguished family building for it
self a temple of its own. Thus the " Annunziata" is the mon
ument of the wealth, and, if you will, the piety of the Lomel-
lini family. It was built two centuries since, and gives one a
strong idea ofthe comfortable position of a family which could
afford, after having reared a sumptuous palace to itself, to in-

12 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

vest its superfluous millions in a house of God, and keep up a
befitting state for both.
The Carignan bridge, one of those that cross streets and
not a river, uniting two mountains and passing over very lofty
houses, was the work of the family Sauli, and leads directly to
the church of Sainte Marie de Carignan, built also by them.
Its origin was in this wise. The Marquis Sauli was the owner
of several palaces, one of which occupied the site of the pres
ent church ; but as he possessed no chapel of his own, he often
went to mass in a church that belonged to his neighbor Fiesque.
One day, finding himself too late, he laughingly complained to
his noble friend of his disappointment.
" My dear Marquis," replied Fiesque, who had designedly
anticipated the hour of worship to give force to his hint, " when
one goes to mass, he should have a chapel of his own."
Sauli took the hint in good part, demolished a palace, and
built on its foundation a church which cost enough to have
satisfied even Solomon.
St. Laurent, the cathedral, pleased me greatly. The Sara
cens evidently had had something to say in its construction,
for the Moorish and Christian styles of architecture are singu
larly blended in its interior. Like all the others, it is a mu
seum, and the visitor is irreverently conducted by its officials
for a small fee through all its sacred precincts, and unceremo
niously invited to examine any thing curious without scruple,
whatever may be its claims to sanctity. This system of mak
ing a mercenary show of the gifts of the altar, which prevails
in all Catholic countries, struck me as peculiarly destructive
of the respect due the temples of the Most High. One in
sensibly forgets their holy purposes in admiration ofthe works
of man, or in irreverent ridicule at the absurd claims of false
relics. Frequently the extravagant execution of some saintly
picture or work of art is such as only to excite laughter. I saw

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 13
a Madonna — not, however, in this church — holding in her
hands, as a mother holds a babe when it first begins to know
the pleasure of exercising its limbs, a naked adult Christ, of
the proportion to her of a small doll, with the shrunken mus
cles, bowed head, and rigid attitude given in the Descents from
the Cross. The Virgin had the appearance of holding him up
to take a dance on her knees. My clerical cicerone pointed
me out a portrait of Mary, painted by St. Luke. The apostle
appears to have worked dihgently in this line, if we can be
lieve the claims of all the churches that possess original paint
ings of the mother of Christ. " Do you really think St. Luke
did this one ?" I asked He shrugged his shoulders, half smiled,
and called my attention to something more modern.
The side chapel of St. John the Baptist possesses the mortal
remains — so they say — ofthe victim of Herodias ; but as I ex
pected, before my travels in the region of relics were termin
ated, to meet with a duplicate set, I only left half of my faith
at this shrine. This is very rich and beautiful. A service
was being performed in it for the soul of a criminal to be exe
cuted on the morrow. On account ofthe agency of woman in
the death ofthe prophet ofthe wilderness, her sex are allowed
to enter this chapel hut once a year — not much of an inter
diction, as it is perfectly open to the eye. Besides, if woman
wished, it was man that performed the crime.
St. Laurent contains also the famous emerald dish given by
the Gtueen of Sheba to King Solomon, and afterward preserved
in the Temple. How it escaped the prying eyes of the ran
sacking lieutenants of Nebuchadnezzar the monks do not ex
plain, but assert that from it Christ ate the Last Supper. It
was found among the spoils of Csesarea, upon the capture of
that town by the combined armies of Genoa and Pisa in 1101.
At that date, the Genoese, possessing more faith than avarice,
took the " Sacro Cattino'' for their share of the booty, leaving

14 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

to the Pisans in exchange the entire mass of filthy lucre. It
was brought to Genoa, where it continued to be held in such
veneration that twelve nobles were appointed to guard it, or,
rather, the tabernacle which contained it, each a month in
turn. It was exhibited but once a year to the adoration of
the crowd. Then a priest held it aloft by a cord, while its
twelve guardians formed a circle around. In 1476 a law was
enacted condemning to death whoever touched the holy em
erald with any substance whatever. Unless the booty at Cse-
«area was very large, the Genoese did not make a bad invest
ment in their emerald, for within fifty years the Jews lent
them four millions of francs on its security. In 1809, among
the other valuables borrowed of Italy by Napoleon, it traveled
to Paris, where it remained until 1815, when it was restored
without difficulty, broken, and ascertained to be glass — an an
cient specimen, undoubtedly, but worth something under eight
hundred thousand dollars. It is still preserved on account of
its souvenirs, and as a curious glass dish ; but Genoa has lost,
in losing her belief in the relic, a capital of nearly a million
of dollars.
Faith in Catholic relics is essentially the substance of things
unseen, for, when seen, faith vanishes.
St. Laurent possesses a rare merit for an Italian church. It
is finished, although not quite seven hundred years old.
Enough of churches. My old friend was prompt to his en
gagement for the next morning. We passed from one palace
to another with all the freedom of ownership, by the aid of a
trifling fee bestowed upon their guardians. The liberality of
the Italians in throwing open their collections to the entire
world is worthy of praise and imitation elsewhere. It is done
so unostentatiously that one feels at home within their halls.
Great as were the masters that I passed in review — Genoa is
rich in paintings— I felt still more interest in the various

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 15
princely residences commerce had bestowed upon her suc
cessful sons. Her prizes were few, but they were worth
drawing. There was the old Ducal Palace — the least pleas
ing, but grandest of them all — coldly aristocratic, like the gov
ernment it represented ; then that of Andrew Doria, with its
charming garden, offering to the port as fine a view as it gives
from its own unrivaled marble terrace. )£ was upon this ter
race that the old admiral gave his famous repasts to embassa
dors, served in silver vessels which were renewed three times.
At every ehange of course, the vessels were thrown into the
sea. Fine fishing in those days, but I suspect the humbug
ging host reserved that right to himself; for, notwithstanding
his frequent banquets, no shoal of silver ever made its appear
ance under his windows. Strozzi, at Florence, for want of a
more refined method of exhibiting his wealth, used to seat his
guests upon bags of dollars. It is to be hoped that they were
cushioned. The Durazzo Palace, occupied by the king on his visits to
Genoa, is a fine specimen of a comfortable regal residence, not
so grand as to be cold, nor so homely as to be unroyal. To
facilitate the passage of their majesties from one story to an
other — in other words, to save stair-work — a sort of dumb
waiter boudoir has been contrived, into which they have sim
ply to place themselves to be landed at any elevation they
desire in their mansion. It is lined with yellow satin, and
looks very safe and comfortable.
The Brignole Palace contains a galaxy of distinguished
names. Titian, Paul Veronese, Paris Bordone, Louis Caracchi,
Carlo Dolci, Guercino, Guido, and particularly Vandyck, have
contributed liberally to adorn its walls. But the palace that
pleased me most — it contained the fewest pictures- — was the
Balbi. It is the home ofthe most beautiful woman of Genoa.
The exquisite bust of the Countess, which the guardian as-

16 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
serted did not do her justice — she must be ravishingly beau
tiful ! — was in the principal salon. It was more like one of
Power's inimitable heads of Proserpine than the bust of a real
mother. Her children, in stone, were no less beautiful, and,
as report said the truth had not been exaggerated, it was a
laudable vanity to perpetuate the memory of so rare an assem
blage of loveliness^ We were taken into the boudoir and bed
rooms, both displaying the taste of a cultivated woman ; ele
gance and comfort so combined as to extort at first glance,
from every visitor, an exclamation of envious admiration.
Surely it is no wrong to wish for such a home. There were
indications, too, that the Countess made it also the house of
prayer. With the crucifix at the head of her bed hung a
touching memorial of a lost child — a double remembrance of
her hopes in heaven.
I will not compel my readers to ascend and descend as
many steps, and to explore as many streets as I did with my
venerable guide, for fear that they might do what he would
never have done- — drop me — at least, without his pay. At last
I sought the " Arsenal of the Holy Ghost" — forgive me the in
congruity of the name, for it is none of my making — to seek
the famous rostrum of an ancient vessel found long since in
the port of Genoa. It was supposed to be the beak of one of
the galleys of Magon, brother of Hannibal, and broken off in
a naval combat in this harbor in the year 524 of Rome. No
one was allowed to enter the Arsenal without a permit. The
sentinel, in deference to my antiquarian zeal, and my assur
ance that I would overlook all modern engines of war, let me
pass. An officer, however, soon informed me that the " ros
trum" had traveled to Turin. It should have been set up as
a monument to Jason on some conspicuous classical promon
tory. I had pretty well done up Genoa — at all events, its crust.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 17
My guide was done up too. He had asked but three francs —
I gave him four. In return, he said he should pray for my
illustrious self every day of his life. As he was a good man,
I was not sorry to hear this, but as he turned to go, doubts
arose in my mind as to whether I should long have the bene
fit of them.
Many hard sayings are current of Genoa. Louis XI. said
of its citizens, " The Genoese have given themselves to me,
and I give them to the devil." They might have retorted that
it*was unnecessary, as in doing the former they had accom
plished the latter. As for myself, I found every thing good at
Genoa ; I was satisfied with my hotel, my guide, table prices,
and visit altogether, even to their Bedouins of the water, the
boatmen. And yet the proverb — it must have come from the
Pisans — runs to this day, "Mare senza pesci,monti senza ligno,
uomini senza fede, donna senza vergogna ;" which signifies,
" Sea without fish, mountains without wood, men without faith,
women without shame." If other Italian cities possess clean
er skirts than Genoa, I am yet to learn it.
Reader mine, did you ever read the advertisement of a Med
iterranean steam-boat? There are numerous lines diverging
from Marseilles east, west, and south, along the neighboring
coasts, sailing under the French, Sardinian, Spanish, or Nea
politan flags, but they all sing the same song — sumptuous ac
commodations, spacious family saloons, an epicurean table,
prompt dispatch, and great speed. Such is the burden of
their chant. One may fairly be pardoned for indulging in the
presumption that they are about to go on board of a craft that
could claim a place, at all events, in one of our coasting lines
of sea-steamers. But it is all a crafty snare. Lest you, my
reader, should be deluded by the many adjectives of a steam
er placard while on your classical tour, I will give you a char
itable forewarning of what you may expect.

18 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
You say, Why not go on board, and test for yourself the de
scription ? Exactly because you can not. If you are able to
distinguish in the distance your own smoke-pipe from the
grove of others, you are lucky. The nearest you can get to it
is a sight of a lithographic sketch in the agent's office of the
accommodations, made, of course, to correspond with the ad
vertisement. Indeed, an American is so accustomed to be
lieve that a steam-packet is a steam-packet, that it does not
occur to him to verify the description with the reality. He
selects his place, pays two dollars where he would pay one in
the United States, and thinks the affair settled. Not so.
There is another charge for putting you on board, and a heavy
one too ; another for a health certificate, ditto for police ; then
you are told that you must pay two dollars to the American
consul, and a sliding scale of from fifty cents to a dollar each
to each one of the consuls of the several countries the steam
er touches at. If you wish to land, you are compelled to do
this, for although they often remain from one to several days
in a port, they furnish no food on board during that time, not
withstanding the original fare terminated with a round sum
per day charged for meals. In leaving Marseilles, it cost me
nearly eight dollars to get on board the steam-boat, one quarter
of which the American consul, whom I never saw, pocketed.
He levies this tax upon his countrymen by an understanding
with the officials of other powers that they are not to vise"
passports that have not his signature.
See us, then, alongside of the steamer, punctual to the hour
of departure. Our first surprise was at her dimensions, which
would have entitled her to the place of a launch in compari
son with an Atlantic boat. It was the Castore, of Genoa, one
ofthe best of the Sardinian line, newly refitted and in fine or
der. For a gentleman's yacht her size would have been un
exceptionable, although above the water-line she was too

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 19
lightly built for the stormy Gulf of Lyons. The baggage was
piled up on deck, and a tarpaulin lashed over it, but not so
thoroughly but that some of the trunks were exposed to a
heavy rain. The whole mass would have gone a voyaging on
its own account had even a moderate-sized sea come on board.
Some hours after the time appointed we steamed out of port,
distressingly surcharged with passengers.
The spacious family saloons were the frailest and most di
minutive of state-rooms, alongside of the paddle-boxes, in dan
gerous proximity to the sea. The boat was very low in the
water, and fitted up with berths after the fashion of the old
steerage arrangements of the California steamers ; that is to
say, eight persons to occupy the room of two, and to pay the
passage of sixteen. Below, the economy of space was still
greater. The division was the reverse of that of our packet
schooners. Two state-rooms for ladies were forward, and the
cabin for gentlemen aft. In the former were crowded ladies,
nurses, and children, in one promiscuous pile, so thickly brought
together that the atmospheric air had no room to enter, or en
tered only to leave in disgust. In the latter the pressure was
equally great. The berths were merely open shelves, of not
the width of the shoulders of an ordinary sized man, and with
no support to prevent one from imitating the motion of the
ship, and rolling upon a neighbor stretched at full length upon
a cushioned bench beneath. Floor and table had also their
living freight, but this was after what was dearly paid for as
a dinner had been served. The passengers are required to
pay a price for meals, whether they partake or not, which
would entitle them in Paris to a seat at the table d'hflte at the
Hotel des Princes. The hours for eating are ingeniously con
trived to fall upon that period when there is most motion and
no one can come to the table, or else the steward hurries off
the few cold dishes on the plea that, as there is no rack, his

20 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

crockery will be broken. I had come on board at the hour no
tified for sailing, too early to dine on shore, expecting to eat
the meal, for which I had paid, on hoard. It was not served
until after eight o'clock ; I had breakfasted at nine, and, being
an old sailor, felt disposed to assert my masticatory rights. In
this I was joined by a young English lady, to whose appetite
the sea had no terrors. By this time the boat was polkaing
her way through the waters right merrily. Equilibrium was
at a discount, and appetites in general as if they had never
been. To nineteen twentieths of the passengers food was
about as welcome as water to a mad dog, although an hour
previous they had been mutinous with hunger. But the stew
ard-contractor knew his game, and could calculate to a minute
where for one dinner eaten he could save twenty. The berths
were full of groaning victims of Neptune. We must eat in
their midst, or not eat at all. The lady and myself were d*
termined neither to be sea-sick nor to lose our dinners. A few
attempted to follow our example, but one by one they came
and went like ghosts, until we were left alone. The steward
grew wroth at our pertinacity. We ate slowly, calling for all
we could get — small matter that — to enjoy his vexation, ever
and anon hinting that it was a shabby meal for so extravagant
a price, and of course that he must have some gustatory sur
prise in store for us. He was a stout, surly Italian, a devout
disciple of Mammon, and he watched every mouthful of dis
appearing chicken with all the eagerness of a hungry cat,
dancing about, in the mean while, like a jumping Jack, to
catch the falling dishes. In his anxiety for his beloved crock
ery, he would not have left me even a plate, had I not decid
edly insisted upon the article, and something on it. He even
had the impudence to insinuate that I was eating enough for
two. I retorted that that was not surprising, as I paid for four.
My lady friend was as agreeable as she was sea-proof — a poi-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 21
yglot in the most charming of bindings ; so we made merry in
English, French, or Italian alternately, as we charitably con
cluded we could most aggravate our penurious old purveyor.
But he soon had his revenge. Distant sea-sickness we were
fortified against, but the commotion of stomachs grew nearer
and louder. At last an old gentleman immediately opposite,
to whom, I doubt not, the smell of our viands had been a most
unsavory incense, turned suddenly over, drew from his berth
a nameless vessel, placed it within a few feet of our faces, and
with a rushing, roaring noise, avenged his wrongs and the dys
pepsia of fifty dinners at once. My fair friend had detected
the coming storm sooner than I, and, by the time the liquid
apparition had fairly appeared, was on deck. I saw only the
gleam of her skirt as she turned the hatchway. Grasping
blindly at the nearest edible, I rushed in pursuit. The remain
der of the evening we devoted to admiration of the sublimity
of a classical storm at the base of the moonlit mountains of
the Italian shore, venturing no allusion to our inglorious re
treat. The steward was now complete master of the field. Man,
woman, and child were at his mercy, and neither he nor his
myrmidons would stir to their assistance without a fee. I re
monstrated with him, not on my own account, for his covet
ousness, after the high price paid. " That entitles you only
to a passage ; we are not obliged to give you even a glass of
water,'7 was the reply, worthy of a Midas. A nice speculation
he made ofthe wants ofthe helpless sea-sick. Every morsel
to eat, every lemon to wet the lips, each cup of tea or coffee,
or drop of brandy and water, brought him a Californian profit.
Dumas says, in this same passage of ten hours he swallowed
twenty-eight francs' worth of tea. It would have cost Dr.
Johnson a fortune. Dismal were the groans and cries from
the ladies' cabin as the night bore on. The boat behaved very

22 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

well after the fashion of a sea-dog, hut very badly in the ex
cited imaginations ofthe sea-sick. Rip — rip, thump — thump,
would go a sea upon her side, canting her over until those on
the floor fancied they were transported to the ceiling ; the en
gines meanwhile straining and tugging to pull her along, now
jumping, now plunging, the boat creaking in every joint of her
frame, until she became one chaos of sounds and struggles, and
the ladies frantic with fright. " Steward ! oh, steward ! the
bowl, quick!" "Coming, marm — all in use — in a minute."
" Tell me, is there danger ?" " Not at all ; we are getting on
finely." Another roll and general capsize of persons and liq
uids, enUvened by the sound as if of timbers twisting off, or
a rock of a ton weight had hit her side. " Mercy on us, we
shall sink — I am sure the boat will break in pieces — what
shall we do?" A dozen calls for the unfortunate steward at
once, for vessels, tea, and consolation. In his distraction, he
hands the wrong article to each. At this juncture a heavy
fall, struggle, and naughty exclamation in the gentlemen's
cabin. Some one has been pitched from an upper berth on to
the table, and thence on to his lower neighbor's abdomen. No
one pities sea-sick men ; they are at once the most helpless
and the most disgusting of objects ; all poke fun at them : a
faint laugh, fresh gurgle, and all have relapsed into their pre
vious condition of unutterable misery, the most despairing
wishing that some Samaritan might be found to throw them
overboard. For a few minutes there is a lull inside and out,
but the rain soon descends afresh, the wind howls still more
frightfully, the boat squirms like an impaled centipede, and
the ladies wax more desperate than ever. " Do you call this
a steam-boat ?" at last exclaims one imperfectly, furious in her
terror and sickness ; " we would not go down the harbor in it
at home. I hope it will sink as soon as we are all out of it."
The steward looked aghast. He worshiped the boat, for it

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 23
was as good as a gold " placer" to him. He was, too, a bit
superstitious, and this staggered him. " Oh, you do wrong to
say so, madam ; it is the best boat in the Mediterranean."
And he launched off into an eloquent eulogium on her merits,
to which the lady retorted with certain invidious comparisons
with transatlantic boats, to him utterly unintelligible. The
storm abated, tempers grew sweeter, the demand for tea in
creased, and the steward was appeased. It continued to rain,
and ventilation was impossible. At last even the rain ceased,
and those able to stand went on deck. There was a call for
the wherewithal for the morning toilet. Two wash-bowls
were placed on the dining-table, which had just ceased doing
duty as a bedstead, and some fifty passengers had the privi
lege of alternating at them, or going ashore dirty. We had
entered the port of Leghorn, and were detained some hours
before receiving permission to go ashore. Then the captain
detained us some time longer before he would order his crew
to leave off coaling to find our baggage, which they had stow
ed away among the freight. Finally, we were ready to be off.
The crew demanded something for delivering to us our bag
gage, and the steward, not content with his previous fleecings,
which he solemnly swore all went to the owners, informed us
that his fee was so much a head ; I forget how much, but it
was a bouncing sum. We were too glad to put our feet over
the gangway not to say Amen to every imposition.
The old proverb, out ofthe frying-pan, &c., was never more
practically realized. Leghorn boatmen are a cross between
New York hackmen and South Sea savages — a compound of
importunity, extortion, and indifference. We tumbled right
into their hands, of course, as their boats were the only bridge
to the shore. We paid toll accordingly. They delivered us
at the custom-house, where we were ushered up a narrow
stairway into a dirty office, and confronted individually with

24 ITALIAN. SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

our passports. After the Grand Duke's servants were satis
fied that the Mr. Jonathan, Mrs. Jonathan, Miss Jonathan, and
baby Jonathan, were the veritable Jonathans, of the same
height, color, age, form of nose, and signature, as certified to
by the Secretary of State at Washington, then we were gra
ciously informed we could go about our ways in Leghorn by
taking our passports to another office, and paying the lawful
fee therefor. At the foot of the stairs we were beset by an
avalanche of runners of every description. One made a dive
at my passport, and ran off with it, saying he would soon bring
it back, all right — for a fee. The hospitality of the hotel
agents was beyond all description. Olympus itself never pos
sessed half the advantages of their respective houses. One
caught me by the left arm , another by the dexter ; one swore
that the other was a liar and would take me in ; the other re
sponded by declaring his rival to be the greatest rogue in Leg
horn, which was equivalent to the climax of rascality the
world over. All offered to perform for me every possible serv
ice. Cards were thrust into my hands and into my pockets.
I was in bodily danger of being carried off by force, had not
the hackmen overheard me declare that I would not go to any
hotel, but direct to the rail-road. This created a diversion, for
they rushed forward en masse, vociferating in Italian, French,
and English like so many madmen. To witness the excite
ment, one would suppose that but one traveler ever arrived at
Leghorn, and that he was made of gold. 1 retreated into the
police station, and came to a parley, selecting, no doubt, the
greatest rogue among them on condition that he would see me
safe from the others. As I was to pay him quadruple fare, he
became a stalwart champion. My baggage was turned upon
the quay, searched, and found according to tariff. Each article
was seized, and borne off to the carriage by whomsoever of
the crowd the spirit moved. It was useless to remonstrate.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 25
Every member of the cortege was hound to touch my money
this day. We were divided between two carriages, and at
tempted to drive off My coachman urged on his horses, but
it was of no use. There was still somebody's claims to settle
— more buckslieesh. I had already paid enough to have car
ried me through some of our American states, and had got
only a few rods from the quay. The coachman fought stoutly
for me, the crowd and he disputing at the top of their voices,
until the din and excitement became overpowering. The po
lice looked on as indifferently as if every thing was going on
as well as could be expected. Any thing was better than be
ing the centre of such a circle. I took out my purse. The
sight of it was like oil on water. " How much does the beg
gar want ?" He named the sum — sufficient for him to have
lived on for a week. I passed it to him, and ordered the driver
to go on. He drove rapidly to escape a fresh assault, for he
wanted me entirely to himself. He contrived, however, to be
too late for the train, and then he had a proposition to make.
He would take me to Pisa himself for a consideration, put me
through all the sights, and see me safely in the afternoon train
for Florence. I cut down his price one third, and told him
yes. He moved about it with an alacrity that convinced me
that he respected the depth of my purse, and therefore he
Jewed me. I was more glad to get out of Leghorn than I had
ever been to get out of the Castore, an amount of pleasure not
often condensed into the experience of one morning. But my
baggage had all to be reopened, searched, and scaled up to
avoid examination at Pisa, and another at Florence. The
charge for this was cheap in comparison with the trouble saved.
I have been in many sea-ports in various parts of the world,
and in them all combined I never met with so much annoy
ance and imposition as were condensed into two hours at Leg
horn. Not so remarkable either, when we consider that at
B

26 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Leghorn a galley-slave's suit, that has upon it the mark of a
murder or assassination, commands a premium among the
criminals who sweep the streets, because it attracts notice and
alms, as the badge of a dashing fellow, while he who is only
distinguished simply by the stamp of a thief is considered but
a pitiful chap, and is but too glad to obtain the right to wear
the suit of deeper hue.
Was I wrong to be grateful to my coachman for having at
last got me fairly out of the gates of Leghorn ? He was a
jovial, communicative fellow, and I mounted the box to chat
with him. There was nothing worth looking at on the road,
not even the Arno, which, where we crossed it, 1 should have
mistaken for a ditch of dirty water if the driver had not ex
plained its consequence. He loved America, the driver — he
was thinking of his prospective " pour boire" when he said it —
and wished he could go there. He was a Republican himself.
He had about as adequate an idea of the institutions of the
United States as he had of Timbuctoo. The Austrians he
hated ; the Grand Duke was a fool ; the stiletto was his idea
of a ballot-box, and the good time was coming when republi
canism would avenge its recent humiliations. There were
many like him all over the country, but they could do nothing
so long as Austrian bayonets were in sight. I asked him about
the brigands on the roads. " They call them brigands," he re
plied, " but they are Republicans." I should not like to rely
upon their spirit of " fraternite" to spare my purse.
We arrived at Pisa punctual to the coachman's promise, and
he drove us to an inn of his own selection to dine. I had
given myself unreservedly to him for the day for two reasons :
first, to save temper and trouble, and, secondly, to let its ex
perience be a test for future operations. The lesson would be
worth its cost. One must pay an initiative fee on entrance
into society any where, and my plan was to condense all pos-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 27
sible varieties of Italian tricks upon travelers into this one day,
that I might start upon the morrow with clean eyesight. For
the dinner — a shabby affair — we paid just treble the ordinary
price, but it was economical at that, as it taught me how to
deal with tricky hosts.
Jehu procured us a fresh coach, and drove us to see the lions.
I always had an inclination for the Leaning Tower, and now
was gratified to see that it had an inclination toward me of
thirteen feet from the perpendicular — so they say who have
measured it. As it has preserved this leaning toward man
kind with impartial precision for six centuries, it is to be pre
sumed that no future generation will be favored with any
closer intimacy. Its proportions are very beautiful, so light
and elastic that if it should tumble over, I believe it would
pick itself up as sound as ever. From the Tower we passed
to the Duomo. Here descended upon us one of the plagues,
hot of Egypt, but of Italy, in the shape of a cicerone, a race
who seem to think that a traveler without their presence is as
miserable an object as Peter Sehlemihl without his shadow.
My Genoa guide was a jewel, for he spoke only when he was
spoken to, answered questions briefly and sensibly, and told
only what he knew ; but the tribe that waylay travelers on
the thresholds of monuments are in general as great nuisances
as were the money-changers on the steps ofthe Temple. How
ever, as I was bent on learning the tricks of the trade, I let
him pass me along in his own way. We got through the ranks
ofthe maimed, leprous, blind, and vermin-infested horde which,
in Italy, cluster about the entrances of churches, nourished
there, as toadstools grow in the same soil that gives life to the
monarch oak, without much depletion of the purse. They
were reserving their final onset for our departure. After en
tering the magnificent church, worthy itself of a voyage across
the Atlantic to see, it was amusing to detect the brethren of

28 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

our cicerone darting at the sight of our party from behind col
umns and altars toward us, like spiders from their holes on
their prey, and slinking reluctantly back upon seeing that we
were already bought and sold. I inwardly chuckled over each
disappointment, and formed plans how for the future I would
examine churches unmolested, calling for a guide only in the
last extremity. There was here an ancient statue of Mars
baptized into a Saint Ephese, but my cicerone was too good a
Catholic to call my attention to this transformation, though the
church that can convert even the stones should be acknowl
edged to possess miraculous powers.
From the church we passed into the baptistery, where the
guardian was by no means disposed to allow us to be monop
olized by our lawful owner. I was obliged to pay him some
thing to let us alone. There was nothing to be seen, because
a scaffolding totally eclipsed the dome, the building being then
in that interesting state called restoration.
Next in order was the Campo Santo, the most interesting
ofthe four monuments that constitute an architectural group
unique even in Italy in beauty of location, artistic wealth, and
historical souvenirs. Other cities possess edifices of equal or
greater pretensions than any one of these, but none can boast
four such gems assembled in one inclosure. Formerly the
dead were admitted into the Campo Santo by paying a fee,
but of course they never left it ; there was nothing more to be
made out of them. Now the living enter gratis, but the cus-
tode's hand must be crossed with silver before they can leave
its sepulchral walls.
This cemetery dates from 1218, but was not finished until
1283. It is a vast rectangle, surrounded by porticoes with
sixty-two semi-Gothic arches. The interior walls are covered
with frescoes by the old masters, taken from scriptural sub
jects. The guide pointed out, with particular zest, a fancied

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 29
resemblance between the portrait of Napoleon and the head
of one of the damned writhing in the flames of hell. If this
were accidental it was singular, as the resemblance was strik
ing ; but if the work of some restoring artist, it displays at
once his ingratitude and bigotry, as the preservation of this
monument is due to Napoleon. The earth which forms the
field that fills the hollow square inclosed by the porticoes was
brought from the holy places at Jerusalem in fifty galleys of
the Republic of Pisa in 1228. It is now covered by a rich
crop of grass of uniform height, like a mantle of green velvet.
It has been long disused as a burial-place ; but when used, it
is said to be so strongly impregnated with acids as to entirely
decompose the fleshy portions of corpses within forty-eight
hours after their burial. One of these frescoes illustrates this
statement in a somewhat painfully grotesque style. The mag
istrates of Pisa are assembled to witness the disinterment of
three bodies that have lain in the earth longer or shorter pe
riods of that time. The coffins are placed side by side and
uncovered. The first two display different stages of decompo
sition too repulsive to describe. In the third appeared only
the skeleton, the earth having picked the bones clean.
The floor and sides of the arcades are crusted with tablets
and monuments of deceased Pisans ; the records of virtues and
talents are as bountifully accorded the dead as they are scantily
awarded to the living. Master chisels of all ages, from John
of Pisa to Bartolini and Thorwaldsen, have helped to perpetu
ate the flattering tale of ancestral virtue and beauty. It is an
interesting spot as a museum of epitaphs, and a chronological
exhibition of painting and sculpture for six hundred years, but
for a burial-place far less beautiful and appropriate than the
rural cemeteries of our own land.
I had almost forgotten the httle church of the Holy Mary of
the Crown of Thorns, a fantastic piece of architecture, beauti-

30 ' ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

ful in its way, but so prolifically spired as to correspond very
well with its name.
On leaving the Campo Santo, the beggars made a final and
desperate charge upon us. Two women in the very last stage
of filth and rags seized me by the elbows, and by the love of
that Virgin, of the neglect of whose worship they bore in their
arms living evidence, demanded charity. Aside from any
motive of benevolence, a few coins were well applied in stop
ping their tongues and sending them in pursuit of fresh prey.
The guide proved the greatest beggar of all. He had forced
himself upon me in the outset, followed me about for an hour,
sold mea number of engravings of the monuments from his
portfolio at double the shop price, and now, when I handed
him a sum that would have drawn out of any Parisian show
man a profusion of " merci biens'' and an avalanche of bows,
he bluntly said that his services were not half paid. The beg
gars, thinking their right to a stranger as good as his, renewed
their importunities. I jumped into the carriage, threw him an
other piece of silver to silence his tongue, and ordered Jehu
to cut short all farther claims by driving to the railway station
for Florence. As we passed the inn at which we had dined,
the landlord rushed out to demand a new contribution in the
shape of a bill for water furnished for washing hands. Our
driver thought this a little too strong even for an Italian Boni
face, and summarily told him to go about his business, and be
content with his first exactions. He then completed his con
tract by delivering us safely and in season at the cars, and
went back to Leghorn with a weightier pocket than he had
had for many a day, but not without attempting to demonstrate
to me that he had not individually made much out of the op
eration. But a laughing eye and profusion of thanks were
better evidence than his tongue.
There are certain days in a traveler's calendar in which no

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 31
amount of previous experience will keep him on the right track.
He is doomed to be humbugged and cheated from sunrise to
sunset — to be annoyed and crossed in every thing he under
takes — to have the weather all wrong, and to he the special
mark for every species of pickpockets. At Leghorn there is
no escape on any day. The only way is to quickly abandon
yourself to your fate. The fewer struggles, the fewer scratches.
On the morrow one can laugh heartily over the storms of its
predecessor. It is usually the case, when one most wishes to
indulge in quiet and sentiment, that he finds most noise and
distraction. It is not until one is at " home" in Italy that he
can profitably pursue his various tastes, free from the interrup
tions ofthe gallimpping gentry that pursue strangers with such
relentless fury. It was amusing, after arriving at a comforta
ble hotel at Florence, to sum up the day's experience. We
had had to satisfy six stewards, two boatmen, two sailors, three
coachmen, and as many " pour boires" — a sum which every
traveler knows has no limit in a " whip's" imagination — two
landlords, six fees for baggage and passports, to have six trunks
opened and searched twice within an hour, four guides, and
ten porters, rail-road charges and beggars not included ; some
thirty-odd disbursements on a distance which, in America,
would have been traveled over in two hours and a half, at a
very moderate proportion ofthe same expense. And this was
not all. Our progress through Leghorn was one continual
street-row. Insatiable porters demanding more, and quarrel
ing among themselves — commissionaires yelling in our ears in
different tongues the praises of their several hotels — beggars
whining their wants — the coachmen disputing with every body,
and in vain endeavoring to whip a way through the crowd.
Our baggage did not belong to us — our passports were not our
own — we did not even belong to ourselves ; and it was not un
til we promised, on our return to Leghorn — which God forbid

32 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
—that we would put up at as many different hotels as there
were runners in the crowd, that we could get clear of this gen
try. Even then they returned to refresh our memories by
thrusting fresh cards into our hands. To add to the comforts
of the landing, one of the ladies of my party had, in the good
ness of her heart, promised to see a venerable spinster, who
knew not a word of any language but the English, and had
come thus far on her way to find a brother at Lucca, safe as
far as Pisa. The old maid — I say it in its most respectful
sense, for she was the impersonification of amiability and soft
ness — had never before been out of sight of her village steeple.
She had started by herself from England on this journey. The
consequence was, that her solitary, antique hair trunk and cal
ico bundle went to London, while she found herself at Paris.
It took a week, and not a little expense, to get them reunited.
An English family protected her as far as Genoa, and then con
signed her to me. It was a pleasure to help her, she was so
grateful ; but, before we left Leghorn, we had two street con
tests on her account ; that is to say, the porters perceived her
weakness, which was to pay her way out of every scrape with
an open purse, and made scrapes for her accordingly. It was
no use insisting that she was one of my party. They would
not stand that gammon. She must pay separately for every
thing. I fought stoutly for her for a while, but it was of no
use. At the custom-house, the officers, attracted by the sin
gularity of her costume, which, perhaps, savored of Republican
simplicity in their eyes, insisted upon ransacking her trunk and
bundle from one end to the other. Every thing was turned
out — bags opened — bundles unrolled — boxes emptied ; it was
a curious collection. The poor woman stood by, weeping bit
terly, wringing her hands, saying, " 0 dear, what shall I do ?"
and refusing to be comforted. This but rendered the officers
more suspicious. They were looking, evidently, for dispatches

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 33
from Mazzini, or perhaps they expected to find Kossuth him
self coiled up in one of her rolls of odds and ends, the gather
ings of a long life of neatness and saving. Alas for them, they
found only a yard or so of cotton, some pet remnant, which
they measured, and finding it an inch wider than Tuscan law
allowed, charged accordingly, and told the luckless female to
repack her trunk. She was too bewildered to do it herself, so
we did it for her. She made eight more charges in addition
to my previous hst before we discharged her at Pisa, but I
laughed heartily when I heard her explain, after all, how she
had thrown dust in the eyes of the officers of the customs by
bringing a new silk dress in the piece, cunningly folded up in
the skirts of some antiquated garment. She was not so unfit
to travel by herself, after all.
If any one thinks that I have done injustice to Leghorn, I
refer them to Dumas. He says, " I have been to Leghorn three
times ; the last two I was forewarned — I took my precautions ;
I held myself upon my guard ; each time I paid still more
dear. I never knew such a cut-throat place as Leghorn. One
may escape being robbed on the Pontine Marshes sometimes,
but at Leghorn — never."
B2

CHAPTER II.
FLORENCE  ITS APARTMENTS  PALACES  STREETS AND THEIR
CUSTOMS  THE PERGOLA AND THE MISERICORDIA  BALLS,
ETC.
There is something in the very name of Florence that sug
gests refinement and pleasurable emotions. It is a delicious
sound in itself, and of all others the most appropriate to the
floral city of Italy. It recalls, too, the peerless queen of ancient
sculpture, the Medicean Venus, and the triumph of modern art
in Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola. Great names belong to
its history, and its sons have bequeathed immortal works to
mankind. It was then with involuntary respect and admira
tion that I entered, for the first time, the city of Dante and
Michael Angelo, and trod the streets that had echoed to the
footsteps of Galileo and Lorenzo the Magnificent.
There is something, too, peculiarly fascinating in the associ
ations connected with Florence. We cluster about its name,
at least I did, palaces and villas in charming profusion, a laugh
ing landscape, treasuries of art, and a hospitality which makes
it a paradise for exiles in pursuit of artistic ease or literary
quiet. To crown all these advantages, it has long enjoyed the
reputation of being the cheapest place in Europe. I had not
long been a resident before I discovered that Florence was like
the Arno, extremely variable in its looks, and constantly rush
ing into extremes. The first aspect is its worst. It so im
proves upon acquaintance, that, like a delicious fragrance, it
always leaves behind a pleasing reminiscence.
The Arno, which divides it, is a most capricious river. One

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 35

day it swells to a fierce torrent, filling the wide space between
the quays to almost a level with their embankments, and rushes
along with terrific force, threatening to sweep before it the
massive stone bridges which dispute its passage. On the next
it shrinks to a most consumptive-looking stream, barely able to
find its way over its own sands, and which a thirsty Arab
might almost exhaust at one draught. During the ardent heats
of summer it is lost amid clouds of dust. Then Florence emp
ties itself into the country, for even the barber has his villa,
and apartments, like tombs, gape for occupants.
My first object was to secure an apartment. It was the
season when all the world returns to the city, and its inhabi
tants expect in four months to make enough out ofthe fleeting
crowd of Americans, English, French, and Russians to live on
during the entire twelve.
There was something seductive to even a republican imag
ination coupled with the idea of living in a palace, and pos
sessing a garden ornamented with fountains and statues. Ac
cordingly, I commenced my search with them. There was no
lack ; but their exteriors, with the exception of a certain grace
ful solidity, bore more resemblance to our ideas of prisons than
luxurious mansions. I fancied them rather to be cut out of
the solid rock than built up stone by stone. Such were the
rival palaces ofthe Strozzi, Riccardi, Pitti, and the old repub
lican stronghold, the Palazzo Vecchio. These were the types
of all of the olden time, when every house was a citadel, and
each family an independent power, struggling for life and for
tune with its neighbor. Their proportions are fine, and their
general appearance very imposing, but they are far from an
swering to our modern ideas of a palatial residence, especially
if we have derived our taste from the beautiful structures of
Paris. Their interiors are arranged on the same Titanic scale.
Apartments so lofty that the eye fairly aches in the endeavor

36

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

to trace out the ornaments of the ceiling, while the feet per
ish with cold on damp mosaic floors. The windows require
a series of steps to reach their sills, and the doors and chim
neys evolve a series of petrifying draughts that few modern con-
stitutions are proof
_-^=s -=~ ^ 7: -f I against. In gener-
l al, the palaces are
built on narrow, dark
streets, guiltless of
side-walks, and are
impartially scatter
ed all over the city,
amidst characteristic
styles of architecture
of lesser pretensions.
These have now de
generated into the
abodes of poverty, so
that, with the excep
tion of a few modern
innovations, no por
tion of the city can
claim an aristocratic
preference over an
other. The Strozzi Pal
ace is the finest spe
cimen of this type
of mansions, from
which cold magnifi
cence and architect
ural effect banished
comfort and sociabil-

STROZZI PALACE.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 37
ity. It still belongs to the family that erected it in 1489, and
looks as if it might continue to stand until Time, in its march
reversing those figures, shall tell its age by thousands instead
of hundreds of years. There are but three stories, but each
story attains itself the height of an American house. Its in
terior arrangements are on a scale of gloomy grandeur, so much
beyond the wants of even a Florentine noble, with his numer
ous train of dependants, that not many years since, some ofthe
children of the family, in playing, discovered a suite of twelve
rooms entirely unknown to the proprietor. The 'door had been
walled up for two hundred years, and no one in this vast edi
fice had missed the space thus mysteriously closed. There is
no garden attached to this palace. The interior forms a hol
low square, paved with flat stones, with nothing to relieve the
dungeon-like aspect of the massive walls.
There are ancient palaces of this character, but on a lesser
scale, scattered throughout the city, which offer furnished apart
ments to strangers at prices cheap enough for the space they
proffer, but too dear for the amount of comfort they have in
store. If it be winter, the gardens are a nuisance, because
the frequent rains keep them so damp as to be prejudicial to
health. Italians, profiting by the experience of centuries, do
not plant their squares and open spaces, as we do, with grass
and shrubbery, but scrupulously exclude all vegetation, believ
ing it in cities to be unwholesome. Their squares are either
paved or Macadamized. Thus all the anticipated pleasures
of orange groves and smiling gardens dissolve in Florence, dur
ing winter, hke " the baseless fabric of a dream" before the
superior considerations of health. The chief object is to ob
tain a sunny aspect. There are comparatively few such, and
they command higher prices in consequence. The truth is,
that the boasted Italian climate is as treacherous as a coquette.
You never know when you are on good terms with it. It

38 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

weeps and smiles in the same instant. On the shady side of
the street you are frozen, and on the sunny side roasted. The
breeze, when most wooing, is most to be suspected. In short,
you must keep constantly on the qui vive to stop the numerous
„colds, rheumatisms, fevers, and pleurisies that are floating about
in the atmosphere, before they can obtain a lodgment in your
body. I dislike a climate that keeps one in a constant fuss.
There are some so hospitable that the stranger can abandon
himself without reserve to their keeping, taking no thought
for the coming shower, and welcoming without suspicion the
grateful breeze, whether it be that of noonday or midnight.
With them, a current of air is not loaded with ills to the hu
man frame, nor does a meridian sun prove false to its smiling
face. Such is the climate of the Hawaiian group, the para
dise of invalids and amateurs of a pure atmosphere.
The furniture in general ofthe furnished apartments ap
pears to have migrated hither from the " raaisons meubles" of
Paris and, the lodging-houses of London, after having been
turned out of their doors as unfit for farther service. The at- ¦
tempts at neatness and embellishment are mournfully ludi
crous ; but, as the standard of an American for home comforts
must necessarily be considerably lowered before he reaches
Italy, he views these things with a less fastidious eye, and
charitably pities their owners for knowing no better. Habits
and tastes partake ofthe fluctuating extremes ofthe climate.
In the birth-place ofthe chef-d'ceuvres of art, and models of
refined and celestial beauty, we find customs more disgusting
and tastes more barbarous than among even semi-savages.
Sights are daily seen in the most public places which, in the
United States, would send their authors to the Penitentiary for
a violation of public decency, while many streets — even those
pretending to rank among the best — are almost impassable on
account of their filthy condition. This arises from the neglect

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 39
of providing in their houses what in England and America
are considered indispensable adjuncts of even the meanest of
habitations. When changes have been made, it has been
owing to the demands of travelers, and the absolute necessity,
if Italy would not starve, of catering to their wants.
Carpets, too, and fire-places capable of supporting a fire, are
modern innovations. Florentines manage to live without
both, when strangers from northern climes would be chilled to
the very marrow. A few coals in an earthen dish suffice to
keep their blood in motion, and if their feet are cold, they
thrust them into woolen muffs. These are homely things to
mention in connection with the classical soil of Italy ; but, as
all the world either comes or wishes to come hither, I am
sure they will pardon me for mentioning a few things not usu
ally to be found in travels or guide-books.
The distribution ofthe houses and palaces is the same as at
Paris, into stories for separate families, only they rarely have
-porte cocheres," and less seldom, porters. It is very difficult,
therefore, to find a friend after finding his house. No one
pretends to know the names ofthe streets, for each corner has
a separate christening. The houses throughout the city are
numbered from one up to ten thousand, as may be, and, as the
series is not always a neighborly one, a stranger is often
greatly puzzled where to begin his search. Supposing the
house found, he has before him a narrow door, by the side of
which he finds a perpendicular row of bells, one answering to
each apartment, and numbered accordingly. These bells com
municate with the different stories, and from them descend
stout wires to the door-latch, passing sometimes outside ofthe
house, and sometimes in, so that every house has the appear
ance of being a telegraph office. You ring by chance one of
these bells — one ofthe wires is set in motion, the door thrown
open, and you find yourself in an unlighted entry, looking more

40 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

like the entrance to some subterranean vault than to a gentle
man's house. A voice from an immeasurable distance above
calls out, " Who's there ?" You respond, " A friend," or " A
robber," if you wish to be waggish. If it be night, and you
have forgotten to bring your pocket-taper, you must grope your
way up an intricate and narrow staircase as you best may, or
do as I have often done, beat a retreat in utter despair, for you
can not see an inch beyond your nose. The custom is not to
light the staircases — the exceptions are only the grand man
sions. You have counted a hundred steps, omitting some in
the agony of a battered shin, and at last find yourself at about
what you consider the elevation which your friend, who is an
amateur of sunlight, has selected for a lodging. Groping about
for a bell, if you succeed ig. that search, a voice within, in a
shrill key, demands again, "Who's there?" If satisfied that
yours has an innocent ring, the door is opened, and you dis
cover that your friend lives on the opposite side of the street,
just one story higher. You prefer to meet him at Doney's, or
at the Cascine, to undertaking again to find him in his lair.
Indeed, the difficulties attending a domestic exploration are so
well understood, that calls are considered as honored when
returned at the Casino or any of the public rendezvous. An
Italian talks very little about his home.
There are some neat and well-furnished apartments at Flor
ence, but to be found, they must be diligently sought. The
average of such as strangers occupy are as I have described,
with two prices, according to the season, summer paying but
half the rate of winter. An apartment in a palace of from
twelve to twenty or more rooms, furnished, including silver
and linen, with a kitchen ample enough for a regiment, and
the privilege of a garden, costs fifty dollars a month. A Tus
can dollar is equal to eleven dimes United States currency.
Apartments of more moderate pretensions, smaller rooms, and,

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 41
therefore, more easily warmed, but large enough for a family,
abound at from twenty to forty dollars per month for the win
ter. A bachelor can find passable accommodation as low as
five dollars, and obtain by the year a fine suite of rooms, un
furnished, for fifty dollars. The best situations in new houses,
including modern improvements, bath-rooms, &c, can be had
for about thrice that sum. But there is a Florentine maxim
which strangers would do well to keep in mind : " Let your
house the first year to your enemy, the second to your ac
quaintance, and the third to your friend" — a new house, from
the mode of construction, being considered unwholesome, as
it takes a long time to dry. Villas go a begging. In the
summer they are comfortable, but in winter damp and chilly.
Where houses are built almost exclusively of stone and mor
tar, with a copious provision of currents of air, this must be
expected. The market is well supplied, at low prices. At the cafe's
and restaurants, a breakfast costs eleven cents, and a good
enough dinner thirty-three. At the table d'hote of hotels,
fifty-five, and an excellent meal at that. But, for those Who
wish to avoid the annoyances of providing for the table, the
" trattori," or pubhc cooks, supply meals of every quality and
cost, served up at any hour in any part of the city. For one
dollar and a quarter per day, a friend of mine was well served
for five persons with a dinner consisting of soup, three courses
of meat, several of vegetables, wine, and a dessert of pastry
and fruit. Clothing and most other articles are cheaper than
in the United States, and the services of the best professors
in music, languages, and education generally, can be had for
about one half the price. In short, if one can reconcile him
self to Florentine habits, sharp wine, water so hard that it
makes you fear that you will eventually become a stalactite,
the loss of politics and newspapers, and odors that are the more

42 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

aggravating from being unnecessary, Florence is the city for
the money.
This is not all. There is another annoyanee, which, as it is
the exclusive property of pretty women, I mention, that they
may go forewarned. It is as bad in many other European cit
ies, but there is in it something more ludicrous at Florence
than elsewhere.
Fashion tells the ladies, with reason, that they must not
walk. The streets generally are in too -uninviting a condition
for such an operation, where skirts are to be employed, and
Bloomerism has not yet made its advent here. Besides, it is
apparent that they were intended pnly for carriages and beg
gars. There are a few places where they might walk, were
it not for the abominable habits ofthe male population. For
eign ladies frequently attempt it, and it is forgiven in them by
the Florentines on the score of their being strangers and
knowing no better. Old and ugly women can do it with im
punity any where, at any time. But let a lady of even ordi
nary attractions attempt it by herself, or in company with oth
ers of her sex; and if she be not vexed, astonished, mortified,
and amused before she regains her own roof, it will be because
she proves an exception to an otherwise general rule. When
she least expects it, some impudent clown or peasant suddenly
pokes his ugly, dirty face right under her bonnet, makes a
mock kiss, cries " boo," or some such intelligible sound, or
compliments her with a " eara" or some equally loving epi
thet, and walks innocently off, with his hands in his pockets,
before her astonishment has had time to jump into indignation.
If she escape these low vagabonds, she is sure to attract the
race of gentlemen, who, having nothing else to do, amuse
themselves by following ladies. The less impudent dog them
at a distance, but near enough to let them know that every
motion is watched and commented upon. The bolder pass

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 43
and repass, to take a good stare ; walk ahead, that they may
return and meet them, saying flattering things in an under
tone, with the intention of being overheard. The boldest
come alongside, and let fly a complimentary volley, without
any compunctions, much amused if an inexperienced damsel
involuntarily jumps aside at such an unlooked-for tribute to
her attractions. There was one young Florentine who made
himself quite conspicuous at this sort of pastime. He could
speak a few words of English, and had a mania for running
after foreign ladies, and launching upon their astonished ears
the extent of his philological acquirements. His vocabulary
was confined to a few flattering ejaculations. One day he
overtook an English lady and her daughters. He was but a
pint measure of a man, but he boldly gave chase, and, coming
up, called out, "Very good," "very much pretty," "I like,"
" you handsome,'' rattling on as fast as his tongue would per
mit. First he would be on one side, then on another, now
heading them, now sailing round, and cutting such absurd ca
pers that the ladies could not refrain from smiling. This he
took for encouragement, and plied his battery of admiration
more vigorously than ever. The lady, at last arriving at her
own door, suddenly entered, while he, more intent upon her
than his own ways, pitched over a donkey, that laid him
sprawling in the street. This, with a hint that a little birch
would be applied to his skin the next time he ventured upon
a similar experiment, cured him for a while ; but the last I
heard of him he was on the watch to waylay some American
ladies as they descended from their carriages, popping up sud
denly under their noses like a phantom, with his everlasting
" very much pleased," and " charming ladies," from which
amusement nothing short of a thorough drubbing is likely to
cure him. The plain truth is, that a pretty lady, though safe
from violence, is not safe from impertinence at any time of the

44 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
day in Florence. Consequently, she must keep a carriage if
she would go out, so that whatever economy there may be in
Florence, in other respects, over other capitals, it is, in the
main, lost in the extra expense of horseflesh. Or, in other
words, the difference of prices between Paris and Florence in
the essentials of housekeeping enables one to keep a carriage
in the capital of Tuscany.
There is still another indispensable expense, if a family de
sire to enter within the charmed circle of " society," and this
is a box at the Pergola, in one of the three tiers classified as
noble. Although it costs a stranger a third more than a Flor
entine — this same ratio obtains in every thing else — it is not
a costly affair. One hundred and twenty-five to one hundred
and fifty dollars will pay the cost of a season of several months,
and this expense may be reduced by imitating the example of
the Florentines, and letting the box on nights when not want
ed. You may dispense with receptions " chez-vous," but it is
an unpardonable sin in the world of fashion not to be at home
at the Opera. . The world goes to the Opera as to a reunion.
There they pay their visits, chat, laugh, partake of refresh
ments, turn their backs upon the stage — in short, almost drown
by their conversation the music. The Opera is nothing ; the
assemblage of fashion every thing. A box, then, at the Pergo
la is really an economical affair, as it saves the expense of so
ciety under one's roof; it is a most amusing one, from the va
riety of ranks, nations, and toilets there represented. The
English astonish there, as every where, with their brilliant
colors, forests of plumes, and bizarre costumes ; the Russians
with their mines of precious stones ; the Germans with their
fair hair and brilliant complexions ; the Florentines by their
princely jewels, laces, and velvets, drawn from their imper
ishable hereditary stores; the French eclipse all by their
matchless elegance, seemingly so simple and unstudied ; while

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 45
the Americans please all from their rarity and general good
taste. The theatre is so constructed that while one half of the au
dience of the boxes can, if they choose, look toward the stage,
the other half are necessarily turned toward the imperial box,
which is quite a hall of itself. Of course, the architect never
contemplated in his design the spectacle as the main object
of the edifice. It is merely an auxiliary. If an opera, it at
tracts attention only from novelty or the harmony of par
ticular strains. But the ballet, which is introduced between
the acts of the Opera, rivets the attention of all. It is strange,
but true, that a Florentine audience prefers poor dancing to
good music. While the American, Miss Maywood, was with
them, they had a legitimate excuse for their passion, for a
more elastic, untiring, and, the Italians say, graceful danseuse
never appeared on any boards. They exalt her above Cerito,
Ellsler, and even Taglioni. But what carried them away
nightly into a tempest of applause was the perfection of her
time. The music and her limbs moved in such entire accord
as to seem but one impulse. " Bravas and encores" thun
dered over the house. Hands, feet, and hps were all in vio
lent commotion in all quarters. No eloquence could have
excited the susceptible Florentines to half such a pitch of
" furore'' as her legs. Bouquets as large as wine-barrels were
precipitated upon the stage, their numerous ribbons fluttering
gayly in the air as they fell, hke the pennants from a mast
head. She fairly staggered under their weight. On one oc
casion, the prima donna, having vainly essayed to carry off a
monster bouquet, gracefully drew it behind the scenes by its
ribbons, courtesying as she backed across the stage, amid the
cheers of the spectators. At Maywood's benefit it took three
carriages to carry away the floral avalanche tumbled at her
feet.

43 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

There are nine theatres and Operas in the little city of Flor
ence, but, with the exception of the Pergola, of no pretensions
to fashion or elegance. The Cocomero is a very humble and
unsuccessful imitator of the Theatre Francaise at Paris. At
all there is a price of entry, in addition to which another sum
1 is demanded for seats not in the parterre. There are two Op
eras where the Tuscans can listen to the music of Mozart, Ros
sini, or Donizetti for five cents, and the' cheapest of the the
atres did provide a night's entertainment for a trifle less than
three cents, commencing at eight and terminating past mid
night. It is at the Opera, perhaps, that the attention is first drawn
toward a society which ranks in the annals of Roman Catho
lic benevolence second only in good works to that of the Sisters
of Charity. Not unfrequently, in the midst of one of May-
wood's marvelous pirouettes, the sharp tone of a bell strikes
upon the ear. All listen. If it sounds but once, it is the sig
nal of an ordinary accident ; if twice, a grave casualty ; if three
times, a death. It is the bell of the Misericordia. From all
parts of the house, spectators rise one by one, and abruptly
leave. Probably the gentleman with whom you are conversing,
if an Italian, excuses himself, takes his hat, and departs. The
audience turn toward the stage, and in a minute the interrup
tion is forgotten.
The Society of Misericordia is one of the purest and noblest
charities with which the Christian religion has blessed the
world. It took its rise in 1244, when the plague ravaged Eu
rope. For six centuries it has maintained its existence, true
to the holy principles of its original foundation, a fact, perhaps,
without a parallel in the history of humanity. It represents,
in different proportions, the aristocracy, the liberal arts, and
the people. The artisans of Florence, moved by the contagions
that desolated their city, leaving multitudes of sick without

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

succor, and of dead without burial, were the first to conceive
the sublime idea of its institution. The wealthy added their
donations, and the society soon took rank among the most im
portant institutions of charity. t
The Brethren of Pity, or the Misericordia, are under the di-

48 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

rection of seventy-two members, called " Capi di Gardia" (chiefs
of watch). These regulate the works of charity, the adminis
tration of its revenues, which are considerable, and the distri
bution of alms. They are composed often prelates, fourteen
nobles, twenty priests, and twenty-eight artisans. Under their
immediate orders are two hundred and eighty " giornanti," or
journeymen, secular and ecclesiastical. Forty of these are al
ways on service. There are, besides, inscribed on their lists,
voluntarily, the names of more than twelve hundred other
brethren, called "buonevoglie," whom they can call upon at
any moment to assist in their charitable labors.
The office of the Misericordia is in the Piazza del Duomo.
Each brother on duty keeps there, marked with his name, a
box containing his black robe, which covers him from head to
foot. They are such as penitents formerly wore, with open
ings only for the mouth and eyes, in order that the incognito of
charity, recommended by Christ, shall be strictly preserved.
As soon as the signal is heard that^their services are required,
the members on duty assemble at their office, assume their
mournful habit — which no one can see for the first time with
out being strangely affected — receive their orders, and proceed
to the scene of their duties. Some are required to carry the
diseased or wounded to the hospitals, or other places, as need
may be. Others devote themselves to nursing in the homes
of the ill and infirm poor. They often- pass days and nights
at their bedsides,'bestowingupon them those attentions which
try even the constancy of friendship and the affinities of blood.
In every place, at any hour, wherever an accident calls, a
groan is heard, or there are misery and suffering to be re
lieved, the Brothers of Pity are required, by their voluntary
bond of good deeds, to bestow their alms and their offices. It
matters not what may be the origin of the poor victim, or
whether he confesses Christ, Moses, or Mohammed. Their

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 43
charity blesses alike all men, without distinction of race or
religion. They bury the unknown dead, carrying themselves
the corpse to the sepulchre. The scallbld even does not repel
them from fulfilling, in its broadest extent, the spirit of their
vows. They are to be found at the latest moment beside the
criminal, consoling and preparing him for his doom ; and, aft
er his head has fallen under the axe of the guillotine, gather
ing up his mangled remains, to bestow upon them a Christian
burial. Priest and layman, noble and mechanic, unknown
perhaps to each other, and unrecognizable by their nearest
relatives, bear upon their shoulders the same litter, containing,
it may be, a poor cripple, abandoned by all the world beside.
Knowing his benefactors only by the uniform which proclaims
them to be ministering angels to suffering mankind, he prays
to their common Father alike for all. The spectator of the
mournful cortege, be he prince or beggar, respectfully uncov
ers his head as it silently passes along the street. Often, when
unknown hands have borne away the head of a family to the
succors poverty too often denies to her children under their
own roofs, or perhaps to his burial, the afflicted mother finds
that the same hands have left behind them alms that will
nourish her through her first sorrows, and linger forever in her
grateful memory.
The Grand Duke is a member of the society, more in name
than in action, though he is said occasionally to assume the
habit and visit the bedside of the dying, leaving behind him a
clew to his rank by the extent of his bounty.
But, as with every other creature of man, useful as it un
doubtedly is, and meriting the warmest eulogiums, yet it is
not without its evils. It was established during a period of
great public calamity, when human nature shrank affrighted
from the duties it was called upon to perform. The ties of
bloo.d had lost their power, wealth had grown alike feeble,

50 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
while misery, disease, and despair rioted in their career of
selfishness, profligacy, and death. Then religion intervened,
and, with her parable of the Samaritan, rekindled in the heart
of humanity that ardent love of the common neighbor which
led to the holiest rivalry in charity, and most touching self-ab
negation the world had as yet witnessed on so comprehensive
a seale. Its benefits during pestilence are incalculable, be
cause it is during seasons when ordinary benevolence fails
that its sublime energies take their loftiest flight. They lead
the forlorn hope of humanity, and cheerfully mount the breach
to contest with death, in its most appalling forms, their right
to save its victims. But when the world treads its usual
course, the ordinary sentiments of human brotherhood had
better be left to their natural action. Corporations in benev
olence, as in commerce, tend to weaken individual responsibil
ity or enterprise. If an accident occurs, is is rare indeed that
the sufferer does not find a Samaritan among the sympathizing
crowd, prompt to bind up his wounds. But, should a brother
of the Misericordia be at hand, he anoints the victim with oil
from his crucifix, and thus seals him as his own. The neigh
bors, disburdened of the compassionate calls of their own
consciences, cease to interfere, for he is no longer a waif upon
the shores of humanity, but a wreck in charge of his spiritual
and medicinal underwriters. The brother hastens to give the
alarm to his assistants, but it sometimes happens that, before
they have time to don their habits and arrive at the side ofthe
sufferer, he has passed beyond the reach of their help. How
ever, these casualties are of rare occurrence, and it is doubtful
if any other system of benevolence would be found better
adapted to the wants of Tuscany — habituated as it is to the-
guidance of a hierarchy that forbids individual action and re
sponsibility in all matters of civil and religious policy — than
that practiced by this organized militia of charity.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 61
The Pergola retains its motley and brilhant world until near
midnight, when it scatters itself among the various soirees,
receptions, and balls which Florence proffers with so much
hospitahty. A singular feature of Florentine society is its cos
mopolitan character. Elsewhere, the native element predom
inates ; but here it is but one star in the firmament of fash
ion, often echpsed by the superior magnitude of those that
have wandered hither from foreign spheres. Representatives
of all the nations of Europe here meet in social rivalry, each
striving to outshine the other, while adding to the pleasure of
the whole. Consequently, society furnishes a variety, brill
iancy, and piquancy not readily to be found in other cities.
The nobles have established a sort of club, called the Casi
no, which possesses a fine suite of rooms in the Piazza Santa
Trinita. Any stranger properly recommended can become a
member, by the payment of a trifling fee for the benefit of the
servants. There is no restaurant or reading-room, but it affords
an agreeable social rendezvous, with facilities for cards and
billiards. It is under the patronage of the Grand Duke ; and,
during the winter, balls are given. The court generally at
tend, and the etiquette is of that easy good-breeding that
makes every one feel at home. They form a very agreeable
addition to the hospitalities of Florence.
The chief attractions, however, are the court balls at the
Pitti. The Grand Duke, with politic liberality, throws open
his vast and beautiful salons frequently, during the fashionable
season, to the society of Florence. No billets of invitation are
issued, but notice is sent to each foreign minister when the
balls are to occur, and he notifies those of his countrymen
whom he judges suitable to be presented. Their names are
sent in to the Grand Chamberlain. The Americans, having
no representative, are obliged to apply to him personally.
The Chevalier Ginori is always prompt to perform for those

52 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

of respectability the service which properly belongs only to a
representative of their country. Those whavhave ever been
presented go freely to all the fetes without farther ceremony.
The foreigners or Florentines, not yet presented, assemble at
nine o'clock in one of the halls, where they await, with their
minister, the entrance of the Grand Duke. Each nation has a
place apart. The Grand Duke, reversing the usual awkward
courtly etiquette, which requires the inexperienced stranger
to be presented to the sovereign, and back out from his pres
ence, walks round the circle, hearing the name of each per
son, and occasionally stopping to make some observation.
The whole affair is very quickly dispatched, and the parties
hurry off to the dance,, which is kept up with great animation
until about two o'clock.
No city in Europe surpasses Florence in the magnificence
of its toilets (at least, so it is said) ; not so much in the dress
as in the displays of ancient lace and jewels. In viewing
the klite of Florentine aristocracy on a gala night, one would
suppose that each alone possessed the key of Aladdin's cave.
The balls of the English and French courts may be more
brilliant in their tout ensemble, but, for sociability and good
taste, those of the Grand Duke stand foremost. The charm
of Italian society is that it immediately melts all reserve,
while it retains a tone of chivalrous courtesy. You are un
bent, in spite of yourself, when once the presentation is pass
ed. It is really delightful to see the easy familiarity of the
best-bred Italians among themselves. It is not elaborate, like
that of Frenchmen, taking its cue from the head, but is a
genuine inspiration of the heart. Personal freedoms are not
bestowed, as among the Anglo-Saxon race, with an emphasis
that all but upsets the recipient, and makes him as fearful of
meeting a " good fellow" as he would a mad dog, but are
given with all the delicacy and grace of young girls Our

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 53
ways, to be sure, are not like their ways, and we rather
shrink from a whiskered aiid mustached exquisite, who, after
knowing us one day, calls us by our Christian name, on the
second " my dear," and, upon meeting after a brief separation,
rushes into our arms, landing an affectionate kiss plump on
our lips, hugging us in the mean while with all the ardor of a
just accepted lover. Despite this risk, however, there is about
them an undefinable courtesy, which, without meaning or cost
ing much, or savoring even of English " home" hospitality,
fills up the chinks of social intercourse admirably, and makes
a smooth surface often out of very unpromising materials.
Possessing lively imaginations, quick perceptions, and great
elasticity of spirit, with a natural taste for the beautiful in
whatever they study, they give an Epicurean relish to society
more delicately flavored than the sparkling tone of France, so
hke its own Champagne. They are proud, sensitive, and tri
fling ; but, in their anger, courteous, and if they waste time, it
is gracefully done. The more I see of Italian character, the
higher the estimate I put upon its moral and intellectual ca
pacities. If it does not correspond to our standard, charity re
quires us to ask why. When we have penetrated the spell
that makes it what it is, we prize our own institutions the
more, and pray for the time when Italy shall throw off her
bonds, and contest on equal terms with the free nations of
earth for that moral supremacy which alone constitutes true
greatness.

CHAPTER III.
FLORENCE ARCHITECTURALLY AND HISTORICALLY, WITH
GLIMPSES AT ITS DEAD LIONS.
Florence possesses enough beautiful architecture to make
the reputation of a dozen American towns. This is to be ex
pected of a city where Giotto, Amolfo, Brunellesco, Michael
Angelo, and Raphael were the architects, and labored on both
public and private edifices. But, for all this, Florence, viewed
internally, has, for a European capital, a somewhat mean as
pect. It is too condensed. With few exceptions, its numer
ous palaces and churches are hidden in obscure streets, with
seeming indifference to external effect, notwithstanding their
architectural merit and delicate ornature. It is difficult for
the eye to measure their beautiful proportions or to appreciate
their labored elegance, because it has not space in which to
grasp their harmonious unity.
The taste for narrow, dark streets, with eaves so projecting
as greatly to interefere with the free passage of light, has not
even yet been wholly superseded by the modern love for more
wholesome and 6heerful neighborhoods. The old lords were
satisfied to find a foundation sufficiently firm and ample for
their massive habitations. The present nobles live where
their fathers did, or, if they build, are much inclined to imitate
them. Thus the villas Poniatowski and Borghese, both mod
ern, occupy situations which no one of America's " upper ten
thousand" could stomach for a day. Then, too, a goodly por
tion of the palaces in general is devoted to the baser uses of

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES 55
trade. Even the oldest names do not hesitate to retail wine
from their cellars through a little iron trap-door to any one
who knocks thereon. This is, however, a time-honored pa
trician practice, and sanctioned by classical usage, for the old
Roman lords did the same.
The general dispersion of the mansions of the nobility,
throughout the town is not without beneficial results. It pre
vents the isolation* of the rich and poor into distinct quarters,
and makes them better acquainted. If the grand effect of
palaces is somewhat diminished by indiscriminate herding
with meaner edifices, the general appearance of the place is
improved. Hence, although we may find many incongruous
spectacles in the neighborhood, and sometimes about even
aristocratic mansions, such as stables and mechanics' shops
beneath, vegetable and meat stalls against their walls, and
more filthy sights and smells at their base, or awkward fes
toons of family linen suspended from the chamber windows to
dry, yet there is a very welcome absence of those squalid
abodes of filth and poverty which distinguish certain quarters
of more democratic cities.
The most characteristic specimen of that species of archi
tecture which gives to Florence so anomalous an aspect is the
Pitti Palace. The front is usually regarded as the back, and,
at -first glance, from the immense size of the rough-hewn
stones, its apparent simplicity, and vast extent, it upsets all
one's previous conceptions of a regal residence. But farther
and closer inspection convinces one of its architectural superi
ority over most of the lighter and more fanciful palaces we
find elsewhere. It has about it the imposing aspect and
strength of an aristocratic residence, yet it would equally befit
the governmental wants of a republic. Solid and graceful, in
its harmonious combination of strength and beauty, it is not
excelled, in these respects, by any other royal residence in

56

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Europe. It was commenced in 1440, by Brunellesco, for Luca
Pitti, an enemy ofthe Medici, desirous of eclipsing their wealth
and power by giving an imposing token of his own. He

wished also to build a palace on so capacious a scale that the
court-yard alone should be able to contain the entire palace

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

57

of his rival Strozzi. He finished by ruining himself, and his
palace passed into the possession of his enemies. By them it
was completed as we find it, though the family were nearly

two centuries about the work. The side toward the garden
is a very striking contrast to the other, possessing the same
C 2

58 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
elements of solidity, but so arranged as to be in unison with
the smiling vista of flowers, groves, and statues beyond. A
stranger, seeing one side only of this building, would go away
with as obstinate and false an idea of its tout ensemble as did
the knights of the ancient legend who looked only on the sil
ver or gold surface of the shield toward them, and be as fully
inclined to battle to the death for his but half-formed opinion.
The pecuhar situation of Florence, in the hollow of many
hills, with its bisecting river running seaward through a rich
plain, hemmed in by picturesque ranges of the Apennines, and
studded as thickly with white villas as are the heavens of a
clear night "with stars, makes its first view, from whichsoever
side it is approached, novel and charming. Come upon it how
and where we may, whether from the distant mountain, the
overhanging hill, or the verdant plain, the impression of its
beauty is equally vivid. It has as many aspects as a kalei
doscope, and it would be. a nice point to settle upon the best.
If there be any fault to be found with the general landscape
about Florence, it would be that it is overcharged with art.
Nature appears only under cultivation. The geology of the
soil is seen chiefly in the structures that man has reared. The
very surface-rock is exhausted or covered with vineyards,
while the agriculturist's hand leaves no spot of ground un
touched. The forest trees have a garden-look. The roads
are narrow, tortuous, and confined by high stone walls. In
dustry stops only before the sterile or precipitous mountain
summits which make either horizon of the valley. In short,
the suburbs are like the expanded blossom, while the city re
sembles the shrunken seed-pod.
It is no easy matter for Florence to stretch herself out to
modern notions of comfort. Her efforts at widening her streets
remind one of the yawns of a dozing giant. Houses which
are as solid as the quarry itself are not to be trimmed or

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES 5<J
moved offlike the frail structures of America. They were built
to last, not years, but centuries, and they are fully determined
on completing their destiny. Still something has been done,
and modern Florentines begin to have a faint idea that there
exists sunlight somewhere in the region above them. Within
a few years, the principal business street of the city, leading
from the Cathedral Square to the Place of the Grand Duke,
has been remodeled into a fine wide avenue, which would do
credit to Paris. Formerly it was so narrow that carriages
could not pass each other. Yet a modern English author la
ments the change, while so many churches remain unfinished,
as if the completion of a facade was to human beings a con
sideration of more importance than a supply of the pure air of
heaven. Of late, we have had an abundant crop of those ama
teurs of good old times, who would fain persuade the people
that when they herded like swine, fought their lord's quarrels,
and begged at convent gates, they were better off than with the
comforts of the nineteenth century about them. They may be
willing to replace the cottage by the hovel, the model lodging-
house by the damp and unwholesome habitations ofthe Middle
Ages, that the cathedral and palace maybe built to gratify their
architectural taste ; but we doubt if one of them would consent
to reduce his own household standard to the level of the Eliz
abethan age, exchanging his Champagne for coarse beer, and
his Brussels carpets for dirty rushes, however much he may
prate about the petrifying influence of modern sensuality, as
shown in the luxury of boudoirs and pride of reception-rooms.
The oldest monument of Florence is the Baptistery of St.
John, the primitive church of the city, dating its consecration
to Christ from the sixth century, hut having, at least in part, a
prior origin as a heathen temple. This we should consider a
very respectable, antiquity were Rome not so near. Ancient
art and architects worked slowly, so it was not until six con-

60 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

turies later that it was completed as we now find it. The
Greek artists ofthe ninth century, dispersed from Constantino
ple, left traces of their tastes for mosaics every where. It is
to them that the Baptistery is indebted for its long and meagre
figures of Christ, the Virgin, and the Saints in a sea of gold.
But to me its most interesting feature is that it perpetuates the
memory of a generosity worthy of a Christian monument like
this. While it exists it will rebuke the spirit of unworthy
jealousy among artists, and long after its destruction the mem
ory ofthe disinterestedness it consecrated will, it is to be hoped,
continue to find an abiding place in the hearts of men.
In 1330, Andrew of Pisa was charged with the execution of
the southern gate of bronze. He completed his labor in 1339.
It produced so great a sensation from its beauty, that the gov
ernment of Florence, with the foreign embassadors, went in sol
emn state to visit it, at the same time conferring upon Andrew
the honors of citizenship.
There were two more gates required to complete the edifice.
It was resolved to offer them to the competition of artists of
all nations, in the hope that something might be realized which
should correspond with the beauty of the work of the first.
Each artist who received the commission was to receive also
from the republic, a sum sufficient for his subsistence for a
year, at the expiration of which time he was to present his de
sign Among the artists that offered themselves- were Dona-
tello, Lorenzo de Bartoluccio, Simon de Bolle, Brunellesco, and
other celebrated names of that era. These were all admitted
to the contest without objection. There came also a young
man named Lorenzo Ghiberti, an itinerant goldsmith and
carver, who had been encouraged to present himself by the
Lord of Rimini. The judges asked him what he had done.
This was a difficult question for him to answer, for as yet he
had modeled only pretty playthings in wax and clay for the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 61
children of his patron. Ghiberti, discouraged by the severity
of the judges, was upon the point of abandoning his project
and returning to Rimini, to work upon the frescoes ordered of
him by Malatesta, its tyrant, as it was the fashion then to call
the petty lords, when one of his competitors, interested by his
youth and energy, interceded for him. He was received, more
to encourage his ambition than in the belief of his becoming a
rival. This was, however, all he desired. The money was
handed him for his year's expenses, and he devoted himself
to the task.
At the expiration of the year, the thirty-four judges, all first
rate artists, assembled to decide upon the designs ofthe claim
ants. Donatello, Lorenzo de Bartoluccio, and Brunellesco equally
divided their suffrages. On which of the three the work should
have been bestowed, would perhaps have proved to the judges
as difficult of solution as to unravel the Gordian knot, and per
haps they would have been obliged to decide the question on
-the same principle of division, had not these three artists solved
the problem for them. The sketch of Ghiberti lay there be
side their own. It had been pronounced very beautiful, but
not worthy of competition with theirs. Retiring into a corner,
the three conversed earnestly together for a few minutes.
Their course was soon taken. Coming forward, they respect
fully represented to the judges that, in justice to art, they could
not receive the prize while a design like that of Ghiberti 's was
before them. Upon their honor and conscience, his was the
superior, and to him rightly belonged the award. The judges,
already favorably impressed, were readily persuaded by such
disinterested testimony, and to Lorenzo Ghiberti, owing to the
unparalleled generosity of his rivals, was decreed the execu
tion ofthe gates. Art could not fail to prosper when genius
was guided solely by justice.

62 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Ghiberti worked forty years on his task, commencing it in
his youth, and finishing it when he was old and bent. His
own portrait, as he completed his work, was incorporated by
him in an ornament in the middle. It cost him a lifetime, but
it rewarded him with a fame more durable even than his own
doors of bronze, which Michael Angelo pronounced worthy to
be the gates of Paradise.
Opposite these gates we find a monument of a grace so re
markable that even in Florence its comeliness has passed into
a proverb. " Beautiful as the Campanile" is the term employ
ed when all other comparisons of splendor fail to a Floren
tine. It unites all the delicacy of finish of the richest lace-
work with the solidity of stone. Time has mellowed the orig
inal brightness of its varied marbles into a pale gold tint, leav
ing, however, perfectly distinguishable its checkered mosaics,
which rival in delicacy the finest work of Hindostan. The
Emperor Charles V. best described its marvelous beauty when
he declared that it should be put under glass, and shown only
on holidays. It is seemingly too fair and delicate to with
stand any climate, however delicious, yet centuries, as they
roll by, thus far have served but to deepen its beauties, with
out detracting from its perfect lightness and freshness of de
sign. The Campanile is the bell-tower of the Duomo, which it ad
joins. The same style of-otecoration has been employed in
the exterior of this immense building, which, like a lion couch
ant, lies spread out on the Piazza to which it gives a name.
The dome — finished by Brunellesco in 1436 — is the largest in
the world. It served as the model for that of St. Peter's to
Michael Angelo, who, despairing of excelling, hoped only to
rival it, and desired that his tomb should be so placed that he
might continue to gaze upon it even in death. " Farewell,"
he exclaimed, when called to Rome by Julius II. , to complete

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

C3

THE CAMPANILE.

St. Peter's ; " I go to try to make thy sister, but I can not hope
to make thy equal."
When the Florentine Republic, in 1298, designed the exe
cution of this magnificent work, they decreed as follows :
" Whereas, the chief aim of a people of great origin being to

04 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

act in a way that, from its outward works, every one should
recognize both its wise and magnanimous manner of proceed
ing, we order Arnolfo, chief architect of our city, to make a
model or design for the complete rebuilding of St. Reparata,
with the greatest possible magnificence that the human mind
is capable of conceiving, since it has been decreed in council,
both public and private, by the most able men of this city, that
nothing should be undertaken for the community which did
not correspond entirely tothe ideas of its most enlightened cit
izens, united together to decide on such subjects, and moved
by one and the same mind, the grandeur and glory ofthe coun
try." This formula is worthy of being transplanted to trans
atlantic shores as a legacy to the sovereign people ofthe New
World, from the shades ofthe departed republicans ofthe old.
The Duomo, or Cathedral, also called " Holy Mary of the
Flowers," fully corresponds to the spirit ofthe document, with
the exception that six centuries have not sufficed to furnish it
with a facade, or complete some of the minor portions of the
dome and the exterior gallery. It is, however, a truly mag
nificent monument of the taste and piety of the citizens of the
old republic, whether we take in at one glance its colossal di
mensions, doubled ill size under the magic effect of moonlight,
with its vast dome rising between us and the heavens, like a
newly-created satellite for the earth, or, by the strong light of
day, bewilder the eye in the vain effort to comprise into one
look its interminable and delicate tracery. The exterior is as
highly finished as the Campanile, and quite as worthy of a
glass case. The interior is an anomaly among Roman Catho
lic churches of Italy for its severe and grand simplicity. It
pleases me the more that I find it a church, and not a museum.
It is the noblest specimen extant ofthe Tuscan Gothic; per
haps a little too cold, but great and consistent throughout in
its proportions and decorations.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

65

Singularly enough, the Duomo contains the monument of a

notorious heretic and mercenary soldier, who owed his employ
ment and honors from the Florentine Republic to his success
in fighting against it. This was John Hawkwood, an English
man, the general of the celebrated Black Bands that, in the

S6 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

fourteenth century, sold their swords to the highest bidders.
John Hawkwood passed from the service of the Holy Father
at Rome, the vicegerent ofthe Prince of Peace, into that ofthe
Florentines, whom he served for twenty years. So stoutly did
he battle for them, that the Church admitted him to honors
next to saintship ; but not for his piety, for he was a sad rep
robate and brutal soldier, with but a faint respect for the min
isters of religion.
At the sack of Faenza, which he abandoned to his troops, he
found two of his bravest officers fighting for the possession of
a poor nun, clinging, in her terror, to the crucifix of the high
altar of the convent. Hawkwood promptly restored discipline
by stabbing to the heart the guiltless cause of the affray.
One day two monks paid him a visit at his chateau of Mon-
tecchio. " The peace of God rest upon you," said one of them
to him. " The devil take you, with your gift," bluntly replied
Hawkwood. "Why do you give us so rude a reception?"
meekly asked the poor brother. " Eh !" he rejoined, with the
usual profane exclamation of the English race, " do you not
know that I live by war, and that the peace that you wish me
would make me starve ?" It is easy to conceive that it must
have been by other acts than these that he won the favor of
the Church.
At the rear ofthe high altar we find the last work on which
Michael Angelo labored. It represents Joseph of Arimathea
taking the body of Christ from the cross, and was destined
by the sculptor for his own tomb. Death did not give him
time to finish it, and the unscrupulous chanonines ofthe Cathe
dral, in their pious zeal for the adornment of their church, so
it is said, seized the unfinished block of marble for their high
altar, and thus robbed the great artist of what would have
been his most appropriate monument.
The power of genius to make every thing it touches its own

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

67

was never more fully exemplified than by the effect of Michael
Angelo's name upon this city. Florence seems to belong to
him, and not he to Florence. There is a touching familiarity,
too, in the associations that speak of the heart, as if Florence
loved as well as honored its great master. And yet there was
in him more of the prophet Moses than the apostle John.
-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Buildings which in themselves /have a just claim to fame, are
wider known from his opinions than from their own merits ;
and travelers visit their shrines, not to criticise them, but to
admire what Michael Angelo praised. He was wont to call
the stately church of Santa Maria Novella — beautiful without,
and full of good things within — his wife ; and that of San

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 69
Miniato upon the Hill, as charming and picturesque a little
chapel, both in situation and decoration, as can be found any
where, his rustic sweetheart. The first — like a good, honest
mother of a family — still- retains those qualities that made her
dear to his soul ; while the rural San Miniato, lovely as ever
in its position, has faded like a superannuated belle, and is now
visited only from the reputation of those charms that once won
the love of the stern and captious architect. It is deserted
even by the clergy. A peasant woman retains the key of the
inclosure, and the stone mistress of Michael Angelo is now ex
hibited by an old crone, but too content to receive the small
est gratuity.
The imagination has almost as much to do with the reputa
tion of Michael Angelo as with his works, in giving both that
character of sublimity and grandiose effect which was evident
ly his aim, and for which he frequently sacrificed the nicer de
tails of truth. In statuary, he seems to me to strive after some
unattainable end, as if his conceptions overpowered his means
of execution. We detect at once the force and depth of his
imagination. The spiritual truths he would convey start out
from the very stone, with all the energy of form and character
with which they sprang into life from his teeming brain. This
is particularly true of his unfinished works, which furnish the
hint, and leave to the beholder's mind to complete the idea,
with a perfection of moral and artistic attributes that the chisel
would vainly strive to express. It is thus that Michael An
gelo, by creating the motive, incites to thought. By his won
derful grasp of genius, coupled with an intensity of imagina
tion seldom equaled, creating, as it were at will, ideas too vast
and comprehensive to find a birth-place in any minds whose
fires were not lighted direct from heaven, but which, when
flung, as it were, into existence by the hot haste of an energy
too impatient to polish them into the perfection of material

70 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

shape and beauty, startle and amaze by their deep truth, he
triumphs over the ordinary understandings of men. But when
he condescends to work at details, we find he approaches the
more common standard of art. The best Grecian sculptors ex
celled him in anatomical truth. He is inferior even to the
Apollo and Venus, which with connoisseurs rank as antiques
ofthe second class. The perfect symmetry and delicate finish
of our own Powers are equally remote from his chisel. He
exaggerated the merely physical, until, as in his Moses, it
reached the unnatural, and even impossible. The Prophet of
the Jews, in his hands, it is true, attained a terrific grandeur ;
but in divesting him ofthe natural features of man, he did not
exalt him to a god. It is the head of a ferocious satyr, horns
and all, and not that of an inspired legislator. No such
countenance as his could have looked upon the Almighty and
lived. The sculptors of antiquity never conceived a type of
evil more repulsive. An image of brutal appetites, furious
passions, and colossal dimensions, with the vulgar expression
of majesty that springs from the merely physically great and
pre-eminently bad, he has indeed created ; but the lawgiver
of the chosen tribes — he who conversed face to face with God
as with a friend, until his features shone with the glory of
heaven — no Christian mind can recognize in the Moses of
Michael Angelo.
In the muscular developments of his women he partakes of
the coarse taste of Rubens, as may be seen in his bronzes in
the Louvre and statues in the Chapel ofthe Medici. We look
in vain for the softness and harmony of outline most attract
ive in the daughters of Eve. His women are fit only to mate
with Titans. The anatomy of his men is equally overdone ;
but the marble, nevertheless, is so inspired with the lofty con
ceptions of its sculptor, that the first sensation of physical
coarseness is quickly forgotten in admiration of the power of

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 71
his creative mind. In no example of chiseling sentiment from
stone has he been more successful than in his Bacchus, in the
Uflizii. He has labored painfully, but successfully, in polish
ing his marble to the smoothness of the natural skin, over
coming, as if by a strong effort, his predilection for the colos
sal to produce to the world a statue whose lightness of limbs,
and life-like size and attitude, shall remain through all time a
convincing proof of his ability to cope, in their own range of
art, with the master sculptors of Greece. But the wondrous
skill of this statue lies not so much in the drunken lassitude
of its limbs, swelled with the inebriating juice just drained
from the bowl, as in the perfect expression of joyous intoxica
tion which gleams upon features verging toward sottish drunk
enness. Intellectual beauty and physical grace have not
wholly departed. Enough remains to show the perfection of
the sober man, while the senses, just sinking in the cup, are
struggling in their last gasp, but so faintly that they make no
noise, for they feel themselves to be hopelessly gone. Rare
statue, this- — a Father Mathew in marble ! for I know not any
living apostle of temperance who discourses more eloquently,
or argues more logically, than this silent stone. Every spec
tator must feel that drunkenness is disgusting and brutal even
in its most poetical aspect.
The admirers of Michael Angelo, in their enthusiasm for
his genius, have long claimed for him the habit of working
straightforward from the block — smiting the stone, as it were,
into shape, under the impulse of the idea graven on his mind.
In some instances he may have attempted this, which would
account for so many crude works .from his chisel. Lately, how
ever, accident has brought to light many curious studies of
statues and models in wax which belonged to Michael Angelo,
and prove that even his genius was subjected to the universal
law of laborious detail, where the end sought was perfection.

72 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
His last will was characteristic of the man — a model of
brevity, but a bone of contention among his heirs, if they were
at all inclined to be avaricious. "Lascio Vanima a Dio, e la
mia roba ai piu prossimi parenti." " I leave my soul to God,
and my property to my nearest relations." His descendants
— one of whom is a painter, and professor in the Florentine
Academy — still occupy the Buonarotti mansion, where they
preserve, with religious veneration, many relics of their distin
guished ancestor.
There is a monument in Florence — a simple slab of marble,
reposing under the shadow of its magnificent Cathedral —
which interests me far more than its mighty dome or other
chefs-d'muvre of its material art. It recalls something more
than the memory of those that will to themselves glory by
earthly fanes, limiting their grasp to this sphere, which, if it
be the foundation, is equally the grave of their triumphs ; for
it links itself with the mind of him who, though born of earth,
measured heaven and hell in his philosophic glance ; the poet,
patriot, and theologian, whose genius has spread itself wher
ever human language is heard, and there is soul to feel or
thought to comprehend ; building himself a memorial in the
grand temple of universal humanity, which will claim him for
its apostle and prophet through all ages. This monument, so
simple in itself, so grand in its associations, is the stone on
which Dante was accustomed to sit, during warm summer
evenings, to catch the cooling breeze.
The historical souvenirs of Florence cluster thickest about
the Piazza del Gran Duca. From whichsoever point the city
is viewed at a distance, there are two objects, rising far above
all others, that form its most characteristic and conspicuous
landmarks. These are the dome of the Cathedral, profoundly
grand, like the faith that gave it existence, and the stern, lofty
tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, lifted toward the skies like the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

73

defying arm of a giant. To view the last in its most com
manding aspect, we should enter the square by the street lead
ing to the Post-office, and directly fronting the old palace.

Then this huge but harmonious mass of stonework, so firmly
rooted to the soil, and mounting so high toward heaven, with
D

74 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

its emblazoned arms of the deceased republic, and its giant
statues, fit guardians of its gloomy portal, calls up vividly from
out the past the turbulent, but great and free, associations of
democratic Florence ; its endless animosities of Guelph and
Ghibelline ; its haughty aristocracy, and fierce population ;
the incorporated crafts and mercenary soldiery ; its spasmodic
changes from the rule ofthe people to the tyranny of princes,
until the old square is alive again with the clang of mailed
men, the rivalries of artists, intrigues of politicians, and the
shouts of its mercurial population.
In 1298, scarcely sixteen years after the Florentines had
won for themselves a Constitution, they decided to build a
City Hall to accommodate their magistrates, and also to sup
port a belfiy which should be conspicuous throughout the
surrounding country, and give the signal for the rallying of its
democracy. Arnolfo di Sapo was ordered to build the palace,
but forbidden to place a single stone of its foundation upon
the earth that had sustained any portion ofthe house of Fari-
nata di Uberti, which the people, in their hatred of all that
bore the name of Ghibelline, had razed to the very dust.
The architect, in consequence, was compelled to crowd this
palace of the people into an irregular, though vast pile, leav
ing the place accursed by them to be forever trodden under
their feet, in token of their vengeance.
During the republic, this palace lodged the chief magistrate,
or Gonfalonier, with his eight priors, or assistants, two of whom
had charge of each of the four quarters of the town. Their
duties lasted two months, during which time they were com
pelled to devote themselves wholly to the service of the re
public, not being allowed to leave the palace, and receiving
the moderate salary of less than one dollar and a half per day.
Although at the head of the republic, they were its prisoners,
or at best but apprenticed servants, and not allowed any por-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 75
tion of the liberty of which they were the chosen guardians
until their terms of office had expired. They ate in common,
each being provided with two domestics, and having at their
orders a secretary, likewise confined, to record their delibera
tions. If some such rule were adopted at Washington, we
should have less " Buncombe," and more business, among our
legislators. Notwithstanding the parsimony of the Florentine
commonwealth toward its officers, it won for itself the sur
name of the Magnificent, from its great deeds in art and war.
The principal hall of the palace was made to accommodate
at their ease, when they met to discuss national affairs, not
less than one thousand citizens. It was constructed with such
rapidity that Savonarola was accustomed to say that angels
worked as masons. The republic enjoyed its stronghold but
for a brief period, for thirty years later it became the residence
of its tyrants.
The name of Savonarola recalls one of the strangest and
most tragic events history has preserved. Savonarola was
bom in 1452. From infancy he manifested an austere dispo
sition, with an ardent desire to connect himself with the
Church. A vision, as later with Loyola, decided his career.
He was then twenty-two years of age, and one night, hav
ing dreamed that a shower of ice had fallen upon his na
ked body, he suddenly awoke, and resolved to dedicate him
self to the service of God, who had in this manner signified
the extinction in his heart of the warm passions of youth.
The next morning, without informing his friends or even his
parents, he fled from his native place to Bologna, where he
took the white habit of St. Dominic. He remained here for
some time, but his talents and devotion made so slight an im
pression upon the monks, that, when the war broke out be
tween Venice and Ferrara, they drove him, with a number of
others, from the convent, as being so many useless mouths.

76 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES

Savonarola came to Florence, where he found an opportunity
to preach during Lent at the church of San Lorenzo. His elo
quence, if he then possessed any, made so little impression
that he began himself to doubt of the legitimacy of his call
for a divine mission. He then retired into a convent in Lom
bardy, where he applied himself to the interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures until he was recalled to Florence by Lorenzo
de Medicis.
The time which he had passed in retirement had been so
well spent in study that the true depth and power of his genius
speedily began to manifest themselves. His dryness of man
ner and rigidity of gesture had disappeared. The first essays
of his eloquence were so enthusiastically received, that the
belief that he was chosen of God as his mouthpiece to his
people again moved within him. The times were ripe for a
prophet. At the head of the Church was a pope, the- parent
of so many children that he was nicknamed the father of his
people. Religion had become a cloak for all manner of de
bauchery, while Italy was rent in pieces by the violence of
its factions. Then Savonarola, as if foreseeing the reformer of
Germany who was soon to arise, boldly asserted that the Holy
Catholic Church was about to be cleansed from its pollutions;
that Italy would be beaten with rods, and that these events
would be accomplished previous to his death, which would
take place before the termination ofthe century. It was then
1490. The boldness of these predictions, the apparent prox
imity of their fulfillment, joined to the imposing oratory ofthe
preacher, struck awe into the hearts of his audience. Luther
fulfilled his first prophecy ; the Medici and Borgias the sec
ond ; as for the third, we shall see in what manner it was ac
complished. Savonarola continued to preach and prophesy with such ef
fect that no church in Florence, not even the Duomo, which

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 77
of itself could contain the population of a city, was sufficiently
capacious to hold his audience He was compelled to divide
them, as has done an equally eloquent clergyman of Rome of
our day, the Father Ventura, into classes, according tc their sex
or age, devoting separate days to men and to women, and even
to children. So rapidly did his reputation for sanctity aug
ment, that he could not pass to and from his convent to the
church without a guard tc clear a passage through the dense
masses of people that struggled to kiss his robe and receive
his blessing.
This devotion dispelled any doubts which might have still
haunted him of his being the chosen oracle of the Almighty.
Henceforth all timidity and hesitation were banished, and he
assumed the inflexible tone of severity and denunciation which,
in being consistent with his supposed mission, was also most
natural to his character. No rank intimidated or ecclesiastical
authority awed him. He was the direct messenger from God,
and therefore bound to speak the words of sober truth with
equal freedom to man, prince, or pope. Had his mind been
tempered with the sound reason that guided the German re
formers, the energy and courage that was common to both
would have made of him a Calvin for Italy. But his ardent
temperament, characteristic of his race, and the mainspring of
his influence over a nation more prone to feel than to reason,
urged him on from one step to another, until, in his enthusi
asm, he believed himself superior to the laws of nature, and
accountable only to Him whose agent he assumed to be. His
pride, however, was based upon the unyielding strength of
moral right, and his energies directed solely toward the ref
ormation and freedom of his countrymen.
In 1490 he was nominated Prior of the Convent of Saint
Mark. It had been the custom with his predecessors, on the
occasion of their elevation to this dignity, to present their hom-

78 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

age to Lorenzo de Medicis as the supreme chief of the com
monwealth, and to beseech him to grant to their order his pow
erful protection. Savonarola was too zealous a republican to
recognize an authority which he considered as usurped, be
cause not founded upon the suffrages of the people. He re
fused to go. His friends, with politic zeal, sought to persuade
him. Even the haughty Medician prince employed artifice
and courtesy to induce him to take a step which, if omitted, he
felt would wound both his pride and popularity. Savonarola
gave one answer to all : " He was Prior of God and not of Lo
renzo. He had therefore nothing more to expect from him
than had the meanest citizen."
Until this opposition, Lorenzo had ruled supreme in Flor
ence since the conspiracy ofthe Pazzi. He could neither over
come nor forgive the obstinacy of Savonarola. The poor monk
had become as powerful as the sovereign prince. He sought
to interrupt his sermons by a threat conveyed through five of
the principal citizens. The rejoinder was a discourse more
violent than any of its predecessors, at the conclusion of which
he announced to the people the death of Lorenzo as nigh at
hand. The austerity of Savonarola was not confined to his political
and religious principles. Equally republican in his manners,
he applied the stirring notes of his eloquence and the force of
his example to awaken the people from the excessive luxury
and sensual pleasures into which the licentiousness and ex
travagance of the Medici had plunged them. Florence had
become another Capua. Its new princes, in establishing their
power, had corrupted its citizens. Gold and amusements had
been lavished upon them until the Spartan spirit had been
extinguished, and the erotic morals and depraved taste of de
generate Athens awakened instead. Savonarola laid the axe
with bold strokes to the evil tree of knowledge. Its root was

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES 79
to be drawn out into full daylight and consumed in the flames.
He chose the season of Lent to commence his crusade against
the debasing superfluities of social life. Never was his elo
quence more effective. Florence brought out its stores of li
centious literature, its obscene paintings and disgraceful stat
ues, its laces, jewels, velvets and golden habits, the treasures
of its pride and sensuality, and heaped them together in the
pubhc squares. Even Fra Bartolomeo contributed the instru
ments of his art, which until then he had employed in pander
ing to the vicious caprices of his countrymen, threw them upon
the pile, and vowed before God henceforth to apply his genius
solely to his service. How faithfully he kept his oath, the
chaste and spiritual productions of his pencil, now alone to be
seen in the galleries and churches of Florence, sufficiently at
test. His fame and his works were alike purified by fire.
Savonarola, followed by a crowd of women and children chant
ing the praises of Almighty God, left the Duomo, and marched
in triumph from pile to pile, applying the torch to each, until
nothing was left of the wealth and art there garnered for de
struction but ashes, which the winds soon scattered to the four
quarters of heaven. Daily these sacrifices of vanity and lust
were renewed, until luxury trembled for her existence ; but,
like all unnatural and violent excitements, the enthusiasm
soon passed away without other permanent impression than
as a memorial ofthe extraordinary ability ofthe monk in caus
ing the pubhc mind to vibrate for a while in unison with his
own. Eighteen months after the prediction of Savonarola, Lorenzo
the Magnificent found himself on his death-bed. This was
the 9th of April, 1492. Then the prince recalled to mind the
Prior of Saint Mark, who had so boldly defied his power and
so truly foretold his end. From him only would he receive
absolution. The monk this time obeyed his summons, but not

80 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

more promptly than he would have hastened to the bedside
ofthe humblest sinner of Florence that solicited extreme unc
tion from his hands. The dying Lorenzo disburdened his con
science by a long catalogue of deeds, known and unknown, for
which he would have in vain sought for a warrant in the word
of God. Savonarola promised him absolution upon three con
ditions. " Name them," demanded the prince, grasping eager
ly at stipulations apparently so much lighter than he had rea
son to expect.
" The first," said his confessor, " is that you acknowledge a
full and firm faith in your Creator."
" I do," quickly answered Lorenzo.
" The second is, that you restore, as far as possible, the prop
erty that you have wrongfully acquired."
After a momentary hesitation, Lorenzo replied, " This is
right ; I will do it."
" The third is, that you render back to Florence her liberty."
" As to that, never," said the dying man ; " I would sooner
be d — d." Lorenzo turned his back toward the monk with
out uttering another word, and died a few hours after,
This event augmented, if possible, the prophetic reputation
of Savonarola. Other causes contributed also to increase his
influence. The evils which he had prophesied were in store
for Italy, began now to assume so lowering an aspect as to dis
pel the doubts of the most incredulous. Roderick Borgia was
made pope. Charles VIII., marching to the conquest of the
kingdom of Naples, regarded Florence with no friendly eye.
Savonarola was deputed to meet him. He approached the un
scrupulous King of France less as an embassador than as a
prophet, predicting to him victory if he restored the ancient
liberties of Florence, defeat and disgrace should he confirm its
yoke. The descendant of Saint Louis paid slight regard to
one he regarded as a fanatic intermeddling with matters of

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 81
public policy. Florence was betrayed into his hands, and he
did not leave it until the decree which sequestered the prop
erty of the Medici and placed their heads at a price was an
nulled. The monk was again right. In less than a year,
Charles VIII., with sword in hand, was forced to open for him
self a bloody and disgraceful road back to his own kingdom.
The fall of Peter de Medicis placed, as it were, the civil
power wholly into the hands of Savonarola. He received the
commission to prepare a constitution. Then it was that his
democratic ideas became fully apparent. He established his
new system of government upon the most liberal and popular
basis that had as yet been presented to the citizens. The
grand principle was that of choice by the entire people for all
offices of trust or honor. The citizens elected delegates who
represented their views in the general assembly, for the ac
commodation of which Savonarola caused to be built the fa
mous hall in the Palazzo Vecchio, which, as we have seen,
could accommodate a thousand representatives.
Successful at home in all his measures, triumphing over the
court of France, and showing himself no mean antagonist of
even distant England, the fearless monk prepared to enter the
lists against that colossus of evil, Alexander VI., who then dis
graced the papal throne by an example of crime and debauch
ery which revived the recollections ofthe most scandalous eras
of heathen Rome. The resistless tones of his eloquence reach
ed the Vatican. The Pope, unable to gainsay the charges of
his accuser, thought to silence him by the usual weapons of
papacy. He fulminated a bull, in which he retorted upon Sa
vonarola the charge of heresy, and forbade him to preach. Sa
vonarola eluded the injunction by bringing forward Dominic
Benvicini, a disciple, who had sufficient ability and courage to
fill his pulpit and use his weapons. But the master was not
of a temper to remain long silent. His reason and his cause
D 2

82 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

soon divorced him from the mystic influence the Church of
Rome holds over all her followers, or, more justly speaking, he
found a refuge amid her subtle doctrines for his ecclesiastical
rebellion. Upon the authority of the Pope Pelagius, that an
unjust excommunication was without efficacy, he declared that
he had no need of absolution from the interdiction of Alexan
der VI. Accordingly, on Christmas, 1497, he reascended the
pulpit, and asserted that Christ had inspired him to refuse obe
dience to the mandate of the Pope, on account of the crimi
nality of its author. Thenceforward he continued to preach
against the successor of St. Peter with increasing energy and
license. He had now attained the height of his influence.
The people no longer regarded him simply with the veneration
due a prophet, but exalted him to the rank of a new Messiah,
and knelt in awe as often as he passed through their midst.
His mien, however, became sad and humble like that of the
Man of Sorrows. Perhaps, while a consciousness of his ap
proaching fate stirred within him, he mourned more for his
country than for himself.
A second and more formidable brief was forwarded from
Rome. Alexander VI. threatened to confiscate the property
of all Florentines within the pontifical territory, and to put the
republic under interdict, and to declare her the spiritual and
temporal enemy of the Holy Catholic Church, if the magis
trates did not silence the contumacious monk. This threat
was the more emphatic, as Caesar Borgia was in their neigh
borhood with a powerful military force. Accordingly, they
bowed before the coming storm, and passed the order for Sa
vonarola to suspend his sermons. He obeyed without demur,
because resistance would have been to infringe the laws which
he had himself prepared for the republic. In his valedictory
discourse he took a feeling farewell of his beloved auditory.
But Alexander VI., not content with his silence, sought to root

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 83
out his influence and principles by sending to fill his pulpit a
preacher from Rome, of great reputation and devoted to his
interests. It was in vain, however, that he attempted to be
heard. The moderation of Savonarola was not imitated by
his followers. From zeal they soon passed into folly. Flor
ence became one field of fanatical excitement. To his other
high claims upon the love and devotion of the people, Savo
narola now added that of a martyr for truth. Reason lost all
weight in the spiritual conflict, and the supernatural began to
mingle in the strife. There were tales of visions ; rumors of
miracles and prophecies that were fast being realized. The
zeal ofthe votaries of Savonarola, which he was unable either
to check or guide, drew him into a vortex of absurdity, which
the sincerity of all parties alone saved from becoming blas
phemy. They went so far as to claim for Savonarola the
power to raise the dead, and offered to put him to the test on
a corpse in the vaults of the Cathedral.
This was not long on its way to the ears of Francis de
Pouille, his reverend opponent from Rome, a man of equal de
termination and greater fanaticism. More than this, he was
ready to die for his cause, provided that his death could insure
its triumph. He answered the vague rumors of the super
natural powers of Savonarola by a formal challenge to enter
jointly with him into a fiery furnace, in the face of all the
people, and leave to God the recognition of his elected servant
by preserving him unharmed amid the flames. The Brother
Francis was not deluded by an exaggerated rehgious faith, for
he made this proposition simply to tempt Savonarola to a
proof of mutual inspiration, which he well knew must end in
the destruction of both. His object was to destroy an uncom
promising enemy of the Church even at the cost of his own
life, and thus save a multitude of souls from being led further
astray on the road to eternal perdition.

81 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Savonarola was not, however, to be duped either by his own
claims to inspiration, or the artifice of his rival in so strange a
proposition. He had proposed no trial himself. There was
no sufficient reason why he should accept one. But when the
tide of religious phrensy begins to rise, no mortal can assign
its limits. What the master declined to accept, the disciple ea
gerly rushed to seize. His old substitute in the pulpit, Brother
Dominic Benvicini, confident in the direct intervention of the
Almighty, on his own responsibility announced his readiness
to accept the trial of fire. This devotion was not at all wel
come to the Brother Francis. It was the principal whose life
he balanced with his own, and not that of a second, with whom
to have died would have cost him the coveted triumph of his
sacrifice. The feverish agitation of the public mind kept pace with
these events. Florence literally went mad. The magistrates,
who would willingly have stopped the increasing folly, dis
covered that their sole resource was to guide, for it was too
late to arrest the scandals. As soon as it was known that
the Brother Francis refused to immolate himself with other
than Savonarola, two Franciscans, Nicolas de Pilly and An
drew de Rondinelli, volunteered to take his place. The parts
in this anomalous duel were now filled, and the people waited
for the termination of this unholy contest in a state of excite
ment that would brook no disappointment. To have removed
the principals from the city would have exposed it to a fearful
tumult. The anxiety of the populace to behold so extraordi
nary and terrible a spectacle was not alone that vulgar curios
ity which finds its daintiest nutriment in sights of mortal ago
ny, but it was allied to the mysterious and supernatural ; for
though there were doubtless many scoffers, there were fewer
hearts that did not beat tremulously with vague hope or ex
pectation of an exhibition of divine intervention, unknown in

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 85
the history of man since the days ofthe prophet Daniel. The
most incredulous minds could not have been indifferent to a
sight which was shortly to test the exact meaning to be at
tached to the parable of the mustard seed. Even in our own
age, we have seen those who believed in the literal power of
removing mountains by faith alone. If the mountains did not
cast themselves into the sea at their bidding, it was owing
solely to the deadness of their faith. Here was to be an ex
hibition of rival faith, sincere on both sides, which was to do
more than cast mountains into the sea. It was to triumph
over the most destructive element known to man, and convert
the flames of a furnace into garments of celestial glory.
The authorities of Florence, by undertaking to control this
strange business, lent to it, though unwillingly, the august
sanction of their official position. It was now under the di
rection of the state. Dominic Benvicini, on the part of Sa
vonarola, and Andrew Rondinelli, who, to obtain the prefer
ence over his brother monk, Nicolas de Pilly, proved that he
had anticipated him in his offer to represent Francis de Pou
ille, were the chosen champions. A committee ofthe citizens
were elected fo decide upon the day and place, and make the
necessary arrangements. They fixed upon the 7th of April,
1498, on a spot contiguous to the Palace ofthe People, in what
is now the square of the Grand Duke.
Although several days were yet to elapse previous to the
trial, the people crowded the square in such masses that it
was impossible to erect the furnace, until, by the aid of numer
ous troops, a sufficient space was kept clear for the work to
proceed. The portico of the Lanzi, on the right of the Palazzo Vec
chio, so famed for its graceful proportions and the ancient and
modern statuary it shelters, comprising the Judith of Donatel-
lo, the Perseus of Benvenuto, and the Rape of the Sabines by

86 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
John of Bologne, all worthy of their position close by the Da
vid of Michael Angelo, was divided into two compartments
for the rival clergymen and their respective partisans ; for
friends they could not be called who would stimulate them to
such an act. In front, at the distance of a few rods, a wooden
scaffold was erected of twenty-four feet in length, ten iri width,
and five in height. Upon this scaffold was piled dry fagots,
pine knots, and other combustible materials, so arranged as to
leave two separate passages or corridors the entire length of
the platform. Through these, encircled by the flames, in plain
daylight, so that the spectators could see them enter at one
end and walk out unscathed by the fire at the other, provided
their faith made them as incombustible as asbestos, the two
reverend fanatics were to pass. The preparations were all in
earnest ; the fires were to be as fierce as the most inflamma
ble substances could make them ; there was no opportunity to
arrange a false miracle, or to spare either candidate from an
equal test of the fiery ordeal.
On the day appointed, Savonarola called upon all his pros
elytes to assist at a solemn mass. The Franciscans, on the
contrary, quietly took their places in the stall provided for
them without any public ceremony, as coolly and unconcern
edly as if assembling for any ofthe ordinary offices of their re
ligion. The mass ended, Savonarola, instead of replacing the
host in its tabernacle, kept it in his hand, and, leaving the
church, advanced toward the place of trial. He was followed
by all the monks of his convent, chanting hymns, and a vast
crowd of citizens who favored his cause ; the most ardent of
whom, so confident were they of a miracle in favor of their
champion, carried themselves the torches with which to fire
the pile. Dominic walked with them, the most confident of
all, smiling and often kissing the feet of a crucifix which he
held in his hands.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 87
There was not an eye in Florence on that day that did not
seek to rest on the scaffold. Not only the square and streets
were crowded to repletion, but the balconies and roofs of
houses, and even the distant platform of the Campanile, the
towers of the Bargello, and the roof of the Duomo, were en
cumbered with spectators. Well they might be, for it was a
sight not likely to be seen twice on earth.
Dominic Benvicini stepped forward and announced that he
was ready to enter the furnace. There was a hesitation on
the part ofthe Franciscans. It is possible that they were ap
palled by the steadfast assurance of Dominic, and sought for
some subterfuge to escape from the consequences of their own
defiance. They charged their opponents with sorcery, and
protecting themselves by charms and talismans. To disprove
these accusations, Dominic allowed himself to be examined by
physicians, threw off his clothes, reclad himself with those
furnished by the judges, and again asked Andrew Rondinelli
if he were ready. Obliged now to leave his stall, he came for
ward as if prepared to make the trial, when, glancing at his
adversary, he stopped abruptly and refused to go farther. At
that moment Savonarola had placed in the hands of Dominic
the host. Rondinelli exclaimed that it would be a sacrilege to
expose the body and blood of the Savior to be burned. Be
sides, if Dominic should escape, the miracle would not be con
clusive, since it was not the rebel monk, but the well-beloved
Son of God that was spared by the flames. He declared, in
consequence, that, unless the Dominican renounced this super
natural aid, he would renounce the proof.
Savonarola insisted upon the presence of the host. Rondi
nelli refused to yield his position. Both parties engaged in a
warm and fruitless argument, which lasted four hours. In the
mean while the spectators, who were exposed to a burning sun,
grew impatient, and loudly manifested their displeasure at the

88 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
delay. They had come to see others burned, and not to be
burned themselves. To put an end to the tumult and strife;
Dominic Benvicini said that he would give up the host, and
make the trial with a simple crucifix. No objections could be
alleged to this, as the crucifix was only the image and not the
real presence of the Savior. Once again it was announced
that the trial was about to commence. The people forgot
their fatigue, and as loudly applauded the infatuated monks
as if they had been awaiting the entrance on a stage of some
favorite actors.
Every avenue of escape from the fiery proof seemed now
closed to both parties. They started together, but at the same
instant, as if Heaven had forborne to the latest moment to see
to what extent the folly of men would go, a violent storm,
which had been gathering unseen, burst over the city and del
uged it with rain. The fire was instantly extinguished. In
vain they applied fresh torches, and brought fire and inflamma
ble substances from the neighboring houses. Torrents of wa
ter continued to fall and put out the flames. There was more
to fear from a deluge than a conflagration.
The spectators, who had been wrought up to the highest
pitch of excitement, now vented their rage at their disap
pointment upon the parties, accusing them both of having
conjured up the storm. They, in their turn, retorted upon
each other the same accusation. The multitude began to
look upon them as charlatans who had played them a dirty
trick. Notwithstanding the rain which continued to fall, no
one would obey the order of the magistrates to retrie to their
homes. They continued their menacing outcries, and threat
ened a serious disturbance. A guard was given to the two
adversaries to insure their safety to their respective convents.
Savonarola escaped violence by holding aloft the holy sacra
ment, but Rondinelli was saluted with a shower of stones, and

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 89
cries of rage and contempt. He finally reached his sanctuary
half murdered, and with his clothes torn into shreds.
The people that had so lately exalted Savonarola to a level
with Divinity, in their desire to expiate their own weakness,
now turned upon him with the usual unreasonableness of
those who have more to forgive in themselves than in others.
That rain-storm, in preserving the spectators from being ac
complices in a blasphemous trial of the natural laws of Provi
dence, had at the same time washed away every vestige of
his former sacred prestige. With a fickleness and ingratitude
that does human nature signal dishonor, they forgot his emi
nent services and great virtues. They forgot, too, that the de
fiance came not from him. They saw not in the extinguish
ment of the fire the disapprobation of Heaven, but the magic
art of a false prophet. From walking with angels, they fell
at once to sport with demons.
Francis de Pouille, the adroit agent of Alexander VI., profit
ed by the reaction to arouse against Savonarola every enemy
that interest or bigotry could create. The partisans ofthe ex
iled Medici hated him, because his democratic institutions
prevented their return to power. Many of the clergy believed
him accursed of God so long as he remained under the anath
ema of a pope. With them, the authority ofthe Head ofthe
Church was independent of all personal considerations. The
Franciscans saved their own credit in the proportion that they
took an active part against him. They cried "Stop thief!"
lest they should themselves be considered as robbers. If he
had any friends left besides the brethren of his convent, they
were to be found only among the few in Florence whose rea
son was neither to be duped by fanaticism nor disgraced by
passion. These few were unable to protect him.
Savonarola lost no time, however, in seeking to regain his
position. On the very next day he ascended the pulpit to ex-

90 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

plain his conduct, and do away the evil impression created on
the preceding by an intervention of nature as unexpected by
him as by the people. But they drowned his voice in fero
cious shouts. On every side was heard, " Down with the ex
communicated ! down with the heretic ! death to the false
prophet !" from those who, less than twenty-four hours before,
had knelt before him, too happy if they could but touch the
hem of his garment. He sought refuge in his convent. The
crowd followed him there, swelled at each step by new ene
mies. They burst open the gates, demanding their victim.
He opened his cell and stood before them. For an instant
they wavered, for they had long been accustomed to tremble
before him. A friendly voice, prompt at touching the right
chord in the aroused public mind, might have saved him.
But none was raised. The zealots ofthe Medici faction threw
themselves upon him, shouting, " To the stake with the here
tic ! Let us gibbet the false prophet !" These ominous notes
were repeated by a thousand voices as they dragged their for
mer idol to a shameful death. But his end was not yet to be.
The magistracy, informed ofthe tumult, had assembled in haste
some troops. They rescued him in part by force, but more by
the assurance that justice should promptly take its course.
The fickle multitude had not long to wait their prey. In
forty-two days only after the failure which had so enraged
them, on the twenty-third of May, they again assembled in the
same place to witness a spectacle still more terrible, for its
memory would forever remind heaven and earth of their cru
elty and injustice. Another scaffold had been erected. Upon
it, bound to a post, were the three victims whose dying ago
nies were to replace the previous loss. These three were
Jerome Savonarola, Silvester Maruffi, and Dominic Benvicini,
the disciple, faithful in death, as he had been through life, to
his master.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 91
This time there was no disappointment. The fire burned
fiercely, and human nerves crackled and snapped in the
flames. But the spirit triumphed over the flesh. Hymns of
praise arose amid the smoke, and bore toward heaven the ev
idence of a faith which took no heed of bodily anguish in the
superior consciousness of approaching celestial joys. Savo
narola, with his eyes turned toward heaven, expired without
a groan. He was no sooner dead than the populace repented them
of their sacrifice. His enemies continued to blacken his fame,
as they had calumniated his life. But the people missed
their benefactor and counselor. They could not recall their
victim, but they could honor his memory. Each year, on the
anniversary of his death, the place of his scaffold was found
strewn with flowers by invisible hands. It was said that an
gels thus celebrated the fete ofthe martyr. This tribute con
tinued to augment yearly, reviving the memory of the liberal
principles and austere morality of Savonarola, until it led to
renewed rehgious commotions. The supreme power had re
turned to the Medici. Cosmo I. was resolved to put an end
to this pretext for popular demonstrations, but he dared not
encounter openly the public sympathies. He employed art.
Ammanato was ordered to erect a fountain on the site. It is
to him that we owe the colossal statue in marble of Neptune
with his pigmy steeds, which has, through the succeeding cen
turies, continued to pour its limpid stream upon the spot so
indelibly stained by fire.
A strange event happened some fifteen years ago to one of
the bronze figures of the size of hfe which adorn the edge of
the basin. For two months it was missed, and not the slight
est clew could be obtained to the cause of its disappearance.
At last it was discovered that it had been stolen during the
night by an English amateur,, but the means which enabled

92

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

him so adroitly to carry off without detection from a public
square a statue weighing one ton, remained as great an enig
ma as ever.
Opposite the fountain is the Post-office, and over the win
dows of delivery is an antique projecting roof or porch of

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES 93
wood, unsupported by columns, and which looks momentarily
as if about to tumble upon the heads of the letter-seekers be
neath. It would not be strange if it did, for it dates back
nearly five hundred years, and was made by the compulsory
labor ofthe enemies of Florence, whose spirits doubtless, even
at this interval, would be rejoiced to grind the descendants of
their conquerors into dust, in revenge for the brutality to
which they were subjected. They were Pisans, to the num
ber of two thousand, that had been taken prisoners at Gallot-
to, where one thousand of their fellow-citizens were left dead
on the field. The two thousand prisoners were conducted to
Florence in forty-two carts. At the gates they were igno-
miniously taxed a shilling a head, the duty levied on cattle.
Afterward they were drawn in triumph, with trumpets sound
ing, through the city, and forced to descend in the square of
the public palace and kiss the statue of Marsocco, the hon em
blem of the city, as they defiled in its rear. Two of the pris
oners, unable to endure the humiliation, strangled themselves
with their chains. The others were required to build the
shelter mentioned above, which has ever since been called the
Roof of the Pisans.

CHAPTER IV.
THE ARTS AND ARTISTS AT FLORENCE.
Perhaps there is no trade that has more tricks than that of
the picture-dealer. It is worth while coming to Florence, if
one have a taste for the fine arts, to learn something in this
line by way of caution, particularly at a time when guUibility
commands so high a premium in all that relates to the relics
of antiquity and the works of the " great masters." The
amount of trash annually palmed off on the discerning critics
of Russia, England, and America, on the authority of great
names, is truly astonishing, and, too, for sums of money that
would create an El Dorado for modem artists. Whatever is
either rare or beautiful is sure to beget a corresponding pas
sion, for the gratification of which it becomes necessary to
fabricate counterfeits. Thus Italy, which has given birth to
the finest works of art, has also produced the most ingenious
race of imitators. Gems, precious stones, vases, coins, statu
ettes, bas-reliefs, bronzes, and paintings, all genuine, antique,
or original, are multiplied with such an extraordinary facility
that it really seems as if they were rather the perennial crop
of nature than the labor and study of man. The manner of
the reproduction of paintings is more wonderful than that of
the phoenix, for the new do not await even the ashes of the
old. Nor may any one pride himself upon being an infallible
judge of an original, when he remembers that Guido had
among his pupils so successful an imitator that the scholar
was enabled to substitute for the incomplete original his un-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. »;.
finished copy, which Guido continued to labor upon as his
own. Neither does it follow that an original painting by a
great master is necessarily a good one. If each had great
merits, they had also characteristic faults. Guido often com
menced and finished several paintings on the same day, to
provide means to indulge his passion for gaming. Others
painted as rapidly by candle-light. So that it does not follow
that because an artist immortalized himself by certain produc
tions -which in his pecuhar style have never been excelled,
every touch of his pencil is equally worthy of his genius.
Many " gems," whose originality can be well established, and
which have cost their purchasers their weight in gold, would,
if their genealogy had been lost, have been deposited among
the unsightly lumber of the garret, while others of really ten
fold more merit hang unnoticed on walls simply for want of
the name of a " great master." The temptation, therefore, to
picture-dealers to indulge in this sort of baptism is irresistible.
If the painting be too fresh, a worm-eaten frame, a skillful
smoking, an ingenious story as to its discovery in some old
convent, or purchase from some dilapidated family, for whose
gallery Titian, Paris Birdone, the Caracchi, Salvator Rosa, or
Domenichino painted, make it a great deal more original than
the original itself. If any fingering doubts should exist in the
mind ofthe amateur, who, while examining a bad copy or the
work of a feeble imitator, has his mind more occupied with
the impression that the chef-d'ceuvres have produced upon
.him than the subject before his eyes, which he envelops with
the halo of their great names, it is speedily dispelled by the
certificates of high tribunals and professional judges, who, for
a consideration, are but too ready to attest its legitimacy. In
this manner, many a picture, that cost the purchaser but a few
dollars, has been triumphantly borne off, at as many thousands,
by gentlemen of taste and fortune, to greet the admiring eyes

96 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

of the learned amateurs of the old masters in Europe or the
United States, or, what is quite as likely, to extort a smile of
derision at that taste which could find merit in such dilapidated
and obscure daubs. In this way a great wrong is often done
to great reputations, for they are made responsible for the sins
of their counterfeiters. The best specimens of the earliest
masters are more valuable as records of the progress of art
than for examples of its perfection. Thus Cimabue and Giotto
shine chiefly by contrast with their predecessors. But the an
gelic beauty ofthe faces of Beatico Angelico is proverbial, and
so with Perugino, Da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, and Raphael,
there are individual peculiarities of style so exquisitely per
fected that they must forever remain " masters" in those arts.
The progress of painting has been gradual, eac&i great artist
and celebrated school adding something toward its various de
grees of perfection. No one is equally good in all, or always
equal to himself A correct knowledge of anatomy and per
spective was attained by slow degrees, while coloring varies
with the taste or feeling of each master. Those world-re
nowned pictures of Titian and his school, that so dazzle by
their beauteous and harmonizing tints, are not remarkable for
their close resemblance to common nature. They form, as it
were, a nature of themselves, or create one to us by selecting
those aspects which We most rarely see. I doubt if any man
would wish the complexion of his wife to be of the same tint
as Titian's Flora, and the idea of her resembhng one of Vasari's
Madonnas, or Michael Angelo's Titanic women, would strike
him with horror; but worse than all would be his fate were
one of Rubens's Flemish nudities, with her adipose propor
tions, crooked legs, and bruised flesh coloring, to step from her
canvas and claim him for her liege lord. Neither would he
like any more to acknowledge that Bacchanal-looking infant,
called the Holy Child, which we see in the Pitti, by the same

ITALIAN SIUHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 97
pencil, for his own, for fear that his friends would suspect him
of having substituted the bottle for the nipple in the rearing
of his offspring. Raphael's and Perugino's trees are as flat as
petrifactions. Bronzino's flesh might often be mistaken for
putty. Fra Bartolomme's figures, at least some of them, as
tonish more than they please by their colossal dimensions.
We all wish that Guido had found smaller hands and less
expansive throats for his models — that Carlo Dolci had put
less jewelry and finish upon his holy women — that Paul Ver
onese, in his Marriage of Cana, had not placed men on roofs
so steep that you are nervous from fear that they will slip off;
and, lastly, let me say it with reverence both for the subject
and its otherwise faultless treatment, that Raphael had given
to his Madonna della Seggiola that inimitable divine expression
which he has bestowed upon others of his Madonnas, and which,
in general, characterizes his earlier holy faces, and makes him
peerless in this, the highest aim of art. The Seggiola Madon
na is a beautiful woman, surpassingly beautiful, but conscious
of the fact, and with the faintest twinkle of coquetry in her
eyes, averted from her child to demand the admiration of the
spectator. But this very expression, beyond the copyist's art
or the skill of the engraver, proclaims the marvelous genius
of the artist. He has given the world, in this painting, the
highest type of the natural mother. If, in doing this, he has
robbed her of her celestial glory, he has but made her the
more lovely inhabitant of earth. She is not the virgin moth
er of God, but the loving wife of man.
Thus, if we were to indulge in captious criticism, we should
lose one half the pleasure artistic genius holds in store. Its
true test is its power over us as a whole. That must be good
which for ages has continued to hold the world spell-bound
by feeling, and which to criticise in mechanical detail re
quires close study, developing, as it were, a qualm of con-
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98 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
science in the necessity of sinking the noble art to reach the
lower. Florence, more than any other city, may be said to live on
its pictures. True, architecture, statuary, and mosaics each
contribute toward her support, but the chiefest resource is paint
ing. Her own citizens probably know less of the galleries, as
freely open to all the world as if they were the common prop
erty of mankind, than my own countrymen. What private
collection rivals the Pitti? Arranged in chambers that are
truly marvelous in themselves for the delicacy and magnifi
cence of their ornaments, we find those superb originals which
have been made, by copies and engravings, so familiar to the
world. There are about four hundred pictures, but among them
more chef-d'ceuvres of the Italian school than any other col
lection in Europe, with the exception of the Louvre and the
Escurial. My own experience on first beholding other cele
brated galleries has been that of disappointment, because my
imagination over-painted the reality, and it has only been, as
it were, by degrees that I have been led to estimate their
treasures at their true standard. The number, too, of worth
less of uninteresting pictures which swell their catalogues
strengthens this effect. But at the Pitti it is quite different.
On entering the hall of Lorenzo il magnifico, I felt myself, as
it were, in the presence ofthe Genius of Painting herself. It
was like coming suddenly upon a landscape so beautiful that
the tongue becomes dumb from inability to express the full
ness of the sensations of the soul. Each painting invited at
tention, and each was a rival to its neighbor. No one thinks
of talking aloud in those halls. They are subdued into silence
by the solemnity of art. The souls of those masters who gave
sucTi life and power to canvas seem still to linger about their
favorite works, enjoying the silent homage of generation after
generation of their fellow-men, as they come up from distant

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 99
lands to learn from them new conceptions of truth and beauty.
There, too, we see those superb portraits, each a pasBport to
immortality to painter and sitter : Raphael's Leo the Tenth
and Julius the Second ; Titian's Cardinal Ippolito' dei Medici ;
his mistress, more beautiful even than his Urbino Venus ; the
portrait of Cornaro, the advocate and example of longevity ;
the Venetian gentleman in black ; Lotto's Three Ages of Man ;
Subterman's magic touches, and Rubens's famous group, all
as if ready to step out from their frames, and play their parts
over again in the role of life.
To do justice to this gallery would be to write the history
of art in its greatest excellence. The Uffizii collection em
braces a wider range of objects. It is a museum, and incloses
within its halls an epitome of the history of the world for the
last three thousand years. There Niobe, in her imperishable
grief, with her dying children struck by Apollo's darts ; the
Queen of Lovehness, faultless, if she had been left, like her sis
ter of Milo, as antiquity bequeathed her to modern eyes ; her
companion in beauty, the Apollino, the Faun, the Wrestlers,
and the Mysterious Slave, have all found an asylum. The
classical ages were prolific in statues. It strikes one oddly
that the moderns should house with such sacred care every
rehc of the ancient chisel, whatever may be its merits, while
they turn their own productions so unceremoniously out of
doors. Two thousand years hence, they too will probably be
taken under shelter as too venerable to bear farther exposure
to the ravages ofthe climate, while skillful hands will be em
ployed to restore them to their original symmetry.
The busts of the Roman Emperors are exceedingly interest
ing, commencing with Pompey, who, by the way, never wore
the imperial robe, and terminating with Constantine the Great.
Julius Caesar's head struck me as of the Henry Clay order.
There are two of his busts, and both show, by the manner of

100 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

dressing the hair, his anxiety to conceal his baldness, which
made him more covetous of the honor of receiving from the
Senate the right of always wearing the laurel crown on this
account than for conquering the world. Vespasian looks like
a hale old gentleman, " all ofthe olden time." He has a firm,
fatherly sort of countenance. Titus was decidedly the hand
somest gentleman of them all — an imperial Bayard — and well
bears out his reputation of being "the delight ofthe world."
There is a Nero of about six years of age, a chubby, innocent
face, very unlike his matured physiognomy after having mur
dered his mother, friends, and most of his relatives. Hair-
dressing must have been well understood at ancient Rome, for
among the busts of the empresses and their daughters there
are fashions to be seen which are really worthy of revival by
modern beauties.
The Hall of the Bronzes contains a veritable mystery, found
at Arezzo in 1559. Books have been written upon it, but its
elucidation is as remote as ever. It is an Etruscan bronze of
the size of a St. Gothard dog, with three heads : the first is
called that of a lion, but is more ofthe dragon order, and is, at
all events, a nondescript ; the second grows from his back,
and is that of a goat ; the third is that of a serpent, which
forms the tail, and, turning over the back, bites one of the
horns of the goat-shaped head. Its attitude is fierce and
threatening, half crouching, as for a spring. Modem writers
have christened it the Chimera, and no doubt it is quite as
comely an animal as that we often bag after a chase of a life
time. To my mind, Michael Angelo appears to better advantage in
his unfinished than his finished statuary. He appears to have
so thought himself, if a judgment may be formed from the
number he left in the former condition. There is about them
the stamp of a powerful genius, of conceptions too grand for

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 101
mortal execution. The hand that struck out those rough
sketches could have fashioned the sohd stone at will ; so con
ceive our imaginations, as they complete the works that he be
gan. But when he finishes, he exaggerates ; he delights in huge
muscular developments, and strains after anatomical effect.
His men and women are Brobdignags, with voluminous folds
of flesh, into which a Lilliputian could creep and hide. His
eye measured every thing on a Titanic scale, as if his aim was
rather to astonish than to please. The easel-paintings that
claim to be his show the same bent of genius. He despised
this branch of art as frivolous, and fit only for women or chil
dren. The Tribune contains his famous tondo of a Holy Fam
ily, painted for the Doni. It bears more the character of the
chisel than -the brush — hard, bold, strained in attitude, and of
a color positively disagreeable. He was right when he esti
mated himself as too great for the details of oil painting. But,
perhaps, the true secret of this opinion was his unwillingness
to pursue a branch in which his rival Raphael excelled him
so greatly.
The Tribune is to the Uffizii what the Holy of Holies was to
the Temple of Jerusalem. In this sanctuary are assembled
the gems of art. Perhaps no other room of its size in the
world contains such a collection of masterpieces of painting
and sculpture. But these are subjects to which description is
inadequate to do justice. To be appreciated, they must be
seen and felt by appreciating power. Each spectator may ex
perience different sensations, as tastes differ, but all will con
fess to the opening to them of a new world of beauty.
The study of painting is much like that of human nature.
The character of the artist can be read in the treatment of his
subjects. They give the reflection of the inner soul. His pas
sions, prejudices, and weaknesses, as well as his great and
good points, appear on the canvas. A painter, like a trage-

102 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
dian, must feel what he would express, if he would paint
truth. Any thing short of this becomes cold and mannered.
In seeing but one picture, we see the incomplete man or art
ist. Who, in gazing upon the " Esperanza" of Guido, would
recall the fierce painter that, in composing his " Crucifixion,"
eager to catch and transfer to his canvas the expression of dy
ing agony, in his dehrium of art snatched a knife and stabbed
in the side his helpless model, bound to a cross to represent
the dying Savior? The poor wretch was murdered, hut Gui
do caught the parting breath, completed his picture that night,
and fled. He Was missed, and three days after his studio was
forced open in the search for him. There were found the
painting, now at Bologna, and the corpse, still lashed to the
cross, in a state of decomposition. Years of exile sufficed
to expiate his crime. He was suffered to return to Rome and
resume his art, for the popes eould better spare a hecatomb of
models than one such artist, of whose death Canova said that
Heaven gained at the expense of earth. Guido was a sad
profligate. Genius is a light lent by Heaven to illumine the
earth. He who returns it not to its shrine as pure and bright
as when received, may hope from its mercy, but must tremble
before its justice.
In the Tuscan school there is a painting by Lucio Massari,
who flourished between 1569 and 1633, that pleased me
greatly — perhaps I should say amused — from the manner of
treatment of a subject which has exhausted the invention and
genius of artists, from St. Luke to our day. It was a Holy
Family, and their employment was decidedly original, so far as
the imaginations of painters have run ; though, when we con
sider their poverty, and that both Joseph and his son worked
at a mechanical trade, nothing more likely than this was likely
to occur in their household duties. Still, the ideas connected
with the Holy Family, daguerreotyped as they are in our

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 103
minds by the devotional masterpieces of Raphael and the
teachings of our catechisms, are so foreign to Massari's very
natural treatment of the subject, that it seems not only irrev
erent, but ludicrous. The scene is a brook in the neighbor
hood of Nazareth, overshadowed by trees. The Virgin is
scrubbing the family linen on stones, after the usual fashion
in these countries, and laying it aside in a tub. The infant
Jesus is picking out the articles one by one, and handing them
to St. Joseph, who is hanging them up to dry. The attitudes
of the three are very natural, and suggestive of a rural wash
ing-Monday. The Dutch school, which is so minutely true to nature in all
its homely aspects, furnishes some most extraordinary exam
ples of the grotesque when it aspires to sacred subjects. In
an adjoining hall we find the raising of Lazarus, by Nicholas
Frumenti, in 1461 — a painting in the form of a tabernacle.
The costumes of the fifteenth century are sent back to do duty
in the first. A monk, with a book in one hand, is helping
Lazarus to rise. He has just opened his eyes in his coffin,
and is represented as precisely in that ghastly condition when
he may be supposed to fully justify the scriptural relation in
regard to his physical condition. Mary, overcome by the odor,
has covered her mouth with her robe ; a soldier looks on with
an expression which literally seems to turn his nose upside
down ; while the spectators generally are much more disgusted
with the smell than astonished hy the miracle.
In the hall of Baroccio there are four of the richest tables,
in fine stones and gems of the manufactory of Florence, in ex
istence. The one in the centre of the hall is the richest in the
world. It was commenced in 1613, and employed twenty-two
workmen incessantly for twenty-five years, costing upward of
one hundred thousand dollars, and using up a mine of topazes,
onyxes, agates, Iapis-lazuli, pearls, and other valuable gems-

104 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Nothing more magnificent can be conceived ; but I was much
more interested in the eagle of the twenty-fourth Roman le
gion, in the collection of bronzes, and the kitchen utensils and
silver vessels of the Consul Flavius Artaburius, marked with
his name, and dating back some twenty-two hundred years.
I could not help thinking what a nice point it would be for the
lawyers to decide, were any descendant of the family to claim
his ancestral plate of the Grand Duke.
Besides the Pitti and Uffizii galleries, there are others, be
longing to noblemen, always open to the public, such as the
Corsini, Strozzi, Ferroni, and Torrigiani, each possessing some
celebrated paintings. The private galleries have, however,
greatly diminished before the seductions of British and Rus
sian gold. The renowned Rinuccini gallery was lately sold
at auction, and attracted purchasers from all parts of Europe.
Never was a name turned to better account. With many am
ateurs, a bad picture, with a great name, is a greater prize at a
thousand pounds sterling, than a good picture, equally original,
but lacking the weighty testimony of celebrated authorship, at
a hundred dollars. There were fine pictures in the Rinucci
ni gallery, and their merit shed a golden halo upon all their
companions. It was considered an infallible test of merit for
a picture that it had hung in the Rinuccini gallery ; conse
quently, paintings not worth ten dollars sold for hundreds.
The bait took so well that the gallery appeared inexhaustible,
like the stock of a deceased epicurean's wines. Even now,
the custode will tell you, in showing you the remaining paint
ings, that the best are still unsold, offering a Raphael for fif
teen thousand, and a Michael Angelo for ten thousand dollars.
There are left, however, two undoubted Salvator Rosa's, well
worthy the attention of the lovers of his style, which may be
had at not a very extravagant price.
Florence lives upon strangers, and paintings are the great

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 105
attraction that draws them hither. Without its galleries half
its population would starve. They are to it an inexhaustible
placer, so long as the rage for copies exist. The public taste
centres on a comparatively few subjects. Sassoferato's blue-
mantle Madonna, Carlo Dolci's poetry and devotion, the Ma
donna della Seggiola, Titian's Flora, and a few others, are
multiplied without end. Nearly one quarter of the year is
lost to copyists at Florence on account of the numerous fete-
days, when the galleries are closed. Of the best pictures, it
requires from one to two months to take faithful copies ; con
sequently, there can be made of each but a few annually from
the original itself. Such, too, is the number of applications for
permission to copy, that artists, who follow in turn, are often
obliged to wait several years for an opportunity. The Madon
na della Seggiola is engaged from ten to fifteen years in ad
vance — a compliment which, on a much briefer scale, would
quite turn the head of any dancing damsel at a ball. From
this it will readily be inferred that good copies must be com
paratively rare, and yet, within this century, there have been
enough made in Italy of celebrated pictures, one would sup
pose, to reach from New York to New Orleans.
I do not know the number of artists and students in Flor
ence, but they are, a legion. Nowhere have they better facil
ities for pursuing their studies. If there be any drawback,
compared with other schools, it is the scarcity of good living
models. The liberality of the government provides an Acad
emy of Design, and the use of the galleries, easels, &c, gratis.
Private owners are no less generous. And, for a student or
poor artist, Florence is the most economical of cities. It is
really surprising upon how little they can exist in comparative
comfort. I use the word comfort in the artistic standard, which
would not suit every body. Less than fifty cents a day will
suffice, divided as follows: for a chamber, scantily furnished,
E 2

106 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

he pays five cents a day ; six cents for his breakfast, and six
teen for dinner, leaving quite a balance for other necessaries.
Mr. Powers pays two hundred and twenty dollars annual rent
for an establishment which in New York he could not hire
for less than several thousand dollars.
Good artists residing in Florence have another advantage
in possessing the market, as it were, of the world. Hundreds
here purchase works of art from the fact that their attention
is here first awakened to its value as a source of p^re gratifi
cation. Besides, example is contagious. I have known a
friend, who proposed, on his arrival, to limit himself to a few
cheap copies, carry away nearly one hundred original paintings.
But modern artists of merit have much to contend against.
The cheapness at which copies are furnished drives them from
the field of originality to labor in that of mere imitation, be
cause there are now but comparatively few purchasers of orig
inal pictures at prices which really recompense an artist. Good
copies, too, sometimes command a price much beyond what
the artist could expect from an original composition ; as, for in
stance, one thousand dollars is occasionally paid by a discrim
inating patron for the same subject of which he could get a
copy, which would pass equally well with the public, for fifty
dollars. Very tolerable copies of the favorite paintings are
manufactured for from ten to sixty dollars each. The secret
is this. The artists are Florentines, having homes, and per
haps food, furnished them by their families. It costs them the
merest pittance for a support, and if they gain a few pauls,
say fifty cents per day, they are satisfied. It is pitiable to see
art so reduced, while their labors are of doubtful benefit to the
world in general, except so far as they may foster a taste
which will ultimately demand for its gratification something
higher than a feeble imitation of the standard of past centu
ries.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 107
In Italy, however, this competition for daily bread, instead
of excellence, produces disastrous efiects. With few excep
tions, the original native artists produce nothing worthy even
of being classed above the standard of mediocrity. They la
bor, however, under the great disadvantage, in point of com
parison, of being in company, as it were, with the acknowl
edged masters of the world. The gulf between them has
become lamentably wide.
If modern copies and paintings in Florence can be counted
by myriads, there seems to be equally a mine of old copies and
originals as inexhaustible as the coal-pits of England. For
centuries Italy has been furnishing the rest of Europe with
pictures, yet the supply still remains as plentiful as its beg
gars. Lumber-rooms are stored with them ; streets are lined
with them ; every tailor has his gallery ; each Italian gentle
man his heir-looms ; in short, Florence is a vast picture-shop.
One would imagine that eveiy man, woman, and child, for the
last century, had been born with pencil in hand. There is no
possibility of diminishing them. Hercules could clean the Au
gean stables, but it would be a greater exploit to empty Flor
ence of its pictures. I know one dealer who has sold twelve
thousand in England alone — at least he says so — and yet his
rooms are full to repletion, though he is diminishing his stock
to give up business. Cargoes go annually to the United States.
We are treated to the arts much after this fashion. I am re
lating a true story. A speculator arrives, and gives out that
he is a purchaser of pictures by the wholesale. A flock of
crows can not light sooner upon an open corn-bag than do the
sellers upon him. He is not after good pictures, but the trash
that can be bought for the value of the wood in their frames.
They are brought to him by wagon-loads. He looks at the
pile, and makes an offer according to its size. In this way he
buys several thousand daubs at an average of a few dimes

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

each, spends as much more in varnish, regilding, and a little
retouching, sends them to America, where they are duly offer
ed for sale as so many Titians, Vandycks, MuriUos, or other
lights of the European schools. One lucky sale pays for the
entire lot.
No other art affords a wider scope for fraud. This arises
from the conventional values placed upon different styles.
One amateur seeks age, and gloats over worm-eaten frames and
dilapidated canvas ; another detects beauty amid what to oth
ers appear but hopeless masses of dirt and varnish ; others
buy by proxy, and pin their taste to another's interest or van
ity ; comparatively few buy with discrimination, consequently
the cheat and counterfeiter have a wide field. Besides, as the
values of all such objects must be graduated by an arbitrary
scale, or are the result of a caprice, they feel no compunctions
at levying the greatest possible amount of tribute the pur
chaser's purse or gullibility will stand. There are fair dealers,
but Itahan reputation in general, in this respect, is of a slip
pery character. After all, it does not seem to be a heinous sin,
if faith is created in the coveted genuineness of any article,
when it quadruples the pleasure of the buyer and fills the
purse of the seller in the same ratio. Without it there would
have been no profit to the one or joy to the other. The mer
its of the picture would have remained unknown, and two good
bargains lost. Still, I have known a dealer to carry his trick
ery beyond the reach of any charitable extenuation ; as, for
instance, to have a fine copy, in a frame, exposed as a sample,
for which a buyer was found, at what appeared a reasonable
price, the bargain concluded, and the purchaser's name marked
by himself on the back ofthe picture. Upon receiving it at
home, however, he could not believe his own senses, so infe
rior did it appear to the one he selected ; but on the back there
was the evidence of his own handwriting. Upon investiga-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 10!)

tion, however, it was proved that the seller had two pictures
in the same frame, the outer one being good and the inner bad ,
and that he had withdrawn the former and sent the latter.
With all its drawbacks in the shape of trash and trickery,
Italy still offers to the amateur of good pictures his best field.
This is not surprising when we consider that, for four centu
ries, it has abounded in artists of real merit. The disciples of
the great masters multiplied their works and diffused their
genius broadcast over the land. Many of them lived and
painted to a great age. Titian employed his brush until his
death, which only occurred when within a year of completing
a century ; Michael Angelo died at eighty-nine years of age ;
Guido at sixty-seven ; the prolific Carlo Dolci at seventy-two ;
and Guercino at seventy-six. Raphael lived to be but thirty-
seven, but, whenever he appeared at the papal court, he was
followed by a train of fifty of the first artists, his scholars,
many of whom acquired great distinction. Lanzi, in the last
century, finds some three thousand Italian artists worthy to be
mentioned in his History of Painting. It will readily be be
lieved, therefore, that Italy still contains an ample supply of
good paintings. These are only to be found by bestowing time
and patience to the search. It is of no use to be turned aside
by the bait of a great name, for, if authentic and worthy of its
origin, the picture is sure to be prized at many thousands of
dollars, and to find competitors for its purchase from all parts
of Europe. Such pictures have their history and genealogy
as carefully recorded as that of the noblest of families, and to
change owners becomes an event in the history of art ; and
ten to one, supposing yourself tempted into such a purchase,
you would find that a substitute has been palmed upon you,
while the original is slumbering peacefully in some gallery of
Russia or convent in Spain. There are, however, good paint
ings still to be had, originals, which might change places to ad-

110 . ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

vantage with many that are stamped as celebrated in the pub
lic galleries, and at prices much under the rates that modem
artists would demand for similar excellence. They have the
advantage, also, of having stood the test of time in their color
ing. When such are discovered, the shortest way of treating
for them is to politely smile at the owner's tale of their origin
as an agreeable fiction ; to impress upon him that you buy pic
tures, not names, and are guided merely by your fancy in your
choice. When he discovers that your taste is purely individ
ual, and that the genealogy of the brush makes no impression
upon either your purse or imagination, he becomes reasonable,
and acknowledges he knows no more about the paintings than
that he purchased them at such a time and at such a place,
and believes them to be of such a school ; he is quite sure to
conclude by accepting one quarter of what he first asked. In
deed, I have known a dealer fall from one hundred and sixty
dollars to four, rather than miss the sale. He probably bought
it for as many francs. Those who deal most with the English
pretend to fixed prices, but they actually rise and fall like a
Nova Scotia tide. The only rule is to fix upon the price you
are willing to pay for the gratification of your whim or taste,
and abide by it. The probability is that even then the dealer
will be delighted with your custom ; but you will do better
yet, if you can afford it, to leave discretionary orders at re
munerating prices_with your countrymen artists for original
productions. This will stimulate them to rival or surpass the
excellence of the ancient art you so much admire, and be a
patriotic contribution toward American fame . Americans have
already taken the lead in bust sculpture. They often receive
a thousand dollars for a bust, while the best Italian artists are
content with a third of that sum. It is gratifying to perceive
that the same comparative difference of prices obtains between
the original productions and copies of American and Italian

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. Ill
painters. While we have such artists in Italy as Page, Tilten,
White, and others that might be named, we need not despair
of an American school which shall, in time, win a respectable
rank in comparison even with the past.
It may be doubted whether painting will ever again be cul
tivated in any country with so much enthusiasm as it was at
Florence at that period when science, genius, and wealth com
bined to give it its greatest excellence. The Medician sover
eigns impoverished their country, but they made it the home
of the arts, which, however, they degraded to mean ends.
Painting became a passion. It was employed for every pur
pose. Bread itself was not more common. Not only the in
teriors of houses were decorated throughout, so that not a ves
tibule or passage-way was left unpainted, but even the exteri
ors, from the eaves to the foundation, were so beautifully fres
coed, that their designs and colors, even now, after the lapse of
centuries, excite our admiration by their beauty and freshness.
In his chamber or in the street, at church or in his shop, above
him, around him, on his garden walls, whichever way a Flor
entine turned his eyes, he beheld the marvelous results of the
art which lent to stone and mortar all the attractions of the nat
ural landscape, and the artistic creations ofthe most numerous
and varied assemblage of talents the world had then beheld,
within the walls of one small city ; but he was not content
with even this deluge ofthe art. The most common domestic
utensils were submitted to its adorning hands. He painted
his furniture, the trunks and boxes which contained his clothes
and family stores. The bucklers of their warriors, the shields
for the tournament, and the trappings of the horses, were dec
orated by the hands of the best artists. Painting was to his
refined imagination what gold was to the barbarous Mexican.
It was displayed every -where. In Rome and throughout Tus
cany, no girl married who did not bestow with her dowry, by

112 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

contract, and classed among the family jewels, some celebrated
painting, usually a Madonna. If the real flesh and blood
proved uncongenial, the husband had always the resource of
falling back for consolation upon the virtues of the ideal wom
an, which, unlike the living, improved with age, and were at
any moment transmutable into gold.
So conscious are the Tuscan and Roman governments of
the importance of conserving within their territories the best
productions of their celebrated masters, as an attraction for
foreign travel, that they allow no paintings whatever to be ex
ported without an examination by a professional tribunal.
There is no difficulty in obtaining their authorization for paint
ings in general ; but to procure permission to take away an
undoubted original of the first water would be as difficult as
to obtain an invitation to visit the Emperor of Japan. These
will not leave Italy again until some future Napoleon makes
them the forfeit of broken treaties or the ransom of kingdoms.
They are best where they are, and, like the ruins of classical
Italy, should remain forever on their natal soil, to attest her
former greatness, and stimulate her sons to revive her ancient
renown. Perhaps in the entire range of criticism there is nothing
more ludicrously uncertain than the decisions of would-be au
thorities in painting. This arises partly from the fact that it
is as easy to find a good artist as a true connoisseur, and partly
from the empirical or interested judgments of amateurs. Cen
turies of acquiescence in the claims of some celebrated, orig
inal of a famous collection are no defense against its authen
ticity being stolen from it, or at least disputed at the eleventh
hour. The public galleries are filled with contested pictures,
and few of the private are allowed to possess a gem uncon
tradicted by some rival amateur, more jealous to establish a
name than to possess true merit. These controversies enlist

ITALIAN SIGHTS AXD PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 113
not only authors, but nations, in their respective causes. In a
number of instances, the proofs and merits are so equally bal
anced, that it would be doubtful if the artist himself could,
should he return to earth, unhesitatingly point out his own off
spring. Andrea del Sarto copied Raphael's Leo the Tenth so
truthfully thaTTt "was marked in order to distinguish it from
the original. Those, therefore, whose artistic triumph depends
not so much upon the excellence of their painting as upon the
great parentage they claim for it, must live in constant fear
and trembling, lest their laurels be rudely snatched away when
they least expect it. At all events, the clouds of doubt are
constantly arising in the public mind to darken their pictorial
horizon. They may esteem themselves fortunate if criticism.
which by some inexplicable modern process invariably be
comes more luminous as it recedes from the era of its subject,
leaves them a few pencil-marks or dashes ofthe brush of their
adored master. Generally, the admiration of ages is eritieised
away, until nothing is admitted but tolerable imitation or an
impaired style. Ask two doctors the nature of a_disease, and
the probabilities are far more that they will agree in opinion
than that two professional picture-dealers will coincide as to
even the school of a good painting. I have amused myself
more than once in testing this by asking their opinions on an
acknowledged painting. The first would decide it to be de
cidedly of the Bolognese school, for technical reasons that ap
peared incontestable ; the next comer would be as sincere in
favor of some other school, with an equally good argument ;
and so the changes would be rung through every variety of
generic art, leaving the anxious novice in most ungratifying
uncertainty, until he has acquired sufficient mental independ
ence to be satisfied with What is good for its own sake, with
out puzzling his brains over dubious genealogies and the end
less intricacies of an art which, in its meanest sense, is nothing
but deception.

114 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Rome, Florence, and Naples have long waged a mutual
warfare in regard to the originality of certain pictures. Lon
don glories in costly originals ofthe Continental schools in her
National Gallery, over which John Bull periodically goes into
ecstasies, while her best critics pronounce them to be wretched
forgeries, underrating the real merits and exaggerating the
faults of their supposed authors. The Corsini Gallery at Flor
ence has long boasted the Wheel of Fortune of Michael An
gelo, though the most astute critics insist that the Tribune
alone has the sole specimen of his easel-painting in existence.
Be this as it may, there are others sufficiently like their fa
ther to claim to be his children. Recently a dealer has bought
at an old-clothes fair, for seven pauls (seventy-seven cents), a
twin picture, which, being cleaned, he now brings forward to
dispute the palm of originality with that of the Corsini, which
he pronounces to be a copy. Michael Angelo could touch
nothing without stamping it, in a greater or less degree, with
the power of his genius. In the oil paintings that claim to
be his, his contempt or indifference to this branch of art are
equally shown ; for there is not one of them -which, if called
by another name, would afford pleasure from those sources
that appeal most forcibly to the public mind in painting.

CHAPTER V.
CARRIAGES AND THE CASC1NE AT FLORENCE, WITH A SLIGHT
DISSECTION OF SOCIETY.
At Florence, Fashion is an easy dame. She does not de
mand much, but when she speaks she must be obeyed. She
lets you alone while under a roof, and has no preferences in
the way of a habitation. You may eat maccaroni three times
a day, and she does not take it to heart. If you lodge close to
the eaves, and are obliged to make your nocturnal ascents up
a narrow stone staircase by the light of a pocket taper, she
whispers it not in Gath, nor talks of it at Askelon. She re
spects economy within doors, even to the extent of pitching
comfort out of the windows. Should you shiver the winter
through over a few half-dead coals in an earthen pot, her eyes
see it not ; nor would she take note of your dress, were it gayer
than Jacob's garment, or fouler than the beggar's rags, so that it
be worn within the charmed hour when you are considered,
by a fiction of etiquette, invisible. This laxity has, however,
its limit. If you do not wish to be considered upon a par in
social importance with an Egyptian mummy, you must circu
late with the world after the sun has warmed the eastern
bank ofthe Arno. Fashion then summons her train; not on
foot — for no one walks in Florence, except by way of paren
thesis — but in carriages.
Two things, then, are essential to respectability; an equi
page, and a box at the Pergola. So long as you do not possess
one of these two, you are without the golden circle — a mere

116 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

nobody — though Croesus were your grandfather, and the blood
of Augustus warmed your veins. Florence boasts, in conse
quence, the most numerous, stylish, and, at the same time,
cheapest turn-outs of any capital. It is unnecessary to own a
carriage, when fifty dollars per month provides not only one
with a fine span of horses, but coachmen and footmen in a
livery of your choice in addition. Even a whole stud of
horses does not involve a ruinous expenditure.
Neither is a title of nobility an insurmountable affair. The
pert little town of Fiesole, the germ of Florence, and old when
even Rome was young, has established itself in the trade of
manufacturing titles of nobility, to raise a fund for the repair of
its roads. Four hundred dollars -will buy the parchment, title,
seal, coat of arms, with a genealogy thrown in when required,
of a count, baron, or other patent of nobility not infringing
upon the superior claims of the families of the Popes, which
have made princes almost as common in Italy as generals in
the United States. After all, the attraction is not so very
great. One American, however, I am told, has made an in
vestment in this fancy stock, and with John Bull it is not an
unknown weakness.
An Italian cherishes the distinctions of rank to a degree
that makes him a fit neighbor to the Orientals. His vocabu
lary of titles is most sonorous and imposing, but in his eager
ness to pay court he is apt to overshoot the mark to a most
ridiculous extent when in contact with the Jonathans of Amer
ica. One soon becomes an " illustrious lord" in Italy, and the
commonest apartment a palace, so dubbed by the tongues of
the sycophantic throng, whose aim is to explore your purse.
Fools and princes, so Kendall says, are the only individuals
that ride in the first-class cars in Germany. As Americans
of late have earned in Europe the reputation of spending
money like both those classes, they must not be shocked if

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 117
their ears are saluted with adjectives in general familiar only
to the latter personages. There is, however, a special incon
venience attending them when at the head of a bill. They
cost more than even Jenny Lind's notes.
Fashion in Florence, it is true, imperatively demands car
riages. She likes to have them do her credit, but does not re
fuse a hack. The numbered Jehus know this, and as there
are no- side-walks, or, where there are any, they are so narrow
as to throw one still farther toward the middle of the street,
they drive rapidly among the pedestrian throngs, aiming, in
particular, to frighten the ladies or soil their dresses, so that,
in self-defense, they may be forced to ride. The hackmen
are the sturdiest of all the beggars. There are no fixed fares ;
custom gives about thirty cents the hour for a fine open car
riage, and if they can not get that, they are content to take
less. It is amusing to watch with what perseverance they
will walk their horses alongside a newly-arrived group of
strangers, following up their quarry, as a pointer does his game,
until they are fairly bagged. Ride you must ; and, after all, it
is almost as cheap as shoe-leather.
Fashion has done something more than demand carriages ;
she has provided the loveliest of all drives for them — a sort
of rural exchange, where they all centre, from whatever quar
ter they may depart. Florence, compared with most capitals,
is small — a mere tenth part of Paris ; yet she contrives to as
semble, on the right sort of a day, not less than several hund
red carriages, of all kinds, at the Cascine. Some pretend to
have counted fifteen hundred on one occasion, but I have nev
er seen half that number. Most of these are no vulgar turn
outs, but equipages of every style and fancy, expressly got up
for competition in taste and display of thorough-bred horse
flesh. It is a sight peculiar to Florence, and to strangers
quite as attractive, while to citizens far more so, than all her

118 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

galleries of antique art. In its own way it is a school of mor
als and manners. A friend of mine, thinking, upon his first
arrival, to make a nice display of four-in-hand driving, went
up to the Cascine with his bloods, but found himself but one of
seven similar establishments. It was useless to think of aston
ishing, by any equestrian display or skill, the owners of forty
fancy horses and upward, drawn from the best stocks of En-
gland, Germany, and Arabia, with equipages of every style of
elegance, not excepting the unrivaled New York trotting-wag.
on, which all over Europe maintains its superiority as the best
model for grace and speeds The Cascine boasts of several of
these, all fine in their way, with horses to match. It owes
their introduction to a transatlantic lion, now a fixture in Eu
rope. To him it is indebted, also, for the most extraordinary
vehicle — called a drag, I believe — ever contrived for pleasure.
The body resembles a section of a stage-coach, got up in a
coupe fashion, with blinds to the windows, and kept as close
ly shut as a Turkish harem. The interior of this singular con
trivance is a perpetual mystery to all beholders, and must have
been originally devised for the airings of the Man in the Iron
Mask. The exterior, however, has no secrets. It is mounted
upon a heavy set of wheels, clumsy we should say in the
United States, and well calculated to stand the rigors of
mountain roads. Back of the coupe portion is a high, strong
seat, occupied by two servants in livery. On top, and chain
ed to it, are four dogs ; in front, and higher still, much like the
elevated seats of one of our leviathan sleighs or a circus-wag
on, is another, occupied by the owner, who drives four beauti
ful and spirited black horses. There are numerous cupboards
about and underneath for baggage, and, I presume, a kitchen
battery, to be used in traveling, while the exterior generally is
hung around with spare whipple-trees, and other duplicate
portions of those parts ofthe vehicle which were liable to give

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 119
way, for the readjustment of which a portable blacksmith's
shop is provided, the whole giving the vehicle the appearance
of being turned inside out. The entire carriage forms the
most extraordinary combination of utility, oddity, and orna
mental ugliness ever put on wheels.
But, before describing the lions of the Cascine, it is neces
sary to explain what it is. In literal Enghsh, the farm-houses
or dairies ofthe Grand Duke, but, in reality, the most charming
drive in Italy. They commence immediately outside of the
walls, by the Leghorn Rail-road station, and extend along the
Arno for two miles. The bank of the river is laid out as a
beautiful walk, overshadowed by magnificent trees, among
which is a superb species of pine, with a clean, noble trunk,
and top that spreads out like an umbrella. The forest on this
side is a narrow belt, but kept in fine order, and intersected by
the most level and easy of roads, giving, for the space, a charm
ing variety of drives. Farther to the right are the extensive
lawns, trimmed in English style, and contrasting sweetly with
the bordering groves. Among them are interspersed the dai
ries from which Florence derives its purest supplies of milk and
butter. At intervals, little temple-shaped summer-houses be
stow upon the landscape a classical look. The eastern hori
zon is bounded by the Apennine range of mountains, thickly
dotted with villas and villages, brought by the clearness ofthe
atmosphere to within an apparently very neighborly distance.
The half-way point of the drive is laid out in a circle, the in
terior of which forms a fine promenade, and a station for the
military bands which play on several afternoons of each week.
Around this circle the carriages alt gather. No orders are
given. The coachmen know that to take a drive means to go
to the Cascine, and to go to the Cascine is to perform the tour,
and then join the grand group to listen to the music, chat,
flirt, descend and walk along the river's bank, or to lade one's

120 ITALIAN SIGHTo AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

self with the most fragrant of bouquets, assiduously proffered by
unsentimental-looking flower-girls at prices that seem almost
of fabulous cheapness in contrast with floral sales elsewhere.
But with the Florentines flowers would appear to be too vul
gar an attraction, for few but strangers display taste in this
respect. With them, however, it can not ever be said to be
a matter of choice, for, like carriages, they must receive the
offered bouquets in self-defense. By some incomprehensible
singularity, the flower-girls are among the grossest and most
ill-favored of the peasantry ; or, if they are fair specimens of
the peasantry, the rural Tuscans are remarkably deficient in
good looks. Even when one has a pretty face, and turns it to
profitable account, she runs the risk of having it peeled by the
knife of some jealous rival. This actually took place a short
time since, because it proved to its possessor worth, in the
sale of flowers, something more than twice that of her enraged
and homely competitor. What do you suppose was the sum
total ofthe monthly gains that excited the one to a deed that
sent her, or, rather, her agent — for she did it by proxy — to
the penitentiary, and the other to the hospital? Eleven
dollars ! ! !
But, as I was saying, the flower-girls are as pertinacious as
hack-drivers or picture-dealers. They do not demand money,
only you must accept their flowers ; if you will not take them,
they arrest you by the collar, and decorate your button-hole
with a dainty bunch, and then slip modestly off, declining all
recompense, knowing that bachelor-nature can never long hold
its purse-strings closed against the language of flowers. This
they repeat every morning. If you breakfast at Doney's, the
Delmonico of Florence, a fresh bouquet is on your table as
soon as you are seated. If you escape this, you are overtaken
in the street, or at the Cascine, and decorated, despite all mod
est resistance, with the infallible sign of a newly-caught stran-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 121
ger. After all, it is a very pretty and innocent affair, barring
the advertisement it holds out of a greenhorn to be plucked.
The Cascine is so arranged that carriages, horsemen, and
pedestrians have each their distinct avenues. Seats are plen
tifully supplied, and also cosey, shady nooks, most agreeable
to lovers or the recluse. Why is it that the sovereign peo
ple of America do not sufficiently regard their health and
pleasure to create for themselves similar grounds ? In the
plenitude of our political wisdom, we pity the subjects of the
sovereign princes of Europe, but we forget that those said
despots throw open to the masses galleries, palaces, and par
ticularly gardens, such as no private republican wealth can
ever hope to rival. The poor of Europe are more liberally
supplied in these respects than the rich of America. Are these
advantages as nothing in the scale of individual happiness ?
But to return to the Cascine, or, rather, to its fashionable
throng. I had driven twice around its shady avenue, wishing
the while that pubhc taste in America was equal to the crea
tion of similar results, and now found myself near the centre
of the circle of carriages. The Austrian band was playing a
polka, to the time of which little children were hopping mer
rily on the greensward. A bright sun — it was in December
— warmed up the Arno and the hills. Although near Christ
mas, boys were wading in the river ; ladies were slowly
promenading in the open air, sitting on_the seats, or, in lazy
elegance, half-reclining in their open carriages. The trees
were still well clothed with leaves, and the grass as fresh as
in June. This sunny luxuriance was in a climate two degrees
north of Boston. The panorama was a brilliant one. I wish
my pen could place it before the reader. Austrian staff-offi
cers were galloping here and there, showing off their horse
manship, and the most tasteful of uniforms. Groups of gen
tlemen clustered about the oarriages of dark-browed Italian

128 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

belles, whose brilliant eyes rather commanded than solicited
homage. There were worshipers, too, at the shrines of En
glish, German, Russian, and French loveliness. My own
country furnished specimens as fair as any. Each was the
centre of a little out-door reception. The toilettes correspond
ed with the occasion — -as bright and as varied as the flower
beds of the Tuileries in summer.
The scene was a fair one to look upon — the more the pity
that it was not all harmony within. I had beside me a com
panion deeply versed in Florentine life, and, whether I was in
the mood or no, Mephistophiles like, he continued to unravel.
in my ear its Gordian knot. Those of my readers who disap
prove of any thing that savors of scandal, even though that
frightful name be but a reflection of the sadder truths or ludi-_
crous shades of society, will please skip any remarks not to
their taste. For my own part, I speak of the world just as I
find it. I wish it were a wiser and a happier one, but,, such
as it is, it is the best that we have.
" Do you see that lady,'' said Mephistophiles to me, " in the
blue hat, with the unmistakable air of the Gluartier Breda about
her ? There she sits, in that elegant coupe. See how saucily
those young exquisites stare at her as they pass along ! Her
game flies higher, but she has missed her swoop, and is going
back to Paris soon.
"' Just look at that carriage full of bulky English ! heavy
dames those, and dressed as most Enghsh women dress, so as
to conceal beauty and exaggerate defect. The daughters are
pretty enough, but see how unamiable they look — a thunder
cloud gathering before the sun. Turn your eyes a bit, and de
tect the cause. They are miserable unless they can outdo
their neighbors, the Dashaways. At this moment they are
undergoing the agonies of a defeat, for Lord Twaddle, with his
foot condescendingly placed upon the Dashaways' carriage-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 123
step, is saying saucy things to the mother, and flirting desper
ately with the youngest of the girls. Nature has no charms
for such persons. Their happiness is made up of bows, beaus,
and badinage. Just beyond them is that fair-haired Scotch
clan, who so admirably represent the pride and beauty of their
country. They come as regularly as the sun to the Cascine,
and hold themselves as coldly distant as the moon.
" Whose is that sweet face next to a mamma that looks wor
thy of Such a daughter ? With what becoming elegance they
are dressed ! They are Americans, and the girl is to inherit
a fortune of a million, it is said, but she looks as retiring and
unassuming as if she had never seen city life. How unlike
that dark beauty near her ! She's Italian, not yet sixteen, but
married at fourteen. At twelve she professed herself blasee
and tired of the world of fashion. Like Marie Antoinette, she
should retire to the country and play at milk-maid to recruit
her exhausted sensibilities.
" Here comes the Grand Duke and his family. Quite an
imperial turn-out, with their outriders and mounted guard.
But they mingle very unceremoniously with the crowd. They
have been walking along the Arno, jostled by any one who
may be unconscious of their rank, for there is nothing to dis
tinguish them except a couple of footmen, walking out of ear
shot in their rear. This sort of attendance is so common, that,
unless you know the royal livery, you could not tell them from
any of the FiesohT nobility.
" The Florentines rarely enter the galleries. To go beyond
the Cascine would be to set out on their travels through the
world. One of the journals gave, not long since, a list of thirty
names of persons who had passed their lives in Florence with
out once crossing the river from the side on which they were
born to the other. Twenty minutes, as you know, is quite
sufficient to take a good walker to the farthest extremity of

124 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

the city. You may judge, then, of the enterprise of these de
scendants of the proudest, and. fiercest Republican's of Italy —
those merchant princes, whose commerce drew the wealth of
the world into their coffers. Every thing now is allowed to
take as much rest as it pleases except the church-bells ; their
tongues keep up a perpetual clatter. Several hundred, ali
ding-donging at once, from four o'clock in the morning on fete-
days to midnight, is a trying thing for the nerves in a small
city like this. The coachmen have as little rest. If they
sleep at all, it must be on their boxes. Under the paternal
strictness of the Grand Duke, every thing goes on as regular
as clock-work except the clocks themselves. There is as lit
tle accord between them as between Italian families. One
would suppose that they had inherited the social feuds of their
fabricators. They do not even agree in striking. I asked a
Florentine one day why they did not set them to rights.
' What the devil does any one want to know of the time in
Florence V was his reply. He was quite right. Where there
is nothing to do but to amuse one's self, there is no time but
the present.
" Take notice of that group to your left. Magnificent car
riages these ! not those cumbersome and stately old family:
coaches covered with gold and paintings, but those hght, taste
ful affairs, which: make the very horses proud of their chains'.:
Each represents a family charged with centuries of names
splendidly historical. A tinge of pride may be pardoned in
the descendants of the Albizzi, Capponi, Gherarde'sca, Guic-
ciardini, and the Medici, even though wilted by despotism and
fashion into idle elegants. I have no sympathy for the Med
ici, for, if they suffer, it is by the ' lex talionis.'
" Remark how aloof the Italians keep from the Austriaris !
not all, but some. They do not know how to govern them
selves, yet they hate those who save them that trouble. No.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 125
Austrian ever crosses their thresholds. • Some noble families
have even abandoned the court because there they must meet
their rulers. To speak to an Austrian is to' be estranged from
them. One lately told me, with frank bluntness, that stran
gers must choose between the Austrians and Florentines ; they
could not be on good terms with both. When you come to
know the Tuscan patois better, you will appreciate the wit and
humor ofthe street ' gamins,' as they mock the stolid Germans.
It is hke pouring oil upon the wounds of those haughty patri
cians, for other revenge than street jibes and social isolation is
beyond their power."
Among so many lions ofthe first magnitude, there was no
cessation of curiosity. My friend had barely time to dispose
of one before I probed him upon another. His memory was
a perfect epitome of the life within the life about us. I pick
ed out a couple of the most distinguished appearance. The
gentleman was driving a faultless span of black horses. He
was one ofthe finest specimens of refined manly beauty I had
ever seen, perfect to a nicety in his costume, with that unex-
aggerated tone in both his mental and physical aspect that
marks the polished man of the world. The lady beside him
was his equal in these respects; pale, unanimated,and deli
cate even beyond the American standard of female loveliness.
Their " tiger" was the model of his species. I. looked in vain
for a loophole for criticism, and at last triumphantly ex
claimed, " There's my pattern for a family turn-out. Count
D'Orsay might rival, but could not excel, the chaste style of
their entire appearance- Then, too, their faces interest me
prodigiously. They seem so well matched. Who are they?"
" The gentleman is noble — an old family — his ancestors have
left a name in Italy. He is a perfect specimen of a Florentine
lion. Our day is his night — that is to say, like'- the rest of
the idlers, he rises at midday or after, dresses for the Cascine,

12fi ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

thence to the Pergola, to receptions and soirees at midnight,
and retires toward morning. The want of sufficient sunlight
will explain, in him as with others, the extraordinary pale
ness of the fashionable Florentines. Their education is not,
as the French say, ' tres fort,' and their chief passion is for
horses. With many, even with princely incomes, there is little
comfort or hospitality within doors, but great show without.
" The lady you admire so greatly is a relative of an emper
or. There has been some difficulty about the ' dot,' and other
matters not uncommon in European circles. The cardinal
archbishop who married them patched up a sort of peace,
and for a while she and her husband appear together in pub
lic, while at home they live separate. But that is the case
with many. You may visit a lady familiarly for a year, and
not make the discovery that she has a husband. Do not make
so vulgar a mistake as to suppose that every couple you see
are the legitimate twain. Matrimony in Italy has a very droll
signification, according to our ideas. But some allowance
should be made where estates and families, but not tastes or
inclinations, are united. The intervention of a friend becomes
indispensable for harmony. Hence the much-talked-of 'cicis-
beism,' or husband within the husband, the veritable bond,
while the nominal is only a name. A lady said to me, ' What
would you have us do ? We must have some one to advise
with, to act for us, to attend to all our little wants.' It never
occurred to her that a husband was the person for those fa
miliar offices."
" But what r61e do the husbands fill ?"
" That question," said Mephistophiles, " I will reply to by
quoting a little dialogue,
" ' M. de  ,' said the emperor to one of his courtiers,
' they tell me that you are a cuckold. Why have you not
told me V

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 137
" ' Sire,' answered M. de  , ' because I believed it
neither interested my honor nor that of your majesty.'
"Italian husbands are much of this advice. Fidelity, and
even chastity, is estimated, not by the amount of attention to
the external union, but by the faith preserved toward the sec
ond ; or, in other words, the liaison grows to be the veritable
marriage. As soon as the choice is public, it becomes hedged
about with a morality which would do credit to true virtue,
and is as imperative in its requisitions as are our own rules
of conventional etiquette. The very fidelity of Italian women
toward lovers proves their capability of correct attachments,
if national customs did not force them astray. Many of these
unions, with all their external famiharity, do not extend be
yond friendship. They, however, are being mitigated, and
1 cicisbeism' is not now universal. Don't blame too severely
the warm-hearted daughters of Italy. Custom and careless
ness make them indifferent to what we consider immoral. I
am sorry to say that the standard of other women too often
varies with every migration. Difference of latitude effects a
surprising revolution in morals. Look at Mrs.  and
Madame  , both from countries where morality is taught
with the alphabet. Yet here they manage to slip from their
lawful lords, and taste the apple of variety, publicly too, and
are every where well received, or else I should be silent. But
in Italy society does not think it worth the trouble to cloak
its vices, or, I should say, our customs are your vices."
" Do these ladies go to court ?"
" Certainly. The truth is, that the silent sanction given to
' cicisbeism' makes sad breaches in the right standard of mor
als. Society here is extremely latitudinarian so long as cer
tain conventionalisms are observed. As I have said, a woman
is virtuous as she cleaves to her lover. To create scandal, she
must indulge openly in more than one. You see this couple,

128 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

and that, and dozens of others that you know about as well as
I. Marriage with them is more a treaty of separation than a
bond of union, or if united, the connection, owing to the in
tervention of a third party, too- often a priest, is less to their
credit than if they lived apart. I do not think that now, as
formerly, parties stipulate in the marriage contract for the right
of lovers, but keener eyesight than mine might be pardoned
for becoming confused by the extraordinary cross-lights of this
matrimonial jumble. As for children — why, legitimacy, like
justice, is blindfolded — they are bom, named, and no ques
tions asked. The poor victims are ordered to marry by their
parents, which they must do, just as if they were told to go to
school. Ten to one they know as little of each other as they
do of their confessors when first subjected to their question
ings. If the acquaintance does not improve with time, it soon
becomes as politely distant as that of two friends about to
fight a duel. But as new social wants have been developed,
their solace explains those habits which tacitly acquiesce in
the fact, or expect every woman to be more intimate with
her neighbor's husband than her own. This is the whole
story in a nut-shell. And when you ask if Duke so and so is
married, and are told yes, but he lives in one wing of the pal
ace and the wife in the other, perhaps the one at the villa
and the other in town, and that they never meet except in
public, do not look incredulous. Many put even a greater dis
tance than that between them. Yonder elegant noble, so at
tentive to that lady beside him, receives a handsome annuity
on condition of not coming nearer to his wife than he is at
present; that is to. say, some hundreds of miles.
" There drive by the descendants of a king of Poland, and
heirs of one of Napoleon's most gallant generals. Their pal
ace is veritably regal. The sons and daughter are great mu
sicians, composing and executing their own performances suf-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 129
ficiently well to please the fastidious ears of Italian critics.
They performed at the Opera at Boulogne with great applause,
and retired under a shower of bouquets. But, as they distrib
uted the tickets gratis, perhaps the praise savored a trifle of
thanks. " That old lady, with an ocean of rouge on her cheeks, now
the Princess  , was formerly the wife of a Roman me
chanic. The prince fancied her charms, and she his money
and titles. A bargain was soon struck, and the carpenter's
spouse became the mother of princes — and a good mother she
made. At last the carpenter was good-natured enough to die,
and his wife became a legitimate princess by the superfluous
ceremony of marriage. It is said in society here that her son
remarked to a friend on that ceremony, when asked to go else
where, ' Excuse me ; you know I am engaged to attend my
¦mother's marriage !'
" It is wholesome for your republican eyes to look occasion
ally into the morale of the titles they gaze upon so wistfully.
Aristocratic vices are great levelers of patrician principles.
We hold up the Socialists, with their doctrine of ' marriage is
robbery,' as the great bugbears of the ag,e. But with them it
is but an empty theory, while many ofthe nobles, who are per
petually crying ' stew-boy' to the people against the Socialists
on account of their disorganizing doctrines, are actually ex
emplifying in their own persons the most, pernicious one of all.
Human nature is like that crooked stick, we read about, that
was constantly turning over in the vain pursuit of an easy
position. "Here drives up the Duke of  , a dashing, wild young
fellow, and fond of scrapes of all sorts. See, he does not wait
to descend by the steps, but jumps over the back of his car
riage-. He is married to the sister of King  , a woman
possessed of many virtues and exemplary patience, though the
F2

130 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

public, will have it that the wind does not always blow fair in
their palace. The newspaper talk has been of a divorce, but
it is nothing but talk, for they live as comfortably together as
their rank will let them. She is an angel of mercy to the
poor." " Who are those handsome young fellows, driving so rapid
ly in those elegant dog-wagons, with those matchless black
horses ?"
" The first couple are Greek exquisites and princes — dwarf
ish Alcibiadii — their talent running chiefly to dress and horse
flesh from sheer necessity of idleness. The others are the
princely * * *, fast competitors inthe same line, and lovers of
the chase. They have an old father of upward of eighty, who
knows how to keep his house and lineage in order. His pos
sessions are scattered all the way from Sicily to Trieste. He
has a deep head and purse. Napoleon made him a Council
or of State, the Pope a senator, and the Grand Duke his em
bassador to Naples when he sent to that court to solicit the
hand ofthe present Grand Duchess. He accepted, conditioned
upon paying the expenses of the embassy himself, and he
made it a second ' field of gold.'
" Do you see that lout ? He bears an honored name, and
honors it so greatly as to consider it an equivalent for lack of
brains. He divides his attention between the bottle and low
women. But do not take him as a type of the male Floren
tines of good family. If they are not what the world expects,
it is their misfortune rather than their fault. It is their disad
vantage to be overwhelmed by the greatness of their ancestry.
Commercial enterprises and industrial pursuits are interdicted
to them by the inexorable laws of caste. Army and navy
there are none, or next to none. The Church, to the non-re
ligious, is rather a cloak for vice than a school of religion.
There is nothing free to them — not even, as we have seen,

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 131
marriage. Their country is a conquered province. Politics
are forbidden fruit, with the bayonet and guillotine to hedge
it round. Is it surprising, then, that they should degenerate
into elegant idlers, and prefer cards to books, horses to the
sciences ? There are among them talents and spirit. Many
fought bravely for the emancipation of Tuscany during the
Revolution. They groan in heaviness of spirit at the degra
dation of Italy. One said to me lately that he should be proud
to be an Englishman or an American, but he was ashamed to
be an Itahan. If they are ignorant, it is because the govern
ment supervises education and the press, so that nothing that
bears not its stamp of orthodoxy shall penetrate their minds.
Poor fellows ! with natures fitted to make them the equals —
nay, the superiors — of other races, they are crushed under a
load that no humanity would be proof against. Worse than
all, no ray of hope brightens their horizon."
" Who is that man with such a thin, fierce face, white hair,
and long mustaches, which he is constantly twirling ? He
looks about him with a suspicious, uneasy glance."
" That is Field-marshal Haynau, of Hungarian notoriety.
He is living here incognito. He calls himself an abused man,
both by the press and his government ; for, as he told a friend
of mine, he never ordered women to be whipped, though the
laws of Austria required it. ' They say,' he added, ' that I
am a cruel man ; but it is not so. I am a soldier, and have
lived all my life in camps, and have the rough habits of a sol
dier, but I never committed any cruelty not required by my
position. I have friends who love me dearly, and there is not
another general as popular as I am with the army.' His friends
assert that the Austrian government used him for their own
purposes in Hungary, and then sacrificed him to the public
opinion of Europe as a sort of scape-goat for their own sins.
Others say that he is an obstinate and troublesome officer ; on

132 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

one occasion hanging eighteen Hungarians that the govern
ment wished to spare, and, on' being reprimanded, allowing
as. many more to go free that they wished to have executed.
However that may be, he walks and acts like a man conscious
that he is under the ban of public opinion, and that it is a
weightier load than he can well bear.
" But I tire you. We will pass a few more lions in review,
and drive home, for it is not wholesome to be out on the Cas
cine after sunset. See,' the old Duke de  sets the exam
ple. He is the heir of the wiliest of diplomats, by whose
code a mistake was a graver error than a fault. Did you ever
see a man of his age in a better state of preservation ? His
toilet is a study. Strip him, and the change would be sur
prising. There goes, too, a lady of equal age, and one who has
done you Americans a world of good by her abuse. She en
joys high consideration, in consequence, among the English:
Indeed, all Americans who know her respect her talents and
thank her for her criticisms. - She is the famous Mrs. Trol
lope, now enjoying here the fruits and honors of her industri
ous and clever literary career.
" That family, divided between a carriage and horseback, is
Charles O'Malley's, or, in other words, the wife and daughters
of that prince of Irish wit and humor, Charles Lever. He
sports fine horses, and is a capital fellow, as amusing in con
versation as he is entertaining in books. He should go to
America, to keep you serious Republicans in a roar of laugh
ter, by way of enlivening your blood. That dreamy young
man, so intimate with him, is a son of England's greatest lit
erary lion.- He is secretary to his uncle, the British embassa
dor, and has inherited all of his father's talent.
" That stout, handsome man, leaning on his cane, is the
prince of harmony, Rossini, who, with fifty thousand a year,
fears that poverty is coming upon him like a strong armed

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 133
man. And now for the greatest lion of all — that magnificent-
looking fellow, seven feet high, with the proportions of one
of Michael Angelo's statues. He is a mechanic, and for a pen
sion of five pauls (fifty-five cents) per day, has sold his skele
ton to the Academy of Medicine. They have bargained that
he is not to leave Florence ; but as he bids fair to live a half
century more, his bones will cost them dear, and few of the
present generation will see them. They call him the living
skeleton, by virtue of the bond. There is one other such a
giant at Pisa, a shrewder chap, who has sold his frame to two
different corporations. Won't there be' a rattling among the
dry bones when the two powers seek to enforce possession ?
" If the Italians needs must have masters, I am glad that
they send them such fine-looking specimens of the warrior
tribe as we find here. Their uniform does much for them,
still it would be difficult to find more well-made, goodrlooking
men elsewhere. There trots by the Prince L  , the Austri
an general-in-chief, a genuine St. George. He looks like a
hard foe and a dare-devil friend. A chivalrous, gallant soldier
all account him. There are more reasons than grow out of
politics why the jealous Italians should hate their handsome
conquerors. " You perceive that the Cascine still boasts of a respectable
herd of lions, mingling here in peaceful pastime. The burgher
citizens gaze admiringly upon the brilliant throng, but rarely
attempt to cross the line of rank. They bring their families
to see, but not to make a part of, the show. An American or
Englishman, in their eyes, has not much to boast of in way of
blood, but he looms up in their vision like another Nebuchad
nezzar's image, all made of gold. Heretical though the metal
be, he is not unwilling to worship it, and much of his extra
ordinary civility can be traced to the power of lucre.
.. " The Cascine has the power, of loadstone. The needle, of

134 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

fashion turns to it from every quarter of Florence, and as Tus
cany has been, until recently, the home of distinguished exiles,
it can boast of having sheltered within its palaces at one time
more great titles, if not names, than any other pleasure-grounds
of Europe. A few years since it might have claimed cousin-
ship with Napoleon's celebrated pit full of kings. Here could
be seen the Count Saint Lew, ex-King of Holland; the Prince
of Montfort, ex-King of Westphalia ; the Duke of Lucca, ex-
King of Etruria ; Madame Christophe, ex-Q,ueen of Hayti ;
the Poniatowski's, descendants of the King of Poland ; some
sprouts from the magnificent line of the Medici ; and the
Prince of Syracuse, an ex- viceroy of Sicily. A tolerable crowd
of dethroned heads."
With such entertaining discourse my friend enlivened our
way back to town, bestowing upon me some characteristic in
formation or piquant anecdote of each notable name or title as
they proudly swept along the beautiful avenue. It was an in
teresting accompaniment to an agreeable picture. Such as I
could remember I have given, but if my readers would enjoy
it as I did, let them come and take their places in the pano
rama. Mephistophiles still watches over the spectacle with
his good-humored cynicism, and I will bespeak for them the
favor of his interpreting glance.
I had almost forgotten his last quiet probe at the social
world, as the subject of his tale, in all the pride of aristocratic
equipages and liveries, came up. " Those grand ladies," said
he, " are daughters of a London sausage-maker. A manoeu
vring mother brought them here, and, by the promise of mag
nificent dowries, bought them titled husbands. By some ex
traordinary absence of mind, their Itahan lords were simple
enough to sign the marriage contracts without the equivalent
in hand, so that they have had the pleasure not only of pos
sessing, but supporting their wives ever since. There is no

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 135
speculation more uncertain than these matrimonial mesalli
ances. They make a terrible hodge-podge of morals and soci
ety. If there be any difference between them and the Cir
cassian mode of supplying the wife-market, it is that in many
instances the candidates for the nuptial bed sell themselves —
a much greater ignominy than if sold without their own con
sent. That dilapidated-looking marquis, just crossing the road
on foot, married a rich old Englishwoman. The result is, that
while he all but starves, and endeavors to raise a loan for his
personal wants from his friends upon the dubious security of
his wife's death, she rides in her coach and four, covered with
jewels and velvets, reveling in the eclat of her artfully-secured
title. Those who play with edged tools — you know the rest."-

CHAPTER VI.
WHAT A "SIGHT-SEER" DID SEE IN ONE DAY.
If I were called upon to name the individual of the human
species that unites in his or her person the greatest powers of
endurance with the utmost impatience, the most unflagging
activity to a body always just ready to drop from fatigue ; a
mind skeptical from its shallowness, yet ready to ingulf entire
kingdoms in its capacious maw, and to bolt miracles and rel
ics by scores — in short, that individual who combines in him
or herself the most opposite qualities, whether of body or
mind, I should unhesitatingly pronounce that individual to be
the modern " sight-seer." Reader mine, has it ever fallen to
thy lot to travel with one ? If so, now that thy fatigues have
become reminiscences, it may please thee to renew, on paper,
thy self-inflicted sufferings of yore, when, impatient of home,
thou rashly becamest a tourist. If not, reader, ponder and in
wardly digest a day's experience of mine, lest thou, too, in the
folly of thy heart, shalt say,
" John, pack my trunk ; to-morrow I'm off for Italy."
" Sight-seeing," from its original purpose of information, has
been perverted by these traveling pests into a frigid duty.
Nothing must be allowed to escape their observation that has
attained the dignity of being a " sight." They neither study,
examine, nor look. " They have been there." That short sen
tence embraces with them equally the entire Rise and Fall of
the Roman Empire, the Chinese Wall, Mohammed's Tomb, or
the hair of the Virgin. It has been the fashion heretofore for

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 137
lions to swallow travelers ; but now travelers swallow lions by
scores, in one day. So far is digestion from being impaired
by this enormous meal, it but serves as a whet to the appetite
for the succeeding. There is but one soft spot in their con
science. Hint to them that there is something that they have
missed — be it but the ass's jaw-bone with which Samson slew
the Philistines, an antediluvian salt-cellar, or an Etruscan
tomb — and their remorse is fearful to behold. True, some
will stoutly deny the possibility of there existing any thing
that they have not seen ; others will offset their loss by more
marvelous sights in the neighborhood, and endeavor to over
whelm your discovery by the magnitude of their own ; but it
is easy to perceive in both that the wound rankles,"and can
only be cured by seeing forthemselves also. The only object
that such persons can possibly have in view must be a " cata
logue," and the malicious pleasure of saying to the unsophisti
cated tourist who travels really " to see" — but to see and study
only those objects which both gratify and instruct, believing
that to see every thing is really to see nothing—" Oh ! you
surprise me ; how could you miss it ? I assure you it was
worth all the rest." For my part, I should like to see every
thing ; but. then I should desire to have both life and memory
augmented to tenfold their present capacity.
The gender of these " sight-seers" is both male and female.
What is the most singular, neither age, infirmity, nor other
evils to which human flesh is heir, have the slightest effect in
modifying this passion. Even delicacy is often discarded as
inconvenient. As for health, that poor orphan must take
care of itself. " To see" is the entire creed — to know, re
member, or understand, are indifferent points.
The necessities of this class have created a dozen other
classes — parasites of the worst and most annoying character —
who effectually contrive to destroy all the comfort and pleas-

138 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
ure the modest seeker of knowledge, or lover of association,
otherwise might have. I speak of the race generally, and
class them as guides, ciceroni, coachmen, donkey-drivers, vend
ers of prints and antiquities, couriers, inn-keepers, showmen,
valets, door-keepers, and beggars of every quality. All these
are purse-leeches, united in a common league to defraud and
extort. But the depletion of coin is the least of their evils.
Better, by far, is it to fall among the savages of the American
deserts, or to be surrounded with wild animals, than to be in
the midst of these human wolves. The more they are fed,
the worse they snarl and bite. Unsusceptible of gratitude,
they are proof against generosity. Like cormorants, every
thing is food for their maws ; and with the baseness pecuhar
only to human nature, they fawn upon those they fear, and
mock at those they gull.
I shall select one only out of the many similar days' experi
ence that, thanks to the system introduced by " sight-seers,"
have now become the common lot of travelers on classic soil.
By the time my readers have followed me through that day's
labor, they will have come to the conclusion that all play -and
no work is not the fate of tourists who have been so unfortu
nate as to link their fortunes to those of a universal sight
seer. One of these terrible beings, of the female sex — the mania
with them is even worse than with the male — had taken us in
charge for the day. In addition to her all-seeing and omnis-
cious qualities, she was tormented with an insatiable desire
for system, and an incurable propensity to lecture ; so that we
were called upon to look and listen, at the same moment, aft
er the most orthodox manner possible, of the most skillful of
all the mighty lion-hunters that yearly do the " grand tour."
" Us" made a party as unfavorable as can well be conceived
for the appreciation of the talents of our anomalous Nimrod.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 139
It consisted of a young lady, who much preferred youthful
beaus to old ruins ; a fashionable matron, who would like to
see what fashionable people went to see — but in as ladylike a
manner as possible, and who much preferred the use of her
own tongue to that of another ; a young gentleman, to whom
every thing but cards, and suppers, and talking were unmiti
gated bores ; and your humble servant, who went because it
would have been so stupid to have staid behind. The local
ity was Naples ; the hour of starting, as soon as the coffee was
swallowed ; and the conveyance, a comfortable carriage, with
three horses, covered with innumerable bells, that jingled mer
rily as we rapidly sped over the level pavements.
Our first station was Virgil's Tomb, at the entrance of the
Grotto of Pausilipo. It is in a garden, midway up the hill
which commands so magnificent a view of the Bay of Naples.
This was, at all events, worth seeing ; so was the tomb, for
those whose faith has not been destroyed by antiquarians. It
is a nondescript stone building, of a cylindrical shape, sur
mounted by a dome, with nothing to remind one of the poet
except a modern inscription. We had four volunteers to show
us the gate of the garden, directly before our eyes ; another
insisted upon being our guide on a path which as plainly led
to the tomb as Broadway does to Union Square ; then an own
er of the lot joined in the procession ; lastly, not to mention
the usual assault of beggars, appeared the guardian of the
tomb, with his key, to show us how empty and dark it is with
in — each of whom clamored for bucksheesh with an eagerness
worthy of Bedouins.
I know nothing within the range of sights that more belies
its name, and puts to flight every poetic and romantic asso
ciation, than the so-called Grotto of Pausilipo. This grotto is
a tunnel, half a mile long, twenty-two feet broad, and some
eighty feet high, cut through the hill to form a subterranean

140 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

road, by which the distance to Pozzuoli is materially shorten
ed. It is an ancient affair, an. antiquity in the days of Seneca,
who thought it worth mentioning. But, in comparison with
modern railroad tunnels, this ancient bore is the work of pig
mies, particularly as the rock is as easily cut as ice. There is
a petty chapel at the entrance, excavated out of the hill-side,
the station of a dirty, savage-looking hermit, who waylays ev
ery carriage with his frightful gestures and screams for alms.
The grotto is the main road to Baise, now, as formerly, a crowd
ed thoroughfare for carriages, foot-passengers, and droves of
animals. Every one who ventures through undergoes a fear
ful purgatory of unwholesome air, lamp-smoke, dust, and
countless other annoyances, before emerging to daylight and a
filthy suburb of Naples. The road is good, however, and soon
takes one into the midst of vineyards and other vegetation.
Before reaching the Lake d'Agnano it becomes circuitous
and sandy, being a by-road. This lake, like all others in the
vicinity, is an old crater, which nature, with a love of change
quite worthy of a woman, has emptied of fire only to fill it
with water. But there is fire near by, and plenty of it too,
judging from the steam cracks in the earth, and the sulphur
ous fumes which impregnate the atmosphere. Before reach
ing the lake we were snatched up by a guide, who, pointing to
the lake, gravely informed us that it was a lake — next, that
the bath-house was a bath-house — consigning us at the door
to another, who ushered us into various rudely-built chambers,
from the sides and floors of which sulphurous vapors ascended
with all the force of a young Tartarus. These baths have been
in use for thousands of years for the destruction of rheumatism.
They have an alternate action with Vesuvius, growing hotter
and more copious in their discharges as Vesuvius becomes
quiet. In their rear are the remains of one of the numerous-
villas belonging to Lucullus.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 141
At a short distance to the right is the "Grotta del Cane,"
where unhappy dogs are doomed to daily-renewed deaths for
the philosophic gratification of pitiless visitors. This grotto is
merely a small cavity in the hill, scarcely large enough for a
man to enter, and closed by a wooden door, to which, of course,
was attached its keeper. A pretty little dog, of a mongrel-
spaniel look, had followed us, without much reluctance, to this
cave, though seemingly aware of the fate in store for it. The
master of ceremonies asserted, as was natural, that the experi
ment was harmless to the dog ; but if a human being can
not breathe with impunity carbonic acid gas until it causes
convulsions, neither can a dog. The experiment is a cruel
one^and we were hard-hearted enough to consent to it. The
keeper held the dog by his legs, with his face toward the
ground, from which issued the mephitic gases. He turned
his eyes piteously toward.us, and yet seemed to take a morbid
pleasure in the fatal draught. In less than a minute his limbs
were convulsed ; in another minute life would have been ex
tinct, but the keeper withdrew him; and laid him upon the
grass in the fresh air. The recovery from this semi-death
must be more painful than its previous endurance, for the poor
animal gasped, and was evidently in torture. A few minute's
brought him entirely to — languid, but not without some ani
mation — for he made an attempt to frisk about. A moment
after, he came to me and licked my hand.
I inwardly vowed that no dog should again be immolated
for my sake. A lighted torch, held close to the ground, was
immediately extinguished. It ' was^ a hopeless effort to at
tempt to discharge a pistol within its inffuenoe. I breathed
it for a second, and became so dizzy and faint, with such a
painful sensation at the stomach, that I was but too glad to
withdraw, without farther experience of what the poor brute
must have suffered.

142 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

A cold boiling spring, as it is termed, close by, completed,
as we supposed, the sights of this lake ; but another guide
made his appearance, and insisted that he had charge of a cu
riosity worth them all. To miss nothing, we followed him.
He led us to a newly-constructed grotto, opened the door, and
ushered us in. This grotto covered a spring or fountain of
ammoniacal gas, which is inhaled by consumptives. Follow
ing his example, we bent ourselves toward the floor, and lap
ped up with our hands mouthsful of this not unpleasant air.
Its first effect was somewhat exhilarating, but it should be
breathed only with great caution. A frog, placed on the floor,
made at first desperate attempts to escape. Gradually his
limbs became motionless, and in three minutes he was dead.
In the half hour that we passed at this lake we had encoun
tered five guides or guardians — disbursed among them nine
francs — run through the usual gauntlet of beggars — been steep
ed in hot sulphur, drugged with carbonic acid vapors, and made
light headed with ammoniacal gas — an experience, one would
have supposed, quite sufficient for an entire day, though it
proved but the initiative ceremonies of ours.
From the Lago d'Agnano -we drove to Pozzuoli, along the
new beach road, affording on one side fine sea-views of the
Bay of Naples, and on the other an occasionally almost over
powering stench. Indeed, Pozzuoli, or Puteoli, as it once was
called, derives its name from its fetid odors, which do not grow
any sweeter from age.
At the entrance of this ancient town, the onslaught made
upon us was terrible. Guides charged upon us in scores,
catching hold ofthe carriage, and even seizing upon the wheels
to arrest our progress. Beggars, whose entire capital consist
ed of broken or maimed limbs, crutches, sores disgustingly ex
posed to public view, and every species of natural deformity,
and acquired impudence and importunity, chanted their cease-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 143
less whining chorus in our ears. " Charity, charity ! your
excellencies, charity ! Beautiful ladies, for the love of the
holy Madonna, give us something, and the saints will bless
you !" " Do you want a guide ?" " Do you want a donkey ?"
" Here's a bronze Mercury, a veritable antique, your excellen
cy, just dug up !" shouted a vender of antiquities, waving his
clever imitation ofthe classic idol in the air to attract observ
ation. "Look at the beautiful relic, your excellency!" cried
another ; " one dollar only," at the same moment endangering
my face by a shapeless mass of metal, covered with verdigris,
which he thrust almost into my eyes. Ragged and dirty ur
chins, but with fine faces and waggish tongues, swelled our
cortege, and made the " confusion still worse confounded" by
their sharp cries for the smallest coins. Mothers, still more
ragged and dirty, bronzed, in the sun, and hardened by poverty
to reckless lying and beggary, snatched up their own or their
neighbor's infants, and rushed after us in furious haste to gath
er their share of the spoil. To give or buy off such a horde
was to make each succeeding visitor's path more perilous. It
would have been a bounty on vice and violence. Having been
furnished at Naples with the name of a reliable guide, we
shouted for Angelo, and, almost instantaneously, as if he had
sprung from the earth, Angelo was upon the box, and we un
der his orders. Seeing us a prize to Angelo, the besieging
crowd gradually returned to their lair at the outskirts of the
town, to await fresh arrivals.
" Now, Angelo," said our lady patroness, " we wish to see
all the sights of Pozzuoli, Baias, Cuma?, Misenum, Solfaterra,
and every thing else between this and — " " Hell !" our exas
perated dandy added, as the prospect of the day's work began
to dawn upon his already half used-up faculties. He meant
"Avernus," but in his angry haste gave the plain English.
" And, Angelo, return to Naples by a different route, and do

144 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

not omit a single ruin or interesting object," continued she,
not noticing the interruption. " Angelo," I added, " drive off
all beggars and sellers of antiques ; pay all ciceroni, hire all
donkeys, settle for every thing yourself; and take care, as you
value your own pay, that no side demands reach us." " Yes,
your excellency, you shall be well served," replied Angelo, de-
¦ lighted at- the prospect of the haul before him. I would ad
vise all travelers in such straits as we to do the same. To be
cheated by one to whom you have given a carte blanche is
vastly more satisfactory than to be annoyed by countless im
positions at every step of the way.
St. Paul rested seven days at Pozzuoli on his voyage to
Rome, but I think it would be difficult for any modern saint
to obtain even an hour's rest in this place since it has become
a show town — a sort of galvanic grave-yard of antiques. Our
first stage was the curious old temple of Jupiter Serapis, the
titbit of geologists, on account of its columns, which furnish a
sort of conchological chronology ofthe earth's movements ever
since their erection. It was built more than two thousand
years ago, and originally, judging from the numerous ancient
baths around it, to which the water still has access — and, in
deed, some are still in use — it must have been a sort of relig
ious hydropathic establishment. When first discovered, in
1750, after its partial burial by an earthquake, it was quite
perfect, and might have been made, at slight expense, the most
complete and beautiful relic of antiquity. But the kings of
Naples, wanting its gracefulcolumns, colored marbles, and fine
statuary for their modern buildings, have reduced this temple
to the skeleton of its former state.
The next antiquity to which our attention was directed
were the immense piers of the old mole, constructed so far
back that nobody can now decide when, though they were in
debted to the Roman emperors for repairs. They remain un-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 145
der the charge of Neptune ; and as nobody can fence them in,
there was nothing to pay for looking at them. Caligula used
them as a parting station for his temporary bridge of boats,
with which he connected Baise with Pozzuoli.
Rejoining our carriage, we took the road to Cumse, passing
every inch of the way over classic, but very dusty and heavy
soil. On our right were the remains of the villa of Cicero,
about as interesting in present appearance as a dilapidated
brick-kiln. Singularly enough, all that is left, that is not vague
and shapeless, is a wine-cellar. Here the Emperor Hadrian
died, and Cicero composed his Academic Questions — two facts
which, in the way of reminiscence, make these ruins of more
interest than most ofthe others that so thickly strew this coast.
The road to Cumse took us past Lake Avemus, quite a pic
turesque and gentle sheet of water, with nothing at present
about it to remind one of Virgil's Tartarus. However noxious
it may once have been, birds not only fly across it now with
impunity, but alight upon its surface, and fish find a safe home
in its waters. But nature in this region performs strange
freaks, often in a most unexpected manner, so that one should
take heed how he indulges in skepticism as to what does hot
now exist as described by ancient ocular authorities. The
entire coast vibrates under the influence of volcanic action.
Looking down from the precipitous cliffs at Bauli, we could
see the ruins of temples and villas beneath the clear waters.
The temple of Jupiter Serapis had been submerged, and after
ward restored to earth again by the same fiery agent. An
earthquake in 1538, or more properly a volcanic eruption, cre
ated in thirty-six hours the present Monte Nuovo, a hill quite
large enough, if inverted, to fill the Avemine Lake. To make
room for this mountain, the earthquake swallowed up an en
tire village, and destroyed the greater part of the Lucrinc
Lake, with the descendants of those oysters so prized by Latin
G

146 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
poets and epicures. A classical lake would make but a di
minutive mill-pond in New England ; but every sheet of water
large enough to float a boat is dignified in Europe with the
name of lake.
Angelo shortly after announced our arrival at the "Arco
Felice," a colossal gateway of old Cuma3, a city so ancient as
to make all others in this vicinity seem quite juvenile in con
trast. It has retained its ancient appellation for three thou
sand years. This gateway is still in excellent preservation,
and spans the old paved street which leads directly through
the heart of what was once a populous and important city, but
is now a shapeless mass of ruins, half hid in vegetation. An
tiquarians sagely point out aqueducts, temples, baths, and vari
ous other edifices, which may be so or may not. They are
now not worth the trouble of either dispute or investigation.
All this side of the Bay of Naples is a cemetery of nations, the
ruined cities of which lie scattered about over the soil like
the disinterred bones of an old grave-yard. At Cuma? recent
excavations have brought to light the tombs of three distinct
races, built like the stories of a house one over the other, after
the existence of each, in its turn, had been apparently forgotten
by its successor. The topmost stratum consists of the narrow
abodes of the old Romans ; beneath this we find the tombs
of the Greek colonists ; underneath these, in some instances
sixty feet below the present surface of the soil, we come to the
aboriginal sepulchres, when and by whom made the world
may never know. That they were a civilized and refined
people, their domestic utensils, pictures, jewelry, vases, and
their mode of disposing of their dead, plainly show How sin
gular, that all we now know of a lost race is only what the
tomb discloses !
To reach the top ofthe Arco Felice, we were obliged to walk
through the cultivated patch of ground of a peasant. He

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 147
came bawling after us for toll. Angelo threw him copper,
but this was not enough. He did not cease his noise until
silver crossed his hand. His cabbages were planted on the
very walls of Cumae. From their summit we enjoyed a view
of the distant Liternum, the retreat and death-place of Scipio
Africanus, the Circean Promontory so nearly fatal to Ulysses,
the Acheron, and the islands of Ponza, Ischia, and Vandolena.
Descending from the walls, which time has almost wholly
hidden in a hill, we rattled over the Via Domitiana, still, in
parts, as good as new, toward the Lake of Fusaro, where the
King of Naples has a sort of oyster-lodge. On the way wc
passed by and along the River Styx, the Elysian Fields, and oth
er localities immortalized in the verse of Virgil. The Elysian
Fields reminded me of one of our prairie swamps — a fitter
abode for snakes and musquitoes than for beatified shades.
The Styx was black enough not to belie its fame. The la
dies — excepting, of course, the patroness — voted Virgil an im
postor, and the dandy declared the King ofNaples's oysters to
be worth a dozen iEneids. So to Fusaro we drove, and bribed
the honest guardian into selling us a basket-load of the very
best, not excepting those retained for the private tooth of his
majesty. Some we dispatched from the shell on the spot.
If royal Ferdinand had ever been on Chesapeake Bay, he
would set small store by his oyster-bed. I came to the con
clusion that either the Roman poets were indifferent judges
of oysters, or else they had greatly degenerated from the fat
ness and flavor of their illustrious ancestors.
Arriving at Baia?, Angelo deposited us and the remainder
of our oysters at the door of a hut, elevated on a stone plat
form, over the steps of which, in large capital letters, was
written, "Grand Royal Queen Victoria's Hotel." This name
promised something, so we entered. We were classically lo
cated, at all events. On either side of us were the ruins of

148 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
the temples of Venus Genetrix, and of Mercury and Diana,
built with brick, and probably once cased with marble. Sev
eral chambers were quite perfect, and contained finely-exe
cuted stucco ornaments. But their entrances and interiors
were choked with earth and brambles. These ruins were the
only intelligible remains of the once luxurious Baiffi, which
for a thousand years retained a sort of prescriptive right to
corrupt the easy virtue of the several races that succeeded
each other in the lordship of this seductive soil. Baias was
notorious, even amid the most licentious cities of Italy during
the Roman and Middle Ages, for its profligacy. At present,
it presents nothing more seductive than beggars, colliers, and
fishing-boats. It could not even provide a dinner. We call
ed for meat : there was none. We ran over an entire " carte''
of supposed eatables. The result was, that our host of the
" Grand Royal Ctueen Victoria's Hotel" agreed to provide us a
table to eat our oysters from, a loaf of bread, a dish of macca
roni, and a bottle of wine. This was not over-satisfactory to
the appetites of a party who had been already six hours hard
at work, and had as many more in prospect. There' was
nothing else, so we fell to. The maccaroni was too hard
and black for heretical throats, so we had the satisfaction of
seeing Angelo swallow that instead of ourselves. The wine
I mistook for vinegar, but " mine host" indignantly asserted
that it was " genuine Falernian," and quite as good as any
Horace ever tippled with. We all owed it a debt of grati
tude ; for, had it not been as potent as it proved, I believe the
slimy oysters would have given us the cholera. While we
were dining, several carriage-loads of visitors drove up. Some
provident souls had brought their dinners from Naples ; oth
ers came as we, with the spoils of the Fusaran Lake-and
dined on them. Beggars clamored for alms and the remains
of our meals. They said that they were hungry. We sym-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 149
pathized, and wondered on what the poor of Baias could pos
sibly exist, when its " Grand Hotel" could furnish but bad
maccaroni and stale bread. One old woman, a regular Hec
ate in looks, brought grass, and devoured it by handsful, to
show the quality of her appetite. The fare of this female
Nebuchadnezzar was only one stage worse than ours, so all
we could do was to give her money, by way of encourage
ment to repeat her trick for the benefit of Angelo's next vic
tims. A little boy and girl danced the tarantella after a
manner that won for them many coppers, and cries for more.
From Baias to Bauli is a short and romantic drive, and a
series of views such as the combined natural and artificial
beauty of the Bay of Naples can alone present. In contrast
with the other towns in this neighborhood, which grow out of
and upon the ruins of temples, palaces, and imperial villas,
hke fungi and other vegetable excrescences from the decayed
trunks of once noble trees, Bauli was cleanly and industrious.
Every man, woman, and child — even the infant at the breast
— begged ; but they begged good-naturedly, and as a matter
of course, without interrupting their work, grateful if they gpt
any thing, and joking each other if disappointed. Mothers
pointed to their children, and asked for a penny because they
were so pretty. The traffic in distorted limbs and disgusting
diseases had not taken root here. The population was too
good-looking to be willing to sacrifice their beauty for the
doubtful gains of spurious charity.
From the hill we looked down upon the foundations of the
villa of Hortensius, in the water, near which Nero caused his
mother, Agrippina, to be killed. The graphic description of
this event by Tacitus came up vividly before me as I gazed
upon the site of his demoniacal crime. For miles we wan
dered over the hills, every where meeting some interesting
remains of antiquity, until they became tiresome from their

150 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
very numbers. There were the villa of Lucullus, where Ti
berius died — the subterranean chambers, dark, narrow, and
more than gloomy ; ghastly, like the Roman catacombs, chris
tened " the prisons of Nero ;" they are foul and terrible
enough for the tender mercies of any tyrant, ancient or mod
ern, though Nero may be guiltless of any thing in regard to
them except having given them a name ; and the most won
derful object of all, the immense artificial reservoir, which
contained the purified water for the use of the Roman fleet at
Misenum. This reservoir is excavated in the hill, the top
being arched, and sustained by vast brick pillars. The whole
interior is covered with cement, which is coated with incrusta
tions of lime. It is ventilated from above, and stone steps
lead down to the floor, now free from water, except what is
deposited by rain. Cape Misenum commands an extensive
coup d'mil ofthe Bay of Naples, the old port and naval station
— now a sort of lake — and the classical shore and sites which
we had traversed.
We had still much work before us, according to the plan of
the lady patroness, who was resolutely bent upon condensing
into one day enough for the labors of six. Accordingly, al
lowing only a few minutes to one of the finest prospects in
Europe, she turned our heads toward Pozzuoli, giving us a dif
ferent view of many of the. objects already: examined, besides
a closer one ofthe artificial fish-ponds', so dear to Roman gour
mands. Pliny would have us believe that the fishes in these
ponds knew the voices of their keepers, and came at their
call ; that each responded to its name by leaping out of the
water, and that the pets wore necklaces and ear-rings : his
statement must have been the father of " fish-stories."
At Nero's villa, of which some brick-work alone remains,
we entered his vapor-baths, which are underneath its site.
The entrance is like that of an ordinary cave, but the heat

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 151
soon becomes oppressive and stifling. Before we were aware
of his object, a guide, stripped naked to the waist, seized a
bucket and some eggs, and requested the ladies to follow him.
They did for a rod or so, into a circuitous and narrow hole
leading down into the bowels of the hill, and then rushed
back, faint, and streaming with perspiration. Angelo said it
would be imprudent for them to venture farther without they
stripped also, a process to which they were not at all inclined,
even to gratify their curiosity by discovering what there was
so hot below. In two minutes the guide returned, reeking
with steam like a leaky boiler. He had been far enough to
dip up the boiling water, and brought us back the eggs cook
ed to a charm. We were already half boiled ourselves, and
gladly hastened to the outer air to cool. Angelo had a warm
battle with this salamander, who wanted twenty-five cents
apiece for his eggs ; but the threat of bringing no more- stran
gers to his lair brought down his demands one half.
The Sibyl's Cave, or, as it is more poetically called,i;he grot
to of the Cumssan Sibyl, was too tempting a titbit for the la
dies to forego. Dandy and myself were content with our
present experience of classical grottoes, but we were out-voted,
and forced by our gallantry to accompany the ladies to this,
if we may credit Virgil, avenue to the infernal regions. It
was none too good to be such, judging from first impressions,
as its gloomy door opened, and we followed a tribe of half-na
ked, muscular guides into a descending passage cut deep into
the hill. Its darkness was scarcely relieved by the flaring
light of torches. How deep and far we trudged after our of
ficious guides, who encouraged us at each step to proceed, I
can not say. All at once they stopped and pointed to a nar
row passage, descending rapidly into the mountain, and scarce
ly wide enough for a man to pass through. This, they said,
was the entrance to the Sibyl's chambers. As she was out,

152 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

there could be no impropriety in entering, though there would
have been a touch of it in the way the ladies penetrated into
her sanctuary, had we been exposed to daylight. This pas
sage, the depths of which the eye vainly sought to penetrate,
was two feet deep in water. The only mode of ingress was
by mounting the backs of our guides, " good horses" as they
called themselves. A man with a torch preceded each. The
ladies put their knees into the hands of their " horses," which
were turned behind them, threw their arms with choking
tightness around their necks, bowed their fair faces, destined
soon to lose their fairness, close to their curly manes, and
cried out, " Go ahead." As we were all alike mounted, all
were on an equality of appearance, though I " guessed," as
well as the darkness would permit, that the ladies, in their
anxiety to preserve appearances, cut the worse figure. Splash,
splash went the water ; of course, the ladies screamed, and
wondered where the next step would take them. The water
became a little deeper, that was all ; but the sides of the
passage were coated with the soot ofthe thousands of torches
that had for centuries preceded curious ladies into or down
this chimney of Pluto, for to nothing else could I liken it.
The soot, of course, rubbed off into their dresses — the torches
sent flame and smoke into our faces. We were half choked
with foul air, but still held on ; indeed, to turn was impossible.
At last a sort of chamber opened upon us. It was about the size
of a state carriage, half full of water, and as black as Erebus.
The panting guides deposited us, nearly up to our ankles in
water, on a narrow stone platform, which they called the Sib
yl's bed. A little farther on there was another chamber, the
counterpart of this. We knew there was water there, because
we felt and heard it ; there were walls, because we rested
against them ; but, except as the torches flashed out their du
bious hght, we could no more see than if we had been put

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 153
away mummied on a shelf inthe centre ofthe grand pyramid.
We had come thus far through smoke, soot, and water, to find
ourselves buried in a small-sized tomb, deep into the earth,
with an equal chance of being suffocated or drowned. The
hghts might go out, or the guides might clear out. Either
thought — and such thoughts will come, under such circum
stances — was unpleasant. I suggested the policy of a speedy
retreat, as there was not sufficient inducement for additional
exploration. Into such an " infernal" (I speak classically) hole
had the devouring curiosity of women plunged us ; and, worse
than all, I afterward learned, on good authority, that no Sibyl
ever dwelt there — a statement easily to be believed after a
personal inspection of the apartment. In fact, the whole
story is an " invention of the enemy" for the benefit of the
biped horses. Daylight revealed to each other faces blacker
than Othello's. I bathed mine in the much scandalized wa
ters of Lake Avernus, and brought to light a portion of its
original color. The ladies polished away with their handker
chiefs, and dropped their veils to soften the effect. We had a
long walk to meet the. carriage, which rapidly bore us to a
new field of antiquities.
As we drove into Pozzuoli, a squad of donkeys awaited our
arrival. We had in the course of the day tried almost every
other mode of locomotion, and now Angelo said we must
alight and mount these self-willed brutes. I refused, insisting
that my two legs were quite as capable of carrying me as the
donkey's four. But it was of no use. The .others were
mounted, and the urchin driver of the ass allotted as mine
drove him after me, now causing him suddenly to stop before
me, brushing by at my side, every once in a while making
an offensive demonstration with his heels, until, to escape
them, I was forced to stride his back. Thick and fast came
the blows upon the poor creature's flanks as we hurried
G2

154 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

through the narrow and uneven lanes. Up hill and down,
over rocks and gulleys, they trotted tumultuously, now toss
ing us against each other, then rubbing our legs against a stone
wall, or threatening to leave our brains on some wayside tree ;
on, on we jolted, clinging in desperation to our saddles, our
spines twisting, bobbing, and dodging like saplings in a whirl
wind in our efforts to avoid overthrowing and being over
thrown, while the impish drivers vigorously applied the lash,
and frightened, by hideous yells, their Liliputian animals into
still more pell-mell haste. Even donkey nature has its lim
its of forbearance. Dandy was mounted upon the fleetest.
It had gone ahead of all the. others, quite indifferent as to
whether it bore us from our saddles as it scrambled furiously
by, or left its rider's limbs lodged in some rocky crevice. This
was quite as much as could be expected from the most ambi
tious donkey ; but its owner, proud of its spirit, concentrated
all his energies of muscle and lung into a combined blow and
shout, intended to develop all its latent powers of wind and
speed. His success in astonishing us was both complete and
satisfactory. The donkey stopped as .short as if he had been
simultaneously changed into stone. Dandy, who had been
enjoying the race, the only thing besides the oysters that he
had enjoyed, was pitched hat-foremost over his head. In fall
ing, he threw his arms around the animal's neck. This ma
noeuvre saved his beaver and its contents, but brought him
underneath the ass, with his face in affectionate proximity to
the brute's, as if he were bent on giving him a kiss, while
donkey was shaking his ears with anticipated delight. The
ludicrous attitude of the two was irresistible ; the young la
dies merrily complimented Dandy upon his conquest, and
laughed until their own equilibriums were shaken. Even
madam patroness said the sight was worth one grotto, or even
a cracked column.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 155
Without farther accident we arrived at the semi-extinct
crater of Solfaterra, which had seen its best days before Vesu
vius was born. It is about a mile in circumference, and at
present serves as a vast laboratory of alum, vitriol, and sal-
ammoniac, which are here manufactured in large quantities.
Scalding fumes of sulphur still arise in places. The floor of
the crater is a vast dome. Upon dropping a large stone, the
noise is Uke that of muffled thunder or the reverberation of
the bottomless pit. How deep and extensive is the cavity
beneath, none but Providence can tell, but the sound gives one
a nervous apprehension of the thinness of this natural roof,
for it really seems as if the stone would break it through, and
precipitate the visitors into its fathomless fires. It would be
a curious experiment to pierce this volcanic arch, and peer
into the secrets of nature beneath.
But our greatest danger was from the workmen, who clam
ored for money with more the air of robbers than beggars.
They surrounded our animals, insisting upon performing num
berless unwelcome services. To give to one was to encour
age all. Angelo counseled closed fingers and frigid apathy.
We got away as speedily as possible, but not without paying
tribute to a well-dressed and polite individual, who represent
ed himself as door-keeper to the volcano.
After visiting the ancient amphitheatre, the subterranean
story of which is an anomaly in this species of architecture,
and, thanks to the earthquakes that buried it, is now well pre
served, we voted, as it was dark, that we would go to see no
more ruins this day. This amphitheatre was a mere bagatelle
of an edifice. It held only forty-five thousand spectators.
The price of admission, I judged, was about the same now as
when the imperial butcher Nero honored the games with his
presence. The royal bounty of King Ferdinand to his lovinn-
courtiers is shown more by the gift of an ancient ruin than by

156 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
a modem palace. The latter would bring most of them to
ruin, but the former pays the better in proportion that it lacks
repairs. The ancients were a liberal race. They not only
made their own fortunes, but those of their remotest descend
ants. The asses were to be paid, and Angelo also. The former
had taken us to our carriage just outside the town, where
awaited us a similar crowd to that which we had encountered
in the morning. Angelo, who I mistrusted was chief of the
asses himself, recommended a liberal sum. This given, the
drivers wanted each about as much more for their efforts to
break our necks. One had held the bridle while the beautiful
" signorina" had mounted, another had picked up the fallen
dandy, a third had yelled and pelted the donkeys with stones ;
each had some similar service to urge. As no Itahan is satis
fied with being once paid, we gave each a trifle more, and
they showered down upon our excellencies " many happy re
turns of the day," to which we devoutly responded, " God
forbid!" " How much do we owe you, Angelo, Prince of Ciceroni ?"
" Oh ! your excellency, some gentlemen give me a dollar.
and some a dollar and a half."
The smaller sum was just double his legitimate wages, and
he had, to my certain knowledge, made nearly as much more
out of the oyster speculation alone ; but we were all in good
humor at the prospect ofthe speedy termination of our labors,
and I handed him the " dollar and a half." Angelo received
it with a profusion of Neapolitan thanks, and hoped we would
remember him the next time we came that way. The very
next day I sent him another greenhorn, and I do not doubt
that he remembers me in his prayers to this hour.
As for the horde of venders of antiquities, and beggars of
all grades, we left them our good wishes and the hopes of our

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 157
return. Fifteen dollars disbursed among the parasites of
sight-seers in one day, in the cheapest country in Europe, was
quite sufficient relief to our consciences. Besides, we yearned
for our dinner. The coachman drove rapidly Naples-ward
along the beach fronting the superb little island .of Nisida,
where Brutus was wont to pass his summer hours. We then
ascended the road made by the French, leading to the city,
and looking down upon the most magnificent sea and shore
panorama in Europe. Beautiful is that prospect by day, and
glorious by night, with Vesuvius looking hke a thing of life,
keeping treacherous watch over a coast it adorns but to de
stroy. Other bays are lovely — as Santa Catharina, Panama,
and Rio de Janeiro bear witness — but in this wide and beau
tiful world there is but one Bay of Naples.
In thirteen hours from the time we had left the hotel we
were back again. That the reader may really appreciate
what we " did up," I shall catalogue our principal game :
Two craters, five lakes, four ruined cities, five grottoes and
vapor-baths, more or less poisonous, an amphitheatre, one ru
ined prison, two ditto reservoirs, one ditto gate, two ditto aque
ducts and bridges, seven ditto villas, three fish-ponds, and six
temples, including thirty miles carriage-ride, three ditto don
key-back, distance man-back uncertain, and some five or six
miles of walking, climbing, stumbling, and subterranean ex
ploring, besides a small piece of boating, and the paying of
upward of thirty distinct fees and gratuities.

CHAPTER VII.
A DAY AT POMPEII.
What traveler fails. to associate with Naples a laughing
sky, a beauteous soil, a smiling sea — in short, that happy com
bination of elements which, making up our idea of a terres
trial paradise, ever beckons us to approach and pluck its fruits
of enjoyment ? The ancients sought to secure this coveted
happiness by the discovery of the " Fortunate Islands." Their
descendants, still more eager and worldly, not contented with
the prodigality of Nature in a climate more favored than Plato
ever imagined, have worried science and research in the futile
effort to detect the elixir of life, or discover the fountain of
youth, that they might drink of the one or bathe in the other,
and live forever on the earth. But there are certain secrets
that Nature seems determined to keep, although constantly
flattering us that she is upon the point of disclosing the covet
ed mysteries. Among them is the common delusion of a
" good climate"- — an atmospherical Eden, which is neither too
hot nor too cold, too damp nor too dry, and, opening every pore
to sensuous delight, we would be content to pronounce it "just
right." Having tried a greater variety of climates than is the
usual lot of man, I am satisfied that while all have their good
points, there is none perfect. The only sure rule of enjoyment
is " to make hay while the sun shines," and not to believe that
because Dame Nature smiles to-day she will to-morrow. She
is a coquette from principle, and often fascinates but the more
speedily to disappoint.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 159
She smiles so sweetly, however, upon Naples, when she
does smile, that one is, as it were, subdued into enjoyment,
in spite of human nature and its thousand ills and wayward
humors. Her fine days are absolutely borrowed from Para
dise. The atmosphere absolutely becomes an elixir of health
and fountain of happiness. The soul is not beguiled into that
dreamy languor, so fatal to exertion in the tropics, but it
nerves the body to active pleasure and grateful emotions. Like
the lark, one longs to soar and sing in the sparkling sunlight,
receiving health and bliss in each expansion of wing. The
ripe fruit, however, does not drop into the lap, but it must be
plucked. Hence, in a temperature like that of Naples arises
that superior happiness which results from the equal stimulus
and employment of both mind and body under circumstances
the most favorable, so far as God's works are concerned, for the
perfect development of life — life in the sense of blissful ex
istence, where every breath is pleasure, and every pulsation
joy- Yet Naples is sadly capricious, notwithstanding her largess
of delights. She gives, but she exacts also. The scorching
sirocco shrinks the pores and strangles the mind. It is a fiery
furnace, in which every previous atmospherical sense of en
joyment is consumed by slow torture. The reaction in the
nervous system is terrible, Africa, by one blast of her breath,
revenges a thousand wrongs. I know nothing in the whole
range of winds more soul-subduing, body-famishing, than the
sirocco. It wilts, it shrinks, it parches, it enfeebles ; it irri
tates, it pinches, it pricks, it tickles ; it is an amalgam of
melancholy and imbecility, the subtlest medium for low spir
its ever let loose upon egotistical man, and yields to no exor
cism save that of a shift ofthe weather-cock.
The eccentricities of weather tend, I believe, to make Na
ples what it really is, a city of paradoxes. Its subtle influ-

160 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

ences affect the national character, and give it a composite
element of seeming eccentricities. One is equally eager to ar
rive and to leave ; both emotions have their pleasurable asso
ciations. Naples, after Rome, is like a resurrection from the
grave to the world. Here we find life in its active sense.
London life is a dull, plodding, staid, wearisome life ; forms
and shams— much eating and loud speaking are its elements.
New York life is a commercial whirlpool ; " to get" is written
on every man's brow ; the weak are swallowed up, while the
strong splash, and toss, and foam upon the broad current j)f
Mammon. Paris life is a refined, sensuous emotion, selfish but
courteous — a graceful flowing of the stream of pleasure toward
the precipice of death. Naples life is deviltry itself. It is at
once the busiest and idlest city of them all, overflowing with
merriment while steeped in misery ; with the most glitter it
exhibits the most rags ; and from beauty to ugliness there is
but one step, which forms the bridge of contrast ; and these ex
ternal contrasts, joined to virtues and vices of equally opposite
degrees, are in general concentrated in every individual inhab
itant. Electrify these extremes by the active affinities of life,
quickened into intensity by a climate which gives, as it were,
an additional sense of pleasure or pain to every passion or
emotion, and we have the veritable Neapolitan, the real child
of the Sun — at once the most indolent and most active, the
most vivacious and the most taciturn, the best humored and
most revengeful, the most cunning and the most frank, the
greatest vagabond and the best fellow — all things to all men ;
quick-witted, sagacious, begging, specious, hypocritical, super
stitious, lying, droll, amiable, talking with double -tongue pow
er, and gesticulating specimen of humanity extant. To com
plete the paradox, because Nature has been to them over-
bountiful, they want but little besides her sunshine.
Naples is frightfully busy ; the stir in the streets is most ex-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 161

traordinary. Even the fleas must be endowed with extra
hopping powers to get a bite, so quick and restless is this pop
ulation, unless they see fit to slumber, when they partake
themselves to the apathy of death. A stranger is tempted to
ask, What the deuce is all this noise and shouting about ?
The very dust seems endued with a portion of this mercu
rial activity. There are no commerce, war, elections, or pro
tracted meetings — in fact, it seems as if there were nothing
to do, and yet a more vigorous doing-nothing no population
can display. One would suppose that the city was each day
either upon the point of being taken by storm, or had laid
siege to itself. The clang of the trumpet, the rub-a-dub of the
drum, and the tramp of uniformed men, regiment after regi
ment, are heard at every corner, while batteries of grim guns
point through the squares, and rake the principal streets.
Above them, below them, and around them, the Neapolitans
are girt with volcanic fires, and a cordon of gunpowder and
steel. Daily, in their midst, do they see the tender mercies
of their government displayed by troops of their fellow-citi
zens, clad in galley costume, and heavily chained together in
couples by their arms and legs, followed by hireling soldiers,
as they are driven hke cattle to their repulsive labors. These
are simply criminals in law — criminals in politics are with
drawn from even the semblance of human sympathy, and in
irons, starvation, and solitude, banished to unwholesome dun
geons, to expiate, in protracted torture of mind and body, the
crime of patriotism. From prisons blackened with the mise
ry of ages and battered by time, through strong and thick-set
iron bars, despite the terrors of a tyrant-drilled soldiery, fam
ishing, hardened wretches stretch their gaunt arms, and, with
mingled ribaldry and blasphemy, demand charity, or mock the
freedom of their former associates, who, with strange fascina
tion, sun themselves beside the walls of these sepulchres of

162 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
human virtue and liberty. Elsewhere the apparatus of tyran
ny is masked, but in Naples it stands forth as prominent as
Vesuvius, bristling with horrors like an infernal machine.
Yet the Neapolitans laugh and sing, work or doze, as the im
pulse seizes them, as reckless of these evidences of their deg
radation as if they were intended solely for the inhabitants of
another sphere, and not for themselves, their wives, and their
little ones. Their climate is to them meat and drink, raiment
and liberty. At once the results and supports of a political
tyranny and religious despotism that recalls the darkest ages,
they will continue to bask contentedly in the mire of ignorance
and slavery until some new Massaniello fires their passions, or
education awakens in them the loftier hopes and desires of
humanity. To enjoy Naples, one should not think. Its mocking joys
and stores of fun come really home only in the perfect aban
don of its life. To float on its current, and not to dive, is the .
rule for enjoyment. Yet the hour of satiety, even of pleas
ure, is not slow to come. A perpetual grin is fatiguing, dust
is choking, and noise is stunning. Disgust is apt to poke its
sardonic face through the mask of novelty, so that what one
not to the manor bred and born at first found amusing, begins
at last to be wearisome. Now, as in the days of the Phara
ohs, the skeleton will appear unbidden at the feast. Besides,
there are some ingredients in a Neapolitan crowd rather un
profitable than otherwise both to purse and morals. Pimps
importune with a pertinacity peculiarly Neapolitan, reciting a
tariff for every feminine charm and masculine vice ; beggars
whine, extort, and turn the public walks into pathological mu
seums for the exhibition of sores and deformity. But the most
amusing and successful of the street leeches are the pickpock
ets. A thief in Naples is a hero. The public make way for
him to escape, and close up against his pursuer. I had my

164 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
pocket picked almost as soon as I entered the street — an event
which, in fifteen years' travel, had happened but once before.
A friend of mine rarely was able to keep a handkerchief
through a promenade. In self-defense, he took to the cheapest
cotton. As he was stepping into his carriage, he missed, as
usual, the article. At the same moment, he saw it thrown
contemptuously toward him by one of the street gentry, who,
amid the jeers of the crowd, vented his disappointment by
crying out, " Who would have thought a gentleman like Mm
would have carried a pocket-handkerchief like that !"
Then, too, one tires of seeing surfeited urchins swallow mac
caroni by the unbroken fathom at the rate of a copper a dish,
for the amusement of the " forestieri," who marvel at such
gastronomic dexterity. Turning their heads, they can see laz-
zaroni family groups amicably engaged in furnishing each
member with food from their superfluous craniological stock —
a process unfortunately common, and by no means a whet to
a fastidious appetite. But the cruelest sight of all is the
amount of work exacted from one little horse. An Itahan
nowhere is by any means sensitive in his treatment of these
animals. The whip is made to supply the deficiency of spirit
even among gentlemen's studs. But Naples is the true purga
tory of horseflesh. The horses here must possess some vital
tenacity unknown elsewhere. The Neapolitans, too, contrive
to infuse some of their own devil-may-care hilarity even into
their beasts, dressing them up with flowers, feathers, bells,
and gay trappings, so that what with the shouting, laughter,
jokes, and flogging of the party he draws, the poor brute
seems really to be enjoying his holiday instead of doing the
labor of four horses. A Neapolitan cabriolet is a " sight" of it
self. Look, dear reader ! This is no rare show. A medley of
priest and woman, thief and peasant, beggar and bride, charac
teristic Neapohtans every soul of them, with a baby screaming

166 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES
for joy in the basket under the axle, twenty-one in all, over head
and ears in frolic, with but one half-starved horse to shake them
to their journey's end. They manage, too, to get a speed out
of these quadruped victims that is really astonishing to pedes
trians, and often puts them in no little danger of their limbs.
I can compare one of these parties in full chorus only to a jo
vial war-whoop — one's hair stands on end as they dash by,
and one laughs as if it were his last chance.
On an unimpeachable morning toward the end of April,
when the weather was literally faultless, the air the breath
of heaven itself, not a cloud to dim the lustre of a sky whose
lucidity seemed to realize infinity, while the " Bay" slept tran
quil under the balmiest of zephyrs, and the distant islands and
headlands lay robed in translucency as if defying criticism —
on such a day I awoke in Naples, satisfied, nay, disgusted with
its chaos of sights and sounds, and cast about me for some
quiet retreat where I might, if but for a few short hours, be
come oblivious to its soulless turmoil.
" Eureka !" The dead city flashed on my mind. I have it!
To Pompeii, then, I would go, and commune with the past ;
not gregariously, with simpering misses, yawning dandies, or
impatient women, with heads too full of the living to give
place, even for a bnef moment, to thoughts of the dead, but
alone, without companion or guide, and there, in the reaction
of thought and silence, refresh my mind from the vacuous
tension of the capital of fooldom.
No sooner thought than executed. A few minutes found
me, with rail-road speed — no great matter in this kingdom,
where iron is spared and flesh only is driven — rumbling along
the shores of the bay, now almost plowing up its quiet surges,
then bounding high over roofs and houses, the present genera
tions strangely mingling and overtopping the past, Resina
upon Herculaneum, a gulf of two thousand years dividing the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 167
interval between them, while Grecian sepulchres, Roman
tombs, mediasval lava streams, modern vineyards, deserted
houses, broken walls, and towns, like ant-hills, bursting with
life, were mingled at my side in strange confusion. No other
rail-road possesses an interest like this. Sepulchral cities lie
beneath and along its track. The waters of Naples splash its
seaward embankments. On the other side lives a population
as dense as that of China, and more picturesque in garb and
manners than that of India. They dwell in habitations built
upon the graves of their ancestors, the very earth they culti
vate being the ashes of their forefathers, whom war and vol
cano have alternately stricken down and buried in one wide
devastation, but to be quickened again into being by a vigor
ous nature that knows no exhaustion. Life and Death here
meet in ceaseless strife. Each boasts its trophies, and each
in turn triumphs. If the former exultingly displays Portici,
Castellamare, Torre del Greco, and the many towns and vil
lages that so lovingly nestle amid the vineyards of sunny Ve
suvius, all teeming with joyous existence, forgetting that they
are undermined by eternal fires, the latter sternly reminds you
that beneath them, imprisoned in her fatal embraces, lie Her
culaneum, Stabias, and Pompeii, once the homes of a population
more numerous, more happy, and more prosperous than those
which have succeeded to their dubious heritage, while above
them all the treacherous volcano lifts its head, ready at Na
ture's signal to do again the bidding of Death. It seemed to
me a moral defiance of Fate, an insult to the avenging Neme
sis, thus to rudely bind together her domains with bars of iron,
and to let loose the shrieking fire-horse to scatter about the
cinders of dead cities in the very shadow of the fierce old
crater itself. While I was speculating whether Vesuvius was
a stock " bull" or " bear," and what influence it might possess
at the brokers' board, the locomotive's whistle announced our

168 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
arrival at the pretty little station-house of Pompeii. This is
but a short distance from the disinterred town, of which noth
ing can be seen while without, owing to the vast mounds of
ashes piled outside, forming a dike sufficiently high and strong
to turn aside any ordinary lava-current.
The first object that attracted my attention was the " Dio-
medes Hotel," a snug little restaurant at the outer base of the
dike of cinders. Shade of Lucullus, to what a base use had
the old patrician gourmand's name descended ! • It had the ¦
merit, however, of being appropriate, if one can judge of the
character of the owner by the traces of good living he left be
hind him. Diomedes's name has now become as widely known
as Cato's. Death in the fiery shower was to him fame. Had
he been gathered to his fathers in the ordinary way, we should
never have heard of him ; but now his wine-cellar, his kitch
en, his bathing-rooms, garden, and all the appurtenances of a
fine old Roman gentleman's mansion are better known and
as much visited as the palace of all the Csesars. As his name
has occurred first, I will briefly say what I saw worth men
tioning about his premises, which are at the other end of the
city, just outside the Herculaneum Gate, and then return and
enter the town in accordance with my actual route.
Diomedes's villa was three stories high. The upper one
is chiefly demolished, but the lower two are quite perfect.
You enter from the Via Domitiana by a doorway under a ru
ined portico with a very modern look, and find yourself bewil
dered amid a series of small but prettily-situated rooms, dis
playing even now the traces of that hospitable luxury which
once distinguished its proprietor. The dining-room, or, as
some think it, the best bed-chamber, looks out upon the gar
den and over the sea, which then came almost to the garden
wall, although now nearly two miles distant. It had a bow
front, or rather back, and fine large windows. Some of the

170 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
windows of this house were glazed with a coarse, semi-opaque
glass, not uncommon in Pompeii, and still manufactured
abundantly in Italy. The cook, or rather his skeleton, was
found at his place in the kitchen, near the stove, on which still
remained a bronze " casserole," or covered skillet, and other
traces of a coming meal. He evidently thought the eruption
would not prove to be much of a shower, or else Roman cooks,
like Roman sentinels, were required to die at their posts.
The area of the garden remains very much as it was 'left,
with its porticoes still standing, the ruins of a fountain, fish
reservoir, and the usual contrivance of columns to sustain
vines, with seats, table, &c, answering to our summer-house.
Just outside the seaward gate were found two skeletons, with
keys, coins, and other articles of value. Conjecture, which of
course has endless room for play amid the unclaimed property
and nameless skeletons of this buried-alive city, ascribes to
one of these human relics the name of Diomedes. who perished
while selfishly deserting his family. In this, however, we
may do him injustice, though circumstantial evidence is
strongly against him. But the wine-cellar, still perfect, and
lighted by the same narrow loop-holes, looking into the gar
den, which let in the fatal shower and gases, is the, most in
teresting spot, from the fact that here were found the remains
of twenty persons, including a child and baby, who had here
taken refuge, with sufficient provision, as they supposed, to
weather the strange storm. They were, however, specdily
suffbeated by the mephitic vapors while making a vain effort
to escape from their fatal refuge, the falling stones and lava
having closed the door upon them for eternity. The fine ashes
and hot water, penetrating by the windows, formed a paste
around their bodies, preserving the impressions of form, and
even clothing, as perfectly as a sculptor's mould. Even the
texture of the fine linen worn by the women was imprinted

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 171
on this lava paste, as well as their jewels. The saddest relic
of all was a portion of the blonde hair of the mother, -still re
taining its color and shape. In the Musco Borbonico at Na
ples, where all removable articles of value are carried as soon
as discovered, we see the impression in lava of a female breast,
matronly full and fair, and an entire female head, formed of
a fine crust, so delicate that it seems as if a breath might dis
turb it, yet every feature is as perfect as in life, exhibiting a
portrait of rare beauty and regularity. No sculptor could have
taken his mould with more precision. The utmost care is
taken of it, so that it will probably endure through all time as
the sole artificial bust of Nature's moulding, a priceless and
unique specimen of geological portraiture. Whether these re
mains were found or not in Diomedes's cellar. I do not know.
The wine-jars of Diomedes remain leaning in rows against
the walls, as when he last took account of stock. They are
filled with ashes. Beneath there is a dried substance, which
connoisseurs pretend to say still retains a portion of the rich
aroma of the wines that for thousands of years have given to
Vesuvius' its most cherished celebrity.
Diomedes, pagan though he was, must have had a more
cheerful idea of death than most Christians. He built his
sepulchre, still inscribed with his name, right over against his
chamber windows, and scarcely two rods off, so that he never
could cross his own threshold without having his grave to
stare him in the face.
Near the villa of Diomedes there was another, supposed tp
have belonged to Cicero, and mentioned in his letters to Atti
cus. In it were found some fine paintings. On one of the
lower stories was the following inscription : " Sea and fresh
water baths of Marcus Crassus Frugius." Mr. Frugius would
have to go a long way for his salt water now !
I entered Pompeii from the Salerno road, opposite the rail-

172 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
road station. The usual array of guides and ciceroni lay in
waiting- to intercept visitors. They are a nuisance under al
most any circumstances, and, being already as familiar with
the localities of Pompeii as of New York, I determined, despite
the rule which affixes one, like a shadow, to every visitor or
party, from fear of the effects of antiquarian covetousness, to
wander unattended and unharangued where I pleased— "up
stairs, down stairs, and in the ladies' chamber," after the fash
ion of" Le Diable boiteux," on a voyage of discovery into the
morals and customs of the deceased Pompeians. To effect
this solitude required no little skill. I hung back until the
parties preceding me were supplied, and then loitered on,
straggler fashion, as if belonging to one in advance. The few
remaining ciceroni eyed me suspiciously ; some, spider-like,
dashed toward me, but I dodged them, or bluntly told them to
be off. A few rods having brought me to an unfrequented
part of the town, in the rear of the Basilica, I slipped aside,
and, privateer-like, gained a good offing, with a clear antiqua
rian horizon.
There was a luxury of sentiment in being alone in Pompeii
— of having, as it were, an entire city to one's self in the
broad day, that had a peculiar charm to me. I dived into cel
lars, I ascended dilapidated staircases, I pried into ladies' bou
doirs, nay, even into their bed-chambers, stood before family
altars, criticised the cook's department — in fine, explored with
unblushing effrontery the domestic secrets of every household,
rich or poor, phsbeian or patrician,- which attracted me, with
out a human voice to break the spell. Pompeii is not, as some
term it, simply " a city ofthe dead." The soul is there, though
theanimal existence is departed. It is the ghost of past life,
clear and firm in its outlines, and spirit-like in its talk— a ver
itable " medium" through which the classical ages can " rap"
out their ideas to burs. There is, too, enough of reality .and

174 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

completeness of preservation in many localities to make one
step lightly, for fear he might intrude. This gives a lively
delicacy of feeling to exploration totally inconsistent with the
bat-filled towers and mouldy ruins of ordinary antiquity, with
their break-neck gaps and tottering walls. Here every thing
has the freshness of yesterday ; all is firm and clean, though
incomplete. By some strange sorcery, an entire city has been
unroofed ; doors and windows left invitingly open ; every mys
tery bared to strong sunlight; and the population, as it were,
extinguished, like the snuffing out of a candle, leaving behind
them the familiar tokens of warm hearts and a busy life, so
like our own that we are ready at once to extend to them
the fraternal grasp of human brotherhood.
The first thought that struck me was one of compliment to
the departed " city fathers." Their streets were narrow, it is
true — no great harm in a hot climate — but well jpaved with
flat lava, and raised crossing-stones for foot-passengers. They
possessed numerous fountains, and, above all, " side-walks," a
convenience which Paris did not know before this century,
and Naples is still without. They were well supplied with
sewers beneath the pavement, leading to the sea. From
these evidences of their superior civilization, and their love of
fresh water, manifested not only by public baths, but in every
private house of any pretensions, in- beautiful marble fish-ba
sins, fountains, cisterns, hot and cold baths, accompanied with
Oriental-like tokens of luxurious ablutions, I concluded that
the filthy habits and indecent exposures which the refined
Florentines gazo upon with such indifference, even under the
very windows of their stately palaces, to which are hourly
wafted perfumes not of Araby the blessed, were forbidden by
statute at Pompeii. If so, the modern Italians have sadly de
generated from their ancestral cleanliness.
The aqueducts supplied Pompeii with delicious water, as I

SCENE IS FOHFElI.

176 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
verified by taste. Wells are rare, and the water not so good.
There is one, still in use, one hundred and twenty feet deep.
The names and occupations, generally in red paint, accom
panied often with hieroglyphical signs, announced the propri
etors or occupants of houses, which were numbered, and their
trades. Indeed, a very respectable directory of Pompeii might
be compiled to-day from its walls. There are also on them
many advertisements of gladiatorial shows, festivals, and
specimens of street wit or drawing, from which might be got
up an Illustrated Pompeian News of the year A.D. 79, which
would prove vastly entertaining.
These ideas suggested another. Streets, aqueducts, fount
ains, public buildings, and private houses — in short, all the es
sentials of a habitable town, are here, ready for use, and re
quiring not an extraordinary degree of repair. The spirit of
Yankeedom moved within me. Would it not be a " good op
eration" to buy up Pompeii, reserve the corner lots, sell the
intervening, and appropriate the temples to public schools 1
It is true that the " court-house" would require roofing, and the
jail enlarging, but the amphitheatre would be a capital spot
for caucuses, the public baths could be altered at slight ex
pense into a " meeting-house," with ample vestry accommoda
tion, and the Pantheon would make a capital hotel. The
scream ofthe locomotive hourly startles the ears ofthe mod
ern guests of Sallust's house by abruptly recalling them from
their classical trance to the materialism ofthe nineteenth cen
tury, so that a rail-road is not wanting, and gas might be let
on cheap from Vesuvius. • Would his majesty of Naples be
come a partner in the speculation ? Knowing his predilection
for antiquities rather than improvements, I " rather guessed"
not, and concluded to keep the " notion" to myself until a more
enterprising ruler should arise in his place.
The present king is, however, doing something in the way

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 177
of repeopling the city, for he allows a few soldiers to select
their residences, from the hundreds at their choice, in the dif
ferent quarters of the town. A trifling outlay gives them a
very comfortable mansion. They, in general, content them
selves, like hermit-crabs, in taking possession of the dead shells
ofthe plebeian sort, when they might help themselves to pal
aces, lt looked odd to see, every now and then, the solitude of
this disinterred city broken by a female face, gazing hopelessly
into the deserted street, watching for something living go by.
Luckily, I had with me no guide, or he would have been sure
to have protested that these inhabitants, like the water in the
wells, were not ancient, and thus dispel an illusion I had cre
ated out of them. Why could they not have been the families,
nay, the very soldiers themselves, who perished, rather than
desert their posts, on the morning of the twenty-fourth of Au
gust, A.D. 79 ? The sentinel was found, eighteen centuries
later, still at his post at the Herculaneum Gate, while in their
barracks in the Forum Nundinarium more than threescore
of their number perished, victims to their military discipline.
Such fidelity deserves perpetual recompense, and my fancy in
vested them in the shape of the present legionaries of Naples
with the freedom ofthe city. It is true that the merit of four
of these sufferers was involuntary. They were not only lock
ed up in the guard-house, but fastened by their ankles into iron
stocks, which were partially melted by the heat that slowly
killed them. These stocks are now in the Museum, as well
as beautiful specimens of armor, including several bronze hel
mets, one of which is richly ornamented in bas-relief with the
story of the destruction of Troy. There is, however, a very
curious specimen of genuine ancient water inclosed in a huge
bronze cock of a reservoir to be-seen in the Museum. Time
has hermetically sealed the parts, but, upon shaking the cock,
the splashing of the imprisoned liquid, now having been
H2

178 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
nearly two thousand years in solitary confinement, is clearly
heard. If I skip oddly about, the reader, curious in these matters,
must have patience with me. It is a fac simile ofthe manner
I spent this day — my pleasantest day of travel in Europe —
darting from one point to another, as fancy or curiosity dic
tated. I had no rule. I knew by heart the treasures in the
Museo Borbonico which had been rifled hence, and could, by
the wand of memory, restore them to their proper localities ;
consequently, every site of interest became to me at once the
familiar object ofthe century that saw our Savior. Then, too,
I busied myself in conjecturing, from the hints in domestic life
the Pompeians had left behind them, how they did this thing
— how they did that ; whether we were wiser and more re
fined than they ; were we even more comfortable, with all our
boasted civilization ; if, reader mine, you have patience to
follow me through all my eccentric investigations on this holi
day, you will at least know something of how the home-life of
the old conquerors of the -world went on twenty centuries ago.
Their houses were not large, in the palatial sense of modern
times. Unlike ours, too, their plain side was toward the street,
and their decorations reserved for within. Doors which open
ed outward, and thereby endangered the faces of the passers-
by, unless they heard the -warning cry, were the fashion. The
street windows were mere port-holes, and closed with wooden
shutters, so that street effect, so far as domestic architecture
was concerned, must have been meagre indeed. Art was lav
ish in decoration ofthe interior. The colors employed in paint
ing were peculiarly bright, retaining even now a brillianey that
is astonishing. The taste was in general for strong colors and
contrasts, but some were employed with a delicacy of tint and
truthfulness of design that still continue to be the admiration
and study of modern artists. A few of these paintings were

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

179

in frames, and hung upon the walls, but in general they were
painted upon the wall, after the manner of modern frescoes,
and with so durable an art as to resist until now the fire and
damp to which they have been exposed. Their secret of thus
petrifying colors, as it were, is lost.
Among the finest of their paintings, classed by some even
with the labors of Raphael, is the Parting Scene between
Achilles and Briseis, which is of itself sufficient to exalt the
feeling of the ancients for art to a high standard. The head
of Achilles is a master-piece of expression. There are other

ACHILLES DELIVERING UP BRISEIS.

evidences, however, of their faithful delineation of sentiment
and passion, accompanied by a correctness of drawing, which
proves much close study, and, with other branches of art which
this insignificant ,town of the Roman .empire has disclosed,

180

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES'.

shows equally how little we have gained upon them, and how
great must have been the intervening darkness, to make mod
ern success appear so wonderful. Landscape painting was,
however, much after the character of the Chinese, capricious,
gaudy, and utterly regardless ofthe rules of perspective, though
there are evidences that this branch of art was not wholly
misunderstood. The specimens we now see upon the walls,
however, were probably cheap efforts, to take the place of mod
ern paper, and not intended for any higher purpose. But what
they chiefly excelled in was grotesque and arabesque orna
ments, in both of which they display a pleasing delicacy and
invention, that we may copy, but not excel. Indeed, Raphael
was indebted for the designs of his ornamental paintings in
the Loggie of the Vatican to the Baths of Titus.
In the kitchen of the house of the Edile Pansa there still
remain some droll pictures, coarsely executed, intended, no
doubt, to refresh the memory of the cook with the titbits his
master loved, and perhaps as a warning, also, in case of a
failure of skill. We have a ham, bacon, head of a wild boar,
a stately hog with a belt around his body, and the cook sacri-

PICTVBE IN THE HOUSE OF PANSA.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 181
ficing eatables upon an altar, with the guardian serpents be
neath. Besides these, there is a Moruna fastened upon a spit.
This delicate fish was said to be a Venomous cross between
the land and sea viper. It was, however, particularly prized
by Roman epicures — we can forgive classical gourmands ev
ery thing after seasoning their dishes with asafcetida — and
was kept in. brackish water, and sometimes fed with refracto
ry slaves, to give it bulk and flavor. There was, then, an un
mistakable moral to Pansa's cook in this picture.
The lower floor of Pansa's house, upon the street, was divid
ed into shops, one of which served him for the- disposal of his
own superfluous harvests. Some of these lordly mansions
boasted an immense number of shops. One, owned by a
Signora Julia Fehx, had upon the outside a notice stating
that it was to let — I presume at auction — between tho coming
sixth and eighth of August, together with nine hundred shops,
with their terraces and upper stories. This amount of real es
tate in a little city hke this looks startling ; but, judging from
the shops already exposed, the whole might be included within
the capacity of Stewart's marble building on Broadway. The
ancient aristocracy peddled out their merchandise from their
own houses, as still continue to do the present grand signori of
Italy, who, while affecting to despise commerce as ignoble,
daily vend wine and oil, by the bottle or penny's worth, to ev
ery customer, from the basements of their palaces. The alms
they bestow at one door are often returned to them at anoth
er, through the sales of their produce. I have my milk and
butter of a marquis, who, if I sold cotton by the cargo, would
consider me as unworthy of his noble society, but who, if I do
nothing and patronize his dairy, considers me good enough " to
go to court." This is a queer distinction for the descendants
of merchants to make, but it is universal. Even an artist is
considered in some degree to. have the mechanical taint ofthe

182 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.'
artisan, an aristocratic prejudice which even the genius of our
Greenough, though on familiar terms with a Capponi, could
not altogether overcome.
The interior view of the Pompeian houses from the street
must have been very pretty. Unlike the modem arrangement,
the ground floor was the principal part, for the ancient Cam-
panians appear to have had a luxurious horror of staircases.
Hence those that we see in private houses are contracted, and
look as if intended only for slaves, on whom devolved the la
bor of ascending and descending. The porter's lodge was,
where it is now in fashionable mansions, just inside the street-
door. This looked into an open court, in the centre of which is
always to be found an " impluvium," or large, open, shallow cis
tern of marble to hold rain-water — an exceedingly ingenious
contrivance, one would suppose, for the generation of musqui-
toes. Many houses had also large subterranean reservoirs.
This outer court was surrounded with numerous small cham
bers, appropriated to purposes of hospitality, besides the larger
reception-room, or atrium, answering to modern Italian ante
chambers, where callers were obliged fo await the pleasure of
the master ofthe house.
Beyond this court is to be seen another, surrounded in gen
eral by colonnades, and appropriated to the more private pur
poses of the family. Here we find all the domestic compart
ments which we usually divide over several floors. The ladies
had their boudoirs and- the gentlemen their libraries. There
are, too, saloons of different degrees of elegance, and dining-
rooms, shady and very inviting in such a climate, looking out
as they did upon mosaic-paved court-yards, cooled by fount
ains, and the murmuring of flowing waters playing among
marble statues and flower-beds, with gold fishes darting about
in their artificial ponds. When space permitted^, there was al
ways a garden, shaded by vine-covered trellises supported on

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

183

beautiful columns, under which the family assembled, perhap's
to eat " ices" — at all events, to drink iced wine. Here, also,
were the cold baths. These were taken in the open air, with

184 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

a somewhat nonchalant disregard of exposure universal in
warm countries. Some of the bath-tubs, of the purest white
marble, are of magnificent proportions, and look as. invitingly
under the warm sky of to-day as when Grecian belles were
wont to bathe their fair limbs therein. The hot baths were,
from necessity, more retired. The farther end of the garden
was frequently painted in fresco landscape, so that the passer
by in the street beheld a beautiful perspective of Corinthian
columns, fountains, statues, and mosaic-paved court-yards, ter
minating with flowers and shrubbery, and apparently betray
ing a vista far beyond the reality. The effect of such a scene,
combined with the graceful-flowing robes of the ancients, and
their careless out-door domesticity, generated by a climate
which invites freedom, must have been charmingly pictur
esque. The chambers were in general mere closets, altogether too
small for modern bedsteads, and lighted only by doors. In
fact, the bedstead -was seldom other than a raised portion of
the floor, though they possessed others somewhat after the
modern French pattern, as may be seen pictured on the walls.
No doubt, inspired by the genial warmth of their climate, the
Pompeians spread their mattresses, as they did their tables,
as fancy dictated. It was an easy matter with them to take
up their beds and walk. The women's apartments were sep
arated from the men's, though the division docs not appear to
have been very close. Every house had its family altar or
chapel, not unlike in arrangement to the domestic shrifies of
Romanism, substituting an idol for a cruoifix or Madonna.
They burned lamps, just as the Catholics do candles, as a re
ligious sacrifice, and offered fruits and flowers, or more valu
able gifts, as vows or piety dictated.
Some of the better houses had their kitchens and their of
fices under ground, but, in general, they were put aside where

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

185

most convenient, approachable by a lane or back passage.
They were all small compared with our ideas of culinary ac
commodation, but almost precisely like the modern Italian in
their arrangements. The fire-places are precisely the same.
But when we come to kitchen utensils, we perceive a degener
acy, not only in material and form, but in utility, compared
with those in common use among the Pompeians, that is truly
marvelous. Bronze, lined with silver, was not uncommon. I
saw at the Museum pots with malleable bronze handles, which
could be put in or ta
ken out at pleasure.
This art is lost. Their
earthen jars have the
ring of real metal, hard
and sonorous, and so
strong as to be .proof
against ordinary care
lessness. Their potte
ry is grace itself, and
some of the ornament
al vases of antiquity
are valued as .high as
ten thousand, dollars
apiece. The elegance
of form and beauty of
color of their glass — I
refer to the finest spec
imens — astonished me.
Modern art has never
equaled the Portland
vase, or rivaled the
finest specimens of Na
ples, which seem more candelabra and vase.

186

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

like engraved gems than glass. Their common is like our
greenish bottle-glass. They do not seem to have possessed
the art of cutting, though we find pretty specimens pf pressed
glass, such as vases, drinking-vessels, &c.
Their chief excellence lay in their metallic work. In cas
seroles, water-jars, wine-coolers, pots and kettles, strainers,
egg-containers, urns for hot water — in short, throughout the
whole range of domes
tic ware, they display
not only a variety equal
to any modem furnish
ing house, but in many
respects, especially in
stoves, water - heaters,
&c, an economy of fuel
and multiplicity of uses
that would win a patent
even at Washington. To
these merits they add a
beauty of form altogeth
er neglected by our un
poetical mechanics. Nothing, however homely in its uses,
was beneath their passion for adornment. A handle of a
pitcher or the leg of a pot became, as it left their hands,
suggestive of something beyond its. baser uses. It possess
ed a distinctive beauty, and told a history. Their mythol
ogy was pressed into this apparently humble service, so that
stories of religion might be learned from a table service.
This prodigality of art must have cost high. It expands our
idea of the riches and civilization of the Roman empire to
know that a petty sea-port affords such incontestable evidence
of taste and wealth. If such were provincial Pompeii, what
must have been imperial Rome !

LAMP AND STAND.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 187
In the days of Titus, Pompeii was dug over and rifled of
much of its buried treasure, probably by surviving inhabit
ants, who knew where to seek. In one instance modern ex
cavators have discovered that their predecessors cf the first
century failed only by three Jeet in hitting a treasure which
they evidently sought, but which was destined to reward the
King of Naples nearly two thousand years afterward. Pom
peii was evidently preserved by Fate to daguerreotype ancient
to modern civilization, and teach us that, with all our boasted
progress, we can learn much from the past. Indeed, its uten
sils and arts have been for the last fifty years a. school of de
sign to modern Europe, which has advanced in beauty and
grace of ornament in proportion as it has gone back for mod
els. The elegant designs of their candelabra, lamps, urns, and
silver vases, are copied throughout the civilized world. I be
lieve that more bronze and marble statues have been dug out
of Pompeii than exist in the entire United States. It was said
of Rome that the stone population equaled the living. It was
not the comparative cheapness of art that made it so common,
for excellence was rated at greater sums than now. Phidias
or Praxiteles could command higher prices than can Powers
or Crawford in the present age. The living masters of antiq
uity were rewarded as are only the dead by modern taste.
Nothing but an inborn and cultivated sense of the beautiful
could have produced this artistic prodigality. There is some
thing in this acknowledgment and craving for Beauty — the
unselfish, or, more properly- speaking, intellectual exaltation
of art above mere utility, that strikes me as a generous senti
ment in a nation. It came from the hearts and purses of in
dividuals, and was not the result of one tyrannical will, like
that of Louis XIV., who willingly impoverished France that
he might lodge in egotistical magnificence.
In one other respect the Pompeians, in common with an-

188 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

tiquity, are not so deserving of commendation. What St. Paul
says of the Corinthians must have been equally applicable to
them. Their religion was purely a sensual one in its effect
on the common mind. It stimulated rather than repressed
vulgar passions by celestial examples of more than human in
firmity. Hence, in conjunction with excitability of climate,
sprang licentious habits and erotic ideas. The secret muse
um of Naples discloses a curious picture of the domestic life
of the inhabitants of Magna Grsecia. Common utensils, orna
mental vases, and even jewelry, were manufactured into ob
scene shapes, which no modern lady could hear named, much
less see and use, without the blush of shame and indignation.
It would be a difficult point to fix upon the standard of class
ical modesty. It was, at all events, the antipodes of Amer
ican delicacy, which coins new .names to avoid expressing
natural ideas, and discloses more from false shame in substi
tution than the natural truth could ever express, however
frankly spoken. Christianity has banished forever from civil
ized life such evidence of its classical abasement. The pic
tures of antiquity, too, were not always of the most chaste de
scription, and forms of vice were unblushingly delineated
which are not so much as even to be named among men. The
Neapolitan government, though not remarkable for prudery,
has erased or hid these specimens of prurient art. It. leaves,
however, as specimens of the manners of the day, upon a few
buildings, stone amulets in the shape of any thing the reader
may conceive as particularly immodest, but which were once
publicly worn, after the fashion of modern charms, by Pom-
peian ladies, as a specific against malocchio, or the evil eye.
This superstition is still rife throughout Italy, and affords jew
elers much custom. Turning a corner suddenly, I heard the
strange sound of English voices, and came upon a party of that
nation. A young gir], in her simplicity, was intently studying

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 189
one of these mystic carvings over a doorway, while behind her
sat a courier, in high enjoyment of what he considered a good
joke. He gave me a wink and laugh as I went by. At the
same instant a revelation seemed to spring into the mind of
the maiden, and she hurried off as if a bee had stung her.
Since the visit of Pius IX. to Naples, the public museums
have become wonderfully chaste. He condemned every dis
play of classical beauty, while tolerating any amount of sanatly
nakedness. A Domenichino and Guido are packed away into
dark closets if they display any thing less of female loveliness
than court costume sanctions, while a Saint Therese, an arrow-
spitted Sebastian, or any other Romish pet, in all their repul
sive nudity of martyrdom, are allowed to disgust mortal eyes
under the specious pretense of offering unction to their souls.
Some of the popes have manifested a wonderfully keen scent
in detecting immodesty in paintings that have escaped thaf
imputation through centuries of visitors. It certainly looks
like a weak spot in their imaginations. The obscene gallery
at Naples is very properly closed to the public ; so should ev
ery work of art in which immodesty is obviously apparent.
But to be sensitive over impassible marble, or even alarmed
at the warm coloring of Titian, does not always imply a chaste
mind. High art exalts what it touches. It can not descend
to foulness. An artist of pure aim should not be held answer
able for the imagination of the spectator. "It is his business to •
purify his heart, even as the artist has purified his work, of all
gross, earthly elements. Hence the prudery of the papal court,,
in the exuberance of the ridiculous metallic disguises they
give their statuary, is any thing but suggestive of modesty. If
the present pope is bent upon clothing the statuesque world,
I would respectfully call his attention to the colossal bronze
Neptune at Bologna, by John of the same name, which is in
dubitably an indecent figure. But I am- sure that the. simplest

190 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES:
maiden can walk the Uffizii Gallery at Florence, in all its
majesty of art, with as uncontaminated a mind as she can the
reformed galleries of Rome and Naples, in their tin-leaf drape
ries. On the ceilings of the Uffizii, I am sorry that truth com
pels me to add, there actually exist real obscenities, fortunate
ly difficult to detect amid the multitude of arabesques, but
as palpably vicious as any thing Pompeian. They afford in
contestable evidence of the decline of pure art, and depravity
of manners resulting from the overlauded Medician rule, which,
for the credit of the present age, should be obliterated.
Like the modern Italians, the Pompeians, in their eagerness
for the ornamental, to which, it must be confessed, they did
not always bring good taste, often overlooked the useful and
essential. I doubt if there are any good carpenters, according
to the American standard, in all Italy or on the Continent gen
erally. The same deficiency in well-finished mechanical work
obtained as extensively in ancient times. Nicely-adjusted
locks, convenient, door-handles, well-jointed carpentry, level
floors — in short, the evidences of mechanical skill in the home
liest objects of domestic use, which are considered as indis
pensable to comfort in America, are unknown in Italy. Their
lamps, with all their beauty, were smoky, inconvenient arti
cles. Neither their streets or houses could be cleanly lighted.
I do not believe that the general condition of the merely me
chanical arts has improved or retrograded in Italy for twenty
centuries. In masonry and stucco-work, the ancients excelled
the moderns. Roman brick-work is like adamant in solidity.
The Pompeian doors were usually bivalve, and turned on piv
ots. All the external ornaments were elegantly wrought.
Bolts, keys, and handles are found of beautiful and capricious
designs, but iron-work for internal use was most bunglingly
made. Modern belles have certainly some decided advantage* in

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

191

the variety and beauty of objects of toilette and jewelry since
Paris has developed her taste and resources for their adorn
ment. The fair Pompeians were, however, by no means de
ficient in these respects, and even now, in full costume, would
attract no small admiration beside the stars of the Tuileries.
Their mirrors were usually of steel, and sometimes of glass,
manufactured at Sidon, which was the Venice of that day in
that respect. But, upon reflection, I must add, that however
elegant in frame, they could by no means maintain a steady
countenance beside French plate. Pins they had, but they
would not sell nowadays alongside the Birming
ham. In their haste to escape, the ladies left be
hind them many tokens of disturbed toilettes,
with the usual variety of vanity-ware. Some of
their rings, pins, brooches,
and cameos have found mod
ern imitators in modern art,
and are as much admired in
the year eighteen hundred
and fiftyrfour of Our Lord as
they were in the year one.
, Kinu.
The Pompeian jewelers have
given designs to many of our choicest ornaments.
They, I dare say, in their turn, stole them from
Greece, which stole them from Egypt. There was no lack of
cosmetics, and, for arrangement of hair, judging from female
busts, our ladies have, as yet, discovered no modes more be
coming than those of the classical ages. Forks are a modem
invention, the Romans preferring their fingers, as they did also
to recline at table, in a scantiness of clothing quite the reverse
of modern ideas of a dinner toilet.
In a rich commercial town, as Pompeii undoubtedly was,
one would expect to find more treasure in coin, especially as

193

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

A SUPPER-PARTY.

paper currency was unknown, than as yet has proved the case.
Occasionally a secret deposit, which has remained intact for a
period long beyond the desires of the oVner when he laid it
by against a rainy day, re-wards the modern explorer. In one
house, near the Forum, the workmen were astonished by a
shower of gold coins, fifty-six in number, as large and bright
as new half eagles, which tumbled from a chink in the wall.
These were soon after followed by a pile of silver money, con
solidated by heat into one mass, and a silver spoon. But there
are evidences that Pompeii was explored before the lava which
covered it had cooled. It was not so deep as now by several
feet, as succeeding eruptions have deposited ovei it successive
strata. In one spot, some twelve feet above the pavements,
several skeletons were found, with money, jewels, and plate,
which they had succeeded in obtaining, but their avarice,
prompting them to longer search, had caused them to fall vic
tims to the mephitic gases which arose from the then smoking
mass.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 193
The roofs of Pompeii were in general flat, and of wood ;
consequently, they were either crushed in or set on fire by the
hot stones and ashes. The accumulated soil on top of the
buildings supports a young growth of trees, and is occupied by
a farm. The process of disinterment is so slow — a few men
and carts only, at the annual cost of less than a thousand dol
lars, being employed — that, at the present rate, centuries must
elapse before the entire city is uncovered. In the mean while,
a goodly portion of the unprotected parts must fall into irre
deemable ruins. It could be easily exposed in one year, and
there is no doubt that, as a speculation, if -the sale of antiqui
ties were allowed, it would be profitable to hasten operations.
The parts yet unexplored — nearly three quarters ofthe town —
promise well. Though the Neapolitan government protract
their work to a degree that puts every antiquarian heart into
a fever of impatience, yet what it does is thoroughly done.
The streets and buildings are restored to a degree of cleanli
ness which would gladden the hearts of the dainty Pompei
ans to witness ; the dilapidated parts of sufficient interest to
warrant preservation are sufficiently repaired to prevent far
ther injury from the weather, and every work of art that can
not be removed to the museum is securely roofed in and placed
under guardianship. But they do not do enough. One ofthe
best mansions should be restored to its condition as it stood
previous to its enthralment. This could be done by causing
the Museo Borbonico to disgorge some of its superfluous
wealth of antiquity. It would not be difficult to restore the
luxurious Sallust's house or Diomedes's villa to its actual con
dition of furniture, ornament, and arrangement, as they existed
when their title-deeds were in their builders' hands. What
correct ideas might we not then possess ofthe home-life ofthe
Roman gentleman ! The public buildings are more interest
ing as they are,, but a perfect Roman house would be a gem
I

194 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
of antiquity. So far from entertaining an enterprise of this
sort, the King of Naples seems to regard Pompeii as a play
house for royalty. Houses which give evidence of being rich
in spoil are uncovered only to a certain depth, and kept until
a royal visitor arrives. The King of Naples makes up a party,
and the work is finished for its amusement. I believe he pre
sents his visitor with whatever is found ; but that he is mean
enough to republican sovereigns like myself, I can testify.
On approaching the street where exploration was in progress,
a soldier watched me as closely as if I had myself been a dis
interred Pompeian preparing to serve on him notice of a writ
of ejectment. There were human bones, broken amphorae,
charred wood, pottery, and other tokens of discovery lying
about. They had just disclosed a massive doorway, on which
the owner's name was as fresh as if written but that morning.
Above was a window and burned beams. The carts were
taking off the mingled charcoal and ashes, and throwing it
away outside ofthe walls. I picked up a morsel of the char
coal no bigger than a walnut. The wood was so perfectly
carbonized that it left not a particle of grit to the taste, and it
was as easily dissolved in the mouth as sugar. The soldier
saw my motion, rushed forward and seized the remnant I had
not taken, roughly telling me that I must not so much as
touch even a cinder in Pompeii. How I was to avoid that
when the entire soil was ashes, he did not condescend to ex
plain, but eyed me like a lynx, for fear I should take another
taste. It may be that Pompeian charcoal has a market value
at Naples. His Majesty sells the old lead and bronze, and
why not the charcoal ? Up to that time I had not thought of
picking up a souvenir. Soon after, however, finding a pretty
specimen of mosaic pavement, T put it into my pocket, and,
knowing the house whence it came, I am prepared to account
for the same to the lawful heirs whenever they shall call.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 195
I took more pleasure in examining the private than the pub-
lie buildings. The former told of individual life, while the
latter gave only general ideas common to all nations. It was
pleasant to speculate upon the supposed tastes and habits of
the departed families from the traces of their every-day exist
ence that the crater had, as it were, embalmed for all time.
In one of the shops attached to Pansa's house there is a Latin
cross of stucco in bas-relief. May this not indicate that the
proprietor was aNazarene, a disciple of Jesus, whom perhaps
he had seen and heard while on a commercial visit to Judea ?
Perhaps he had received his faith from the apostle of the
Gentiles when he disembarked at Puteoli ! This cross is the
more extraordinary, as it is in company with the usual sym
bols of heathen mythology, as if the convert either feared the
popular opinion too much to banish them altogether from his
house, or he was superstitiously inclined to try the efficaey of
both opinions.
I entered one house which I am positive belonged to an old
maid ofthe most precise order. It was a real bijou. Every
thing was on a Liliputian scale. The mosaic pavements,
paintings, and marble were all neatly beautiful. The garden
was not much larger than a pocket-handkerchief, yet it con
tained statues, fountains, urns, and ornaments of great variety,
all well executed and tastefully arranged. The chapel looked
like a baby-house, and as if got up to play at religion. Who
ever owned these premises evidently enjoyed them, and found
then- all of life within their diminutive precincts.
In striking contrast to this house, both for dimensions and
grandeur, is that commonly called the House of the Gluses-
tor. In extent and richness of ornament it is almost a pal
ace, occupying a space of about one hundred feet deep by
one hundred and fifty front. It was particularly rich in
paintings : among them, Perseus and Andromeda, and Medea

196 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

meditating the murder of her children, given with much feel
ing and vigor. In the garden, leaning against the wall of the
colonnade, are rows of wine-jars, just as they were placed in
the year 79 to receive the vintage. The columns and pilas
ters are coated with the most beautiful stucco, firm as stone,
and highly polished, and as perfect to-day as if fresh from the
finisher's hands. On one, some idler of taste has scratched,
with a hard instrument, a well-executed drawing, and written
beneath an inscription in Greek. Were the author to return,
so delicately has Time treated his labor, that the long interval
would seem to him but a yesterday.
A " custode" cultivates a portion ofthe garden, and has fit
ted up one ofthe many rooms of this mansion for a dwelling.
He invited me in, and showed me quite a numerous collection
of interesting fragments ofthe former luxury which reigned in
this abode. There still exists a large money-chest, lined with
brass and coated with iron, partially decomposed by heat.
The locks, handles, and ornaments were of bronze. A quan
tity of gold and silver coin was found within it, but the chief
part had been extracted by the primitive explorers, who cal
culated very nicely as to its locality. They dug into the ad
joining chamber, and, finding their mistake, pierced the wall
and cut into the chest, but were unable to reach all its con
tents. Probably it was hot work, and they were obliged to
make dispatch.
In the Pompeian houses there was none of that jealous re
gard for personal privacy or delicacy that characterizes mod
ern domestic architecture. This moral deficiency produced
greater freedom of design and arrangement, in the suite of
rooms, so that their general effect was much superior to our
mode of building. One of the most superior of the smaller
houses is known as that of the Tragic Poet, a whimsical ap
pellation, like many others, without much reason. The first

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

197

object that meets the eye upon the threshold is a fierce dog,
in mosaic, apparently in the act of springing upon the visitor.
Beneath is the inscription " Cave Canem" — Look out for the
dog. This mosaic is a substitute for the original, which has
<> ,v O 0 0 O

BEWARE OF THE DOG.

been removed to Naples. The proprietor was doubtless a
wag, who hit upon this Irish welcome to his friends, or else
some literary lion, the Bulwer or Longfellow of his day, who
thus delicately hinted his disinclination to be bored by auto
graph hunters and anecdote collectors. The so-called House
of the Vestals, which I believe to be a decided misnomer, has
the ambiguous inscription " Salve" — Welcome — upon its floor.
Its decorations are not remarkable, as the name would imply,
for chaste conception. The paintings found in the House of
the Tragic Poet are singularly beautiful, as are also its wall-
decorations. A profusion of jewels and female ornaments
were discovered here beside some skeletons. The expense
upon mosaic floors alone in this and some other houses must
have been enormous, for it is not to be presumed that the art
was cheaper then than now. while the execution, in general,

198 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
was much superior. The material is the same as that now
used in the Vatican manufactory — glass, of which there are
eleven thousand different shades of colors. By it the ancients
gave the minutest features and varied expressions of the hu
man countenance with wonderful delicacy and effect. The
mosaic of the Choragus instructing the Actors was found in the
house of the Tragic Poet. As beautiful as this is, it is sur
passed by the celebrated Battle of Issus, found in the House
of the Faun. Although but a fragment of a larger picture, it
represents twelve horses, twenty-two persons, and a large war-
chariot of nearly life-size. It is executed with great vigor
and truth, giving a portrait of Alexander and his war-horse
Bucephalus, besides Darius and his guards, the whole display
ing a knowledge of art in foreshortening, drawing. generally,
grouping, and the management of light and shade, but little
inferior to the best modern works.
The House of Sallust recalls a custom which one would sup
pose would have been more honored in the breach than the
observance. The family oratory represents the household
gods, or Lares, with a serpent. These reptiles were supposed
to watch over the family. Their images were to the old Ro
mans what the cross is to the modern Italian, endowed with
peculiar sanctity, and on that account frequently painted or
placed on spots which were desired to be kept undefiled, but
which the Anglo-Saxon much better protects by the simple
notice, " Commit no nuisance." Whenever these tutelary genii
did not answer the expectation of their worshipers, they were
treated with as little respect as a Roman Catholic pays to his
patron saint when disappointed of his miraculous intervention.
They were cursed, and kicked out of doors, to make way for
new. This respect for the serpent tribe led to their being
kept as pets. Their presence was considered as a good omen,
and they were allowed to play about the persons of their mas-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 199
ters, and even eat from the cups at table. The ladies per
mitted them to coil around their necks in hot weather as a
sort of animated refrigerator. They repaid this hospitality
by keeping under other vermin ; but, as no one killed them,
they increased so rapidly as to become, like other idols, an in
tolerable nuisance. Nothing but the frequent fires of antiq
uity kept them within bounds. With this strange fondness
for snakes by the most populous nation of antiquity, what be
comes of our cherished idea of the natural enmity between
the son of man and the serpent ?
In one house was found a seated figure of Jupiter, with the
" nimbus," or glory, encircling his head, which has since been
borrowed by the Romanists for their crucifixes and saints.
His figure is not unlike the bronze St. Peter at Rome, which
enjoys the reputation of being an apostate pagan idol. Two
houses possess large fountains, quite unique in their charac
ter. They are incrusted with colored glass, blue being the
chief hue, and divided into pretty patterns by sea-shells, which
look as if freshly gathered. The ornaments consist chiefly
of aquatic plants or birds ; but the effect of the whole is more
odd than pleasing.
Notwithstanding that Pompeii abounded in objects of luxu
ry, the shops were small and mean, in which respect they
were not unlike those of modern Italian cities. The front was
open to the street, with the exception of a broad counter of
stone. The open space was closed at night by sliding shut
ters. Pompeii was celebrated for its preparation of a fish-
pickle called garum, made of the entrails of mackerel soaked in
brine. The best sold for twenty dollars a gallon. The cash
' system in general prevailed, if we may believe the weights,
which were sometimes inscribed " erne" — pay ; and on others,
"You shall have no credit." Some of the counters still bear
fhe traces of custom in the stains made by wet glasses. The

200 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Romans cooled their wines in snow, and also boiled them — a
taste which, not having survived their nation, was a medical
caprice, that, like " cod-liver oil," lived out only its day, and
then died. Vomits were publicly sold as preparations to din
ing out, the quantity as well as the quality of the viands to
be consumed being a desideratum of Roman epicures. Cooked
eggs, bread stamped with the baker's name and its quality,
olives in oil which still burned well, money in tills, and a
vast variety of manufactured articles, have been found from
year to year in the shops. In some, the keepers and work
men had remained behind until the last moment, and perhaps
left but to perish a little farther on. In one place we see
marble partially sculptured, with the pattern lying by the
block ; in another shop, the resin still remained in the pot
where it had been recently boiled, and the sculptor's tools were
scattered over the floor. In the former there is the long, slid
ing mark of a trowel on fresh mortar, as if the workman had
just given the outer stroke, and had fled too precipitately to
complete the inner, which brings the whole to a level. A
house connected with the medical faculty yielded more than
forty surgical instruments, some of which, in modern science,
have no use, while others are almost fac similes of those of to
day. I saw some apparently constructed with reference to the
Cesarean operation, which is generally supposed to be the
fruit of recent surgery. The bakeries are so little injured that
the corn-mills and ovens could be put into use again at once.
Just inside the Herculaneum Gate there is a post-house es
tablished by Augustus. The bones of horses and remains of
carriages were found in the stables. Outside the gate is the
general inn. By an inhospitable law, the only ancient munici
pal regulation which the King of Naples still enforces, stran
gers were forbidden to sleep within the city limits.* The re
mains of a mother and four children, which she had vainly at-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 301
tempted to shelter from the fiery shower, were found in the
court-yard. They were interlocked in mutual embrace, and,
from the quantity of rich jewelry, including pearl pendants of
great value, found with them, must have been of the wealthier
class. The number and magnitude of public buildings in so small a
town astonishes, in particular, the American traveler, who sel
dom finds any thing worth noticing for architectural beauty at
home in cities of much greater extent than Pompeii. But the
Roman citizen found his pleasures abroad ; his home was in pub
lic ; he was contenf*to sleep in an unfurnished closet, without
other aperture than the door, and which he rarely entered except
at night, provided the splendor of public edifices and the pro
fusion of public amusements compensated him for his domes
tic deficiencies. It was, therefore, no slight penalty that Nero
inflicted upon the Pompeians when he condemned them to two
years' interdiction of gladiatorial games on account of a bloody
fray which they had engaged in with their neighbors of Nu-
ceria. This was in the year A.D. 59.
There are two theatres in good preservation, the comic and
tragic, capable of holding about eight' thousand persons, which
is a large proportion out of a town of ten or twelve' thousand
souls. The performances were in the open air, there being no
roof. Formerly the Romans stood. The state was considered
in danger from encroaching effeminacy when seats were intro
duced in places of amusement. A greater storm of ridicule
and sarcasm accompanied the first spreading of awnings to
protect the audiences from the sun than did the first raising
of umbrellas in the days of James I. in London, so reluctantly
do we fall into even new comforts when opposed by old prej
udices. We generally, in the pride of our Anglo-Saxon civili
zation, conceive that to have been the first appearance of um
brellas on the European stage ; whereas I noticed on Grecian

302 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES
vases more than twenty-five hundred years old very well
painted parasols and umbrellas, which certainly proves their
existence in Italy as early as the foundation of Rome.
The seats of honor were near the stage. Each class in
creased its distance as it diminshed in rank, until the plebeian
crowd filled all the upper rows of seats. Behind them, in the
galleries, were placed the women, and near them the police ; a
regulation which gives no favorable idea of the gallantry of the
male, or the morals of the fair sex. Two of the chairs used by
the magistrates of the theatres have been found. They are of
bronze inlaid with silver, and of a finish so*beautiful and accu
rate that it would be difficult to find any thing in modern art
to surpass them.
Near the theatres is the pretty little temple of Isis, in such
good preservation as to be a tell-tale of the mysteries of the
Egyptian Deity. The priests were dining when the eruption
took place. Several died beside their meal. One endeavored
to hew his way with an axe through a solid stone wall ; an
other perished in the attempt to fly with treasure snatched
in haste from the shrine. The oracular responses of the idol
all find their clew here, so it is generally believed, in the secret
stairs opening behind the niche for the statue, which gave am
ple space for a concealed priest to counterfeit the supposed
voice of his goddess. But there was no more priestly jugglery
in this pagan temple than is practiced yearly in a Christian
church in Naples. The blood of St. Januarius is as much a
falsehood as was the voice of Isis. Nor do I beheve that her
priesthood were, in general, worse in morals than those Ro
man friars who have continued their practices under anoth
er name. Both devoted themselves to celibacy ; both shaved
their heads ; both mortified their flesh by coarse apparel, bare
feet, and fasting ; and both pledged themselves to pass their
vigils in devotion, and their lives in chastity. To continue

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 203
the comparison, both, while sincere in their self-mortification,
obtained credit and power, and both diminished in reputation
as hypocrisy and avarice took the place of their ostensible vir
tues. The heathen priest was the parent of the modern monk.
The similarities between pagan forms and Christian rites in
Italy prove that, with the common religious mind, more power
lies in the ceremony than in the confession. Rites that have
long been considered as necessary for salvation are slow in
dying out, though reason and revelation may point to purer
faiths and more consistent forms. Were a Pompeian to awake
in Naples, he would find much to remind him of his old belief:
altars, images, offerings, and lamps in the public streets, as he
left them at Pompeii, constituting a shrine at every conspicu
ous corner. The sprinkling of holy water, the fonts in the
churches, sacred candelabra, the burning of incense, display of
sacred vessels, and the contribution-box, he was accustomed
to witness in his own temples. These would create no more
surprise than would the power of the priesthood and pomp of
religious processions. The multiplicity of sacred images, the
numerous altars, a queen of heaven, with an apparent plural
ity of gods, would remind him of his own populous mythology.
In short, while regretting the absence of his favorite games, he
would doubtless approve the disappearance of animal sacrifice,
and consider the change of rites from the exterior of a noble
temple, in the sight ofthe assembled people, to the interior of
a gayly-decorated church, as a mere matter of taste, about
which it was not worth while to quarrel. So long as he kept
clear of doctrine, he would probably consider that the religious
world was, after all, not much out of its old track.
Most of the temples are upon or in the immediate vicinity
ofthe Civil Forum, which was the central point of business and
magnificence. Here are the triumphal arches, and the statues,
or rather their pedestals — for the statues are removed to Na-

204 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
pies — of the eminent men who had deserved well of the colo
ny. The stately temple of Jupiter occupies its northern ex
tremity. It was in process of reparation from the ravages of
the earthquake of the year 63 when overwhelmed in the de-i
struction of 79. In it were kept the public archives. Oppo-i
site stands the Basilica, or Court of Justice, with its subterra^
nean prison. On either side are numerous public buildings
remarkable for their beauty, the whole, even in ruins, forming
a rare coup d'wil of architectural interest. One ofthe finest of
these buildings is the Chaleidicum, built by the priestess Eu-
machia, at her own expense, as a washing-place for the magis
terial and priestly robes. In fact, it is an immense shallow
basin of the purest white marble, furnished with scouring-
blocks of the same material and an aqueduct for the supply
of water, constituting probably the largest and most beautiful
wash-tub in existence. The position chosen for an edifice of
this character, in the centre of the town, is singular, but its
beauty would justify an even more conspicuous locality. It is
in such perfect repair that it could give scrubbing-room to a
regiment of washwomen without other delay than to turn on
the water. A portico, supported by exquisitely wrought Co
rinthian columns of Parian marble, surrounded this basin, but
the columns have been taken away. A statue of Eumachia
still remains, but it is a copy of the original, which has gone
to Naples. On the same side ofthe Forum, toward the north,
stands the Pantheon, as the building is called which was ded
icated to the big gods, the aristocracy of Roman mythology.
The twelve pedestals for their statues still remain, but the
gods have departed both the earth and faith of mankind.
The priesthood that waited upon them must have been a jolly
set, judging from the paintings still remaining in their refec
tory, which are in every way provocative of gustatory ideas.
Indeed, it is supposed that they were so rich-and hospitable

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 205
 , 
as to often feast their fellow-citizens, in which case they must
have been the most popular of the ancient clergy. Perhaps
the building was, notwithstanding its sacred character, but a
superior kind of restaurant, for which its position admirably
adapted it. The debris of many dinners was found in a sink
in its court-yard, which shows that the appetites of the Pom
peians held good to the last moment.
Passing from this building, I entered the lawyers' court
by deeply-worn steps, which told of the tread of many busy
feet in the days of Cicero. The stiff marble pulpit, from
which so much eloquence and chicanery had issued, and be
fore which had stood so many beating hearts, pulsating with
selfish or generous interests, as the orator touched the human
chords of wrong or right, wore an impressive stillness. Not
even the hum of an insect disturbed the intense solitude of
that sepulchre of law. Silence reigned supreme. In the in
tensity of the sunlight flashing upon the upright walls, and
clearness of atmosphere over head, without a trace around or
above me of any living thing, I began to realize the idea of
the "last man." Lingering but for an instant on its marble
pavement, I turned hastily away as the thought intruded,
" What would all my fine sentiment be worth, .supposing this
to have been only an auctioneer's block ?"
A Roman town without a public bath would have been as
strange an occurrence as a Yankee village without a meeting
house. So long a time had ela<psed without the discovery of
any building of this character, that antiquarians began to doubt
whether Pompeii, after all, had not contained an unwashed
population, though the private baths, the River Sarno, and the
sea which bathed its walls, were quite sufficient to have kept
all Campania clean. In 1824, however, the present baths
were opened. Though of a pigmy extent compared with the
immense establishments of Rome, which were cities within

206 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
themselves, yet they are vastly superior, both in size and dec
oration, to any of modem times. No considerations of mod
esty appear to have interfered with a Roman's enjoyment of
promiscuous bathing. To bathe was a primary necessity — to
bathe in public was an enjoyment equivalent to the Opera of
modern civilization. At first men and women bathed togeth
er, or their baths were united. But even Roman license
became scandahzed at the results, and the sexes were sepa
rated. Emperors mingled freely in the baths with the com
monest citizens.
It is said of Hadrian, that one day, seeing a veteran soldier
rubbing his body against the marble for friction, he asked
him why he did not employ the slaves. The soldier replied
that he was too poor. The Emperor immediately presented
him with two slaves and a sum sufficient to maintain them.
A few days after, several old men, who had witnessed the for
tune of their companion, attempted to attract the Emperor's
notice by using the marble pilasters in lieu of crash towels.
He, perceiving their drift, quickly set them at work rubbing
each other.
The bathers were usually scraped with bronze instruments
called strigiles, much after the fashion of currying horses.
This was a rough operation, as the Emperor Augustus once
discovered to his cost. Previous to bathing, the body was
anointed with oil, and upon coming out of the bath, costly and
delicate perfumes were lavishly used. To describe the entire
operation of a complete bath of a Roman exquisite would re
quire a volume. Every luxury of art was employed to gratify
the taste, and every means which a sensuous race could invent
was used to heighten physical pleasure. The resources of a
more than Oriental effeminacy or barbarian energy were al
ternately exhausted to stimulate the system to novel emotions
of languid or active enjoyment, until at last the Roman bath,

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 207
with its libraries, gymnasiums, lecture and reading rooms, its
museums of art, its imperial magnificence and prodigality of
sensual attractions, became the focus and the grave of Roman
life. The Pompeian baths were sufficiently luxurious in their
way, and are in such excellent preservation that they might
be used to give the traveler not only the idea, but the fact of
a classical ablution. It would be something to be able to say
that one had hung up his clothes on the same peg which had
held Pliny's, or rubbed his sides in the same marble tub which
had held one of the family of Cicero. That they visited Pom
peii, and of course the baths, is evident from an inscription
on the architrave of the temple of Fortune, which says that
" Marcus Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, erected^.t his own pri
vate expense, this temple to Fortuna Augusta." This temple
held a statue of Cicero, with a purple-colored toga. The prac
tice of gilding and coloring statuary was not uncommon to an
cient sculptors, and in some cases may have been used with
good effect. The Enghsh sculptor Gibson has sought to re
vive this fashion. The result is, that his experiments have
succeeded in giving a waxen look to marble. The more se
vere rule of modern art is, that sculpture is the legitimate prov
ince of form, and not of color.
On the wall of the court of the baths is the following in
scription : " On occasion of the dedication of the baths, at the
expense of Cnams Alleius Nigidius Maius, there will be the
chase of wild beasts, athletic contests, sprinkling of perfumes,
and an awning. Prosperity to Maius, chief ofthe colony."
The principal divisions ofthe interior are as follows. The
Tepidarium, or warm chamber, a large oblong hall, with an
arched ceiling, beautifully ornamented with bassi-relievi in
stucco. Along the sides beneath, and supporting a rich cor
nice, are a range of niches, divided by sculptured Telamones,

208 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

or male figures two feet high, flesh-colored, and with black
hair. The baskets upon their h«ads and moulding above were
gilt. This room is lighted by a window two feet and a half
by three, formerly closed by movable panes of glass in a

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 209
bronze frame. Some of these panes were found perfect. In
it still remains a beautiful bronze brazier, seven feet long by
two and a half wide, used for heating the apartment. The
Calidarium, or hot chamber, contains a spacious marble bath
ing-tub raised on a pedestal of the same material. The walls
are hned with hot air and steam flues. A beautiful marble
basin, five feet in diameter, containing a fountain for boiling
water, occupies a niche at the lower end of this apartment.
The Frigidarium, or undressing room, is circular, with a dome
roof, in which is a window two feet eight inches high, and
three feet eight inches broad, once closed by a single pane of
ground glass two fifths of an inch thick, the fragments of
which lay on the floor when the room was first opened. This
establishes the fact that the ancients not only had glazed win
dows, but manufactured large panes of glass. It contains also
a spacious circular marble bath. There are few spots of more
interest in' Pompeii than these baths.
The amphitheatre is at the farther end of the unexplored
part of the town. I wandered slowly thither, meeting on my
way two beggars, who, unlike their fraternity in general, had
each a gift of his own to exercise besides the accustomed whine
and promise of saintly blessings. The first was lame, or pre
tended to be, but, starting forth from behind a doorway, he be
gan a most extraordinary dance, on principles of his own, to
the tune of an antique pipe which he played himself. He
was the most like an antique faun of any living thing I had
ever seen, and, consequently, was in keeping with the scene.
I gave him something, and left him to finish his performance
in solitude. Ascending to the upper surface of Pompeii, if the
soil above has any right to the name of the town it has de
stroyed, I met another, a regular modem interloper, who jump
ed a Jim Crow sort of a hop to a negro melody, which he seem
ed to consider just the thing for a stranger. Shade of Hercu-

210 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
les, what a profanation ! I hurried past him in silence, not
even bestowing the charity of a look.
Tread lightly ! On a soil like this, who can tell what lies
beneath ? The careless feet may rudely press upon some maid
en's breast, and crush an infant form. There is a pleasure in
speculating over the contents of a mine of Art which the search
for mere gold can not possess. A statue over which we un
consciously walk may prove a " nugget" of wealth to the find
er, even if soulless to its beauties. The very dust beneath
bears sifting. There is gold to reward the toil, and beauty to
instruct the world. How much of actual treasure remains
earth-bound in Italy! Not many leagues from Pompeii lies
buried Alaric and the plunder of Rome. Gold and silver keep
well in the grave. The treasure men lose their lives to win
mocks at their brief triumphs, and hves to corrupt successive
generations. The spoils of Jerusalem's temple, the seven-
branched golden candlestick, for nearly fifteen centuries, with
wealth untold, have rested quietly in the sands of the Tiber.
Will not avarice league with art to search for what would so
well reward the discovery ? Were Italy half as much dug
over as are the gold-fields of Australia, the product would, I
believe, astonish even California success.
I reached the amphitheatre and mounted its walls. It is a
baby amphitheatre compared with the Coliseum, yet nearly
fifteen thousand spectators could find room within its circum
ference. There are twenty-four rows of stone seats and two
fine corridors.
The extreme length is four hundred and thirty feet, and the
greatest breadth three hundred and thirty -five, the form being
oval, and the whole in fine preservation, with the exception of
the frescoes which once covered the passages, and the finer
portions or facings of stone-work. I have a passion for am
phitheatres, but it depends upon the associations connected

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 311
with their symmetry and strength. This upward springing of
.arch upon arch heavenward, in strong and graceful sweep, re
ceding gradually from the arena, but mounting directly toward
the sky on the exterior, combines a grandeur of force and beau
ty in a higher degree than any other ofthe architectural works
of man. The Pyramid of Cheops is indeed stupendous, but,
after all, it is only artificial bulk and weight in its simplest
form. The Coliseum, on the contrary, is a noble triumph of
art — an expansion of science and strength which stamps the
character of a nation for all time. It isRome's proudest med
al to her architectural genius. Years sufficed to build it, but
centuries of devastation have been unable to destroy it. I
love, then, the massive walls of the amphitheatres, with their
beautiful curves and lightly-poised arches, and have visited
them all — Rome, Nismes, Aries, Verona, Puteoli, and Pom
peii — with unfailing pleasure. The last remains most in keep
ing with its original design. All that is to be learned of their
brutal purposes is here apparent — the arena, dens, vomitories,
and passages for slain brutes or men. There would be little
need of restoration should the taste for human slaughter to af
ford a Roman holiday revive. While they commemorate the
daring genius of the conquerors of the world, they record also
their brutalization and inhumanity. Can, however, the age
that tolerated the Inquisition reproach the Romans for the
Amphitheatre ? The latter disappeared before Christianity,
though not until Christian blood had soaked its arena. The
former sprang from so-called Christianity, and martyred its
hecatombs, in slow tortures, in the name of a merciful Savior.
We need to recall such truths to teach us humility when we
sit in judgment upon the Past.
The performances in these amphitheatres of a milder char
acter stand unrivaled in our times. Elephants were trained
to dance on a tight rope with towers and riders on their back,

212 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
and other feats equally wonderful. Their jugglery was almost
upon a par with Egyptian miracles.
The extent of the disaster in the number of the dead was
not so great at Pompeii as to make it exceed some of our West
ern steam-boat explosions, or other casualties which we have
so ingeniously contrived for sending our fellow-citizens by
scores, without warning, into eternity. Here the warning was
ample. Those who lingered and were lost, but a few hund
red in number, judging from the skeletons as yet found, were
probably the aged or helpless, the thief who stopped to plun
der, or the criminal whose bonds prevented his escape. Some
doubtless perished, like the soldiers, from a rigid sense of duty
or discipline ; some from incredulity as to the reality of dan
ger ; and others from those instinctive impulses of self-denial
and generosity which so often, in the hour of peril, sanctify
and exalt human nature. Selfishness and despair there were
too, in their most despicable and brutal forms, and philosoph
ical curiosity, which, like Pliny's the elder, in seeking to re
lieve, sought also to investigate, even at the expense of his own
existence. Other great calamities, which form epochs, as it
were, in the successive miseries of the human race, become
fainter and fainter as they recede in the vista of time, till their
interest concentrates in a brief historical paragraph, which in
structs us, but does not move. Pompeii, on the contrary, is a
perpetual reminiscence ofthe actual fears, struggles, and hor
ror which attended its final doom. The hopelessness and ter
rific grandeur ofthe morning ofthe 24th of August, A.D. 79,
with all its agonies, crimes, and virtues, is touchingly before
us. We see the deserted house, the forsaken temple, the
coveted treasure, the jewel spared during eighteen centuries
of death to its fair owner, the paintings, gifts of friendship and
tokens of taste, and all the evidences of a domestic life as
dearly prized as our own, left as if the owner had but stepped

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. • 313
out to see a neighbor ; shops filled with merchandise, but
empty of customers ; the labor of the mechanic interrupted,
and destined never to receive the finishing stroke ; kitchens
that are tell-tales of, domestic economy and luxurious extrava
gance ; the narrow, tomb-like cells assigned to slaves, bespeak
ing a servitude worse than the modern African ; in short, ev
ery thing that goes to make up active human existence, even
to the forms of manhood, beauty, and infancy, impressed upon
the solid lava, disclosing the very features worn until the last
hour of life — all these, and more, which Pompeii has yielded
up to the present generation, bring vividly back to the heart
the hour and story of her fiery burial.
Retracing my steps through the modern farm, I strolled
once more along the street of tombs which led in the direction
of Herculaneum. The old city of the dead was but a contin
uation of the old city of the living ; there was not even a di
viding line ; sepulchre and domestic roof are intermingled.
This familiarity -with death was common among the Romans.
They entered or left their paternal cities through long lines of
ancestral monuments, reminding them of glories won and
honors conferred by past generations, which in time might
also become their own. These tombs are no vulgar graves,
but have a cheerful look of elegance, as if intended more to
please the eye ofthe living than to secure the dead. Indeed,
the Romans could have had none of the unpleasant ideas
which moderns have in connection with the bodies of the de
parted. They feared no grave-yard odors or fearful sights of
mouldering humanity, for the simple process of burning corpses
secured them equally against contagion and repulsive associa
tions. The funerals took place at night, with great pomp and
the burning of torches. This practice, in all its essential par
ticulars, is still continued at Rome, the body, richly dressed
and covered with flowers, being borne on an open litter

214 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
through the streets. The modem phrase, to receive the dy
ing breath, is become a poetical expression of attendance on
the dying ; but among the Romans it had a practical signifi
cation. The nearest relative bent over the body of the dying
person to inhale his latest breath, fondly thinking that the
principle of life left the body at that instant by the mouth.
The ashes ofthe dead, being deposited in urns, were placed
in niches in tombs, which, from their resemblance to the ar
rangement of dove-cotes, were called columbaria. The Ro
mans literally laid away their ancestors on the shelf. This
was also an economical practice, for one tomb could contain a
great number of urns.
From the tombs I ascended the ancient walls to look down
upon the city. In the rear ofthe House ofthe Vestals there
is a high tower in fine preservation. Passing from the wah
into this, I mounted to the top to enjoy the landscape. Un
roofed Pompeii, with its marble columns and spacious court
yards, lay glittering in the sunlight beneath me. If it looked
lovely then, what must it have appeared -when its streets
were a crowded mart, its port filled with Oriental ships, and its
public and private houses were robed in Tyrian purple and
glittering with gold ? The sea was as tranquil as in the morn
ing, with its white sails drowsily hanging over its surface. It
glittered in the sinking sun as if a diamond sheet had been
dropped from the Celestial City. On the farther horizon lay
Ischia and the headlands of that noble bay, reposing tranquil
ly on the water like floating Edens. To the right was Naples
'and the intervening towns, with their white walls, inclosing
the landscape as a setting of pearls. Over against me, in
dark shadow, was the ancient Mons Lactarius, with snow still
lingering in its northern crevices. At its base lies subterra
nean Stabise, with its rich villas, a Roman Brighton, buried
under the same shower as Pompeii. Modem Castellamare

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 215
has grown upon its site and succeeded to its reputation as a
watering-place. A broad and fertile plain, barely moistened
by the shrunken Sarno, unites Pompeii with Castellamare.
In my rear, Vesuvius gradually swelled up from the city walls,
with mingled fertility and sterility, as the lava-streams had
spared or buried its cultivated base. The clear setting sun
light sent its illuminating rays into its inmost gorges, bringing
them, as it were, close to me, and revealing every secret char
acter. Above all, the diadem of that beauteous landscape,
brilliant with borrowed glory, rose the crater summit, abrupt
and cragged, but as powerful as a mountain of granite. A
light, fleecy vapor curled gently from its mouth, and melted
away lazily hke the smoke of an aristocratic cigar. The en
tire view formed a panorama on which one could not gaze his
fill. My eyes ranged rapidly from one object to another, but at
last became fixed on the cone of Vesuvius. The light, fleecy
vapor was succeeded by rich masses of pure white cloud.
These were puffed fast and furiously from the crater, hke
escaping volumes of high-pressure steam. They gradually
disappeared before a light breeze which had begun to stir, but
before they were wholly gone, a dense smoke, of inky black
ness, arose from a somewhat nearer point of view, and mount
ed with great rapidity into the sky. It soon reached an ele
vation of, I should judge, nine thousand feet, or three times
the height of Vesuvius ; then bending, as it were, beneath its
own weight, it flattened out at the top hke a spread umbrella
or the branches of an Itahan pine, and cast a deep shadow
upon the mountain beneath it. There were bright spots to
be seen through its gloom, not star-like, but lurid. I could
compare it to nothing but to the tree of evil, with its in
fernal fruit shot up from hell, as an omen of coming woe to
men. Pluto was preparing to visit the earth amid wonders

/
216 ITALIAN SIGHT'S AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

and ruin. This strange apparition slowly sunk again into the
crater. I had been so occupied with the mountain that I had quite
forgotten to look toward the city. Turning, however, as the
cloud gradually subsided, I saw the inhabitants gazing in awe
and perplexity upon the phenomenon. While they looked,
lightnings began to play through the sky. There was no thun
der, though their flashes were so intense as to be clearly seen
in the bright sunlight. The colossal statue of Jupiter, front
ing his temple on the Forum, was shivered to pieces, and one
of the Augustals, passing at the time, was crushed to death be
neath the falling fragments. A cry of horror reached my ears.
By an instinctive impulse, each citizen seemed to accept the
omen as the death-warning to their town and race.
The stillness that succeeded to the cloud and lightnings was
awful. The leaves of the trees were as still as if carved in
marble. To me it appeared as if all nature was holding its
breath in terror of coming annihilation. The very air seemed
extinct, and all life, anticipating its doom, lay spell-bound in
silence. The feeling of passive horror was too intense to last
long. Action, although no one knew what to do or where to
fly, became a relief. The wild animals in their cages at the
amphitheatre alternately moaned, and sulked, and flew into
paroxysms of fierceness. Their instincts foreboded strange
dangers, and their captivity turned their fear into rage; but
their keepers were too much interested in consulting their own
safety to think of the brutes in their charge. Already had the
amphitheatre been cleared of its spectators, who had come up
from Noceria, Stabia?, and even Herculaneum, to witness the
games. They now hurried toward their homes with a feeling
that Pompeii was fated to destruction'.
Many ofthe inhabitants, believing that a recurrence of earth
quakes, such as desolated Campania twelve years before, was

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 217
about to take place, sought security in precipitate flight. Some
took to the shipping, and, putting oft' at once, escaped. Others
tried their chariots ; but the earth now began to move to and
fro, and even up and down, like the waves of the sea, so that
the horses were either thrown down or paralyzed with fright.
To increase the confusion, intense darkness obscured every
thing. Pompeii and the whole country became like a closet
shut against all light. No one knew which way to turn. The
cries and struggles were terrible to hear ; lost children were
calling upon fond parents who were unable to help. The
weak were overthrown. Women vainly implored the assist
ance of men. Despair at last kept the multitude still, for to
move was almost certain destruction.
A fiery light suddenly glared over the strange spectacle.
Snake-like flashes darted here and there, imparting a lurid
glare to the woe-struck human countenances and marble walls.
I felt there was immediate danger for me to remain where I -
was, but I was rooted to the spot by the terrible fascination
ofthe seene. Yet all that I had beheld was as nothing com
pared with what followed
The flashes of light ceased to play about the top of the
mountain. Instantly a mighty crash was heard, as if the
mountain had split in twain. The very sea roared with pain.
Heavy thunderings muttered and rolled deep in the bowels of
earth, and, passing up, burst into the air with the noise of an
exploded world. The mountain was indeed rent in twain.
Every building in the city trembled to its foundations ; walls
were split, and statues overthrown "by the concussion. The
tower where I was for a few seconds reeled like a drunken
man, but settled again on its base without much damage.
High into the air, higher even than the cloud-tree rose, shot
up burning stones, flames, and ashes all fire, a terrific shower
of destruction. Some of the stones were immense masses of
K

3 18 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
red-hot rock, which, striking against each other in their rapid
ascent, burst into myriads of pieces, scattering fire and light in
all directions. Fortunately, in falling, they did not reach the
city. A new and even more horrible enemy had appeared at the
same time, but which, so taken up was I with the grandeur of
the exploding masses of stone, I had not immediately noticed.
Through the rent in the mountain a stream of viscid, red-hot
liquid rock flowed steadily out, rapidly making its way toward
the sea, enlarging- in depth and breadth at every foot of its
progress. This, then, was the real demon of destruction to
which the mountain had given birth. It swept every living
thing before it. Forests, and even hills, melted at its touch,
swelling the fiery flood, and disappearing slowly beneath it
with a sullen plunge, amid violent explosions and dense smoke.
Valleys filled up ; large rocks were floated for a considera
ble distance in this strange river like cork on water, tossing
and splashing about in fiery spray before they became lava
themselves. Some sank, and were thrown high into the air
again, forming as they fell thick, blood-red whirlpools, which
boiled and bubbled with a fierce sluggishness, uttering the
while strange bellowings and mutterings, as if the elements
of nature were engaged in mortal conflict. The light from
this lava-stream shed a ghastly glow over the entire country.
It soon reached the cultivated grounds, and farms and villages
were speedily in flames. I watched its course until it struck
that shady knoll where I had so often passed the sultry sum
mer hours with my friend Plautus in his charming villa, which
in an instant was a mass of smoking ruins. The stream now
turned from the direction of Pompeii and moved toward Her
culaneum. Although this danger was averted from Pompeii, another no
less destructive succeeded, warning the remaining inhabitants

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 219
to abandon their homes, which no longer afforded them shelter.
From my elevated position I could see all that occurred, and
was near enough to hear at times the voices of the multitude
and recognize my friends. Showers of hot ashes, cinders, and
even large stones began to fall, obscuring the remaining light,
and making the sun appear as if under an eclipse. The peo
ple retreated to the public porticoes, but the burning ashes
were so fine that they penetrated into the inmost chamber,
and drove out all who, until that moment, had fancied that
strong walls could protect them. I had noticed that Diomedes
had invited many of his friends to take refuge in the cellar of
his villa, which early in the day he had stored with provis
ions, believing that its massive walls and half-subterranean
position would be proof against the volcanic storm. As the
ashes began to penetrate the narrow apertures, the male por
tion left and made a desperate effort to reach the sea. A few
succeeded, but Diomedes and a servant, bearing such treasures
as he had hastily snatched up, were struck down by a shower
of stones, and must have soon perished. I could hear Dio
medes's cries to the last, offering his entire wealth to any one
who would aid him to escape The poor women and children
left in the cellar could not have long survived, as its position
exposed it to the first effects of the terrible lava-hail, which
was now accompanied at intervals by showers of boiling water
and sulphurous masses of vapor, that struck with immediate
death every living thing that inhaled it. I had some time be
fore retreated to a chamber of the tower, which still afforded
me a good view and protected me from the immediate effects
ofthe eruption.
The showers of boiling water, fall of burning stones, ava
lanche of ashes, and jets of mephitic gases completed the cli
max of evils upon the doomed city. Those of the inhabit
ants that had sufficient strength no longer looked for shelter

220 ITALIAN SIGHTS AMJ PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
from massive walls, but rushed into the streets with pillows,
domestic utensils, and even tables tied upon their heads, to
protect them from the falling masses, and made for the port,
where there still remained some vessels. But the sea was
terribly agitated. It ebbed and flowed with great rapidity
every few minutes, lea-ving the fish stranded upon the shores,
or sweeping them up into the streets. There was now no
more hope of safety on the water than on the land. The dark
ness also increased. Some ofthe magistrates ordered torches
to be placed in the public way. This afforded some relief to
the hopeless confusion of the flying, but individual panic had
now assumed too violent a stage to be regardful of the public
good. The worst passions and most selfish instincts of human
nature had come into full play. Blasphemous wretches and
hardened criminals, availing themselves of the chaos of all
order, plundered the shrines of the gods, robbed the public
treasuries, and penetrated into private houses,«snatching up
the deserted wealth, and stabbing the impotent owners who
attempted to resist. The falling fire had set many of the
wooden roofs into a blaze, so that Pompeii was thus threaten
ed with a double conflagration. The plunder of the villains in
many cases was the cause of their death, for, burdened by its
weight, they but the more speedily met the fate which was
due to their crimes. Slaves, too, who had long concealed the
hatred which their cruel treatment inspired, turned upon their
effeminate masters, mocked their tears and appeals for aid, or
slew them pitilessly before the eyes of their wives and chil
dren, whom they at length abandoned to more lingering deaths.
I saw the rich widow Julia, as she rose from the luxurious
breakfast-table of Sallust, aided by her gallant host, attempt
to escape by the Herculaneum gate. With her children she
reached the portico ofthe inn, and there, fainting from fear and
unwonted effort, clasped her offspring in her arms and calmly

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 231
sat down to die. Sallust in vain attempted to rouse her to
farther exertion. A shower of burning cinders, more heavy
than common, drove him to flight, and buried the hapless fam
ily in their living grave. The shrieks of the poor children
were appalling. But, in the general terror, who could stop to
pity individual torture ?
The jEdile Pansa behaved nobly. He assembled some of
the centurions and their soldiers, and inspired them with firm
ness to act for the general good. Never was the power of
Roman discipline more heroically vindicated. To the latest
moment the sentinels were changed ; the relieved returned to
die in their barracks — those on dutyt at their posts. Patrols
sternly marched through the city, arresting and summarily
punishing the vagabonds who were adding crime to the uni
versal distress. But what could a few self-devoted soldiers
hope to do against the powers of darkness, leagued together
for the destruction of humanity ? So long as there remained
a voice to command them, they obeyed ; when this ceased,
they too sought safety in flight, but with most it was too late.
The struggles of the flying mass were frightful. Parents
fled from their children ; children deserted their parents ;
beauty appealed in vain to strength for aid. Safety, safety
was the universal thought. Numbers fell and were trampled
upon by the advancing crowd ; before they could rise again,
the hot ashes and cinders had buried them forever, and their
lifeless forms were trodden into shapeless masses by flying
neighbors and kindred. Yet, amid all this utter selfishness
of despair, there flashed out bright examples of generous de
votion that reconciled one to human nature, and proved that,
even in its darkest moments, it was instinctive with noble
ness and truth. I saw the slave shelter his master's child in
his brawny arms at the expense of his own excoriated back,
bared to the falling water and ashes. He reached a boat in

222 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
safety and put off on the water. A young woman led out an
aged blind man, perhaps her father, and piloted him a while
slowly but surely through the encumbered streets. I soon
lost sight of them. Other examples there were of tenderness
and fidelity ; but who could watch individual progress to the
end in such a scene ? A lion had escaped from the amphithe
atre. He ran howling over the scorching embers, seeking
companionship with men, until at length, unable to endure the
falling cinders, he crept into a deserted shop, and there laid him
self down to die. But the strangest spectacle was a company
of Nazarenes, who, robed in white, sought not to escape from
the city, but marched in procession through the streets, with
torches in hand, chanting hymns to their Deity, and proclaim
ing in doleful voices that " the last hour of man was come."
None seemed to bestow a thought upon the infirm and fee
ble, but left them to perish. Cries of anguish and despair fre
quently arose amid the burning buildings from these deserted
victims, who gazed hopelessly upon their approaching fate.
Fire consumed some ; gases suffocated others ; many were
covered with th§ fine volcanic dust while still gasping for
breath, or were crushed by falling timbers. Whichever way
I turned my eyes, new horrors appalled them. But I soon
had to reflect upon my own position. Could I escape ? I
hurried to each window in turn. The volcanic shower in
creased in fury and density. Pompeii already lay half still in
death. To go out was impossible — to remain was death.
How I cursed my fatal curiosity ! I ran around my narrow
chamber like a madman. The hot cinders penetrated by the
windows and fell upon my flesh. Heavens ! how they slowly
burned into my body, cooling themselves in my blood! I
choked for air. Thirst maddened me. Water, water ; but
one drop to cool the fever of my tongue ! I screamed, and
fell senseless upon the flbor.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 223
At this moment a hand touched me, and I — awoke. " Your
Excellency will be too late for the last train for Naples if you
slumber longer here,'' said the polite guard. I slipped a coin
into his hands, thanked him, stood a moment gazing upon dis
interred Pompeii and the quiet volcano, to satisfy myself that,
after all, it was but a dream, and, hurrying off to Naples,
speedily forgot my late sufferings in a capital dinner at the
Caf6 de l'Europe, which I take the liberty to recommend as
worthy of its name.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE PAPAL COURT  THE HOLY WEEK AT ROME.
The Holy Week at Rome ! What unholy reminiscences of
crowding, struggling, contention ; of extortion and cheating ;
of dirt and discomfort ; in short, of all the ills attendant upon
the multiplication ofthe population ofthe Holy City tenfold in
proportion to its capacity of accommodation, does not this sol
emn Church-festival vividly recall to every traveler who has
undergone its purgatorial experience, either to view its vain
show, or to stir anew languid devotion in witnessing the sig
nificant facts in man's redemption which it is intended to com
memorate ? Rome, during this period, is the focus of Chris
tendom. The Protestant hurries up to the Eternal City to be
hold the scarlet lady in all her pomp and circumstance, with
the charitable object of seeing with his own eyes whether her
color is not even more deeply dyed than it has been represent
ed. The Catholic devoutly makes his pilgrimage, to lay alike
his sins and offerings on her altars, and with renewed heart
and faith to carry back with him the blessing and absolution
of Christ's vicar on earth. Both are not unfrequently disap
pointed. I have known the scorning Protestant to go away
the disciple of infallibility, while the simple-hearted Catholic,
gradually losing himself among the mazes of doubt and hy
pocrisy, which, fungus-like, cluster around the claims of papa
cy, at last acknowledged himself a pagan, or worse, an unbe
liever in all religion.
No city, both from its past and present influence on the
world's history, presents more claims to interest than Rome.
The many who visit it are as nothing in comparison with those

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 225
who desire and can not. I shall therefore give, for the benefit
of the latter class, so far as I am able, a practical view of its
ceremonies and principles during that period which it has set
apart to commemorate, with all its sanctity and splendor, as
one of peculiar solemnity — embracing the most momentous
events that ever dawned upon the human race — the death
and resurrection of our Savior. What papacy thus openly
spreads before the whole world must be considered as its re
ligious standard. By its effects on its followers it can rightly
be judged. To keep within the strictest limits of charitable
evidence, I shall confine myself either to papal authorities or
ceremonies, for it is solely upon them that it founds its high
pretensions, and by them exhibits its righteousness.
Bishop England, in a httle work published at Rome, entitled
an " Explanation of the Ceremonies of the Holy Week," sets
forth the claims and objects of the Roman Church at this par
ticular festival. We, therefore, can not go amiss in briefly
quoting from him the doctrines which he asserts to be ani
mating principles ofthe practices he advocates.
" The object," he says, " of our church-ceremony is not mere
idle show ; such exhibitions would, in religion, be worse than
a waste of time." " God can never be pleased by any homage
which is not internal and spiritual." " The legitimate objects
of external rites in religion are the instruction ofthe mind and
amelioration ofthe heart; their object is the promotion of en
lightened piety. Whatever does not tend to this is at least
useless, probably mischievous. The Catholic Church is de
sirous of having all her observances tested by this principle." By
this principle I beg all, whether Protestant or Catholic, to test
even the few ofthe manifold observances that I shall be able
to quote within my prescribed limits, and to frankly confess
their own conclusions as to the degree in which they promote
" enlightened piety."

226 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
The Pope, as we all know, claims to be the representative
of Christ, with spiritual and temporal powers commensurate
with divine authority. Although our Savior expressly de
clared his kingdom not to be of this world, yet his successor
and " visible head ofthe Church" is also a " temporal sovereign ;"
and, in addition to his ecclesiastical state, surrounds himself
with as brilliant a court as can exist, in which females are out
wardly excluded. In judging, then, of these incompatible
functions, a charitable distinction should be drawn between
that which properly belongs to the one or the other. Inas
much, however, as the temporal power had its origin in his
spiritual position, and is intimately blended with it in all its
phases, it will be difficult to define the line of demarkation
between his duties as high-priest and sovereign. We must,
therefore, take him simply as he shows himself to the adora
tion of the faithful.
" His throne is placed on the Gospel side of the altar," says
Bishop England. From personal inspection, I can assure the
curious reader that no imperial robes surpass those of the
Holy Father in rich and curious embroidery, gold, precious
stones, and general value of materials and cunning workman
ship. Description would fail to illustrate the variety and
pomp of costume of the Roman ecclesiastical courts. There
fore I shall present — so far as uncolored cuts can — the extent
and costliness of this branch of service of the successor of
Him who exalted poverty in the priesthood to the rank of a
virtue. V
PROCESSION
FOR EASTER SUNDAY.
Esquires,
two and two, in red serge cappas, with hoods over the shoulders, etc.
Proctors of the College,
two and two, in black stuff cappas, with silk hoods.
Procuratores of religious orders,
two and two, in the habits of their respective orders.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 227

Ecclesiastical Chamberlains, outside the city,
two and two, in red.
Chaplains in ordinary*
in redcappas, with hoods of ermine; of whom there are
first mitre bearer,
second mitre bearer,
third mitre bearer,
one bearer ofthe tiara.— {Cut 8.)
Private Chaplains*
two and two, red cappas and hoods of ermine.
Consistorial Advocates,
two and two, in black or violet cassocks and hoods.
Ecclesiastical Chamber lair, s,
private and honorary, two and two, in red cassocks and hoods.
Choristers of the Chapel*
two and two, in violet silk cassocks, over which are surplices. — (Cut 9.)
Abbreviators of the Park.
Clerks of the Chamber,
in surplices over rochets, two a"nd two.
Master of the sacred Palace,
in his habit of a Dominican friar.
Auditors of the Rota,
in surplices over rochets, two and two.
Three Acolylhs, Incense bearer. Four Acolyths,
jn surplices over rochets, , ^rofs e^re1 in surplices over rochets,
carrying large candlesticks m tunic. (Cut 12.) carrying candlesticks wilh
with lights. Two porters of the red rod. lights.
Greek Subdeacon. Latin Subdeacon, Greek Deacon.
in tunic.
Penitentiaries of St. Peter's,
M two and two, in albs and chasubles. w
* Mitred Abbots, %
| of whom only a few are entitled to a place. %
W BISHOPS, ARCHBISHOPS, AND PATRIARCHS, W
g two and two, tbe Latins wearing copes and mitres, p
p- the Easterns in their proper costumes. — (Cuts 2-8.) 3-
J^ CARDINAL DEACONS, j
O in dalmatics and milres, each accompanied by his chamberlain carrying his ^
S- square cap, and followed by his train bearer. £
^ CARDINAL PRIESTS, ~
~ in chasubles and mitres, similarly attended. — (Cut 11.) <-*
CARDINAL BISHOPS,
in copes and mitres, similarly attended.
General staff, and officers of the guard of nobles.
Grand herald and grand esquire,
in court dresses.
% Lay chamberlains. t
£¦ g Conservators of Rome and Prior oftlie magistrates of Wards,
*™ » a in vestures ornamented with cioth of gold.
g 3 g PRINCE ASSISTANT AT THE THRONE,
3. S" 3. in a splendid court dress.— (Cut 10.)
| 2, GOVERNOR OF ROME,
3 3 in rochet "and cappa.
I; Two auditors of the Rota, Q&2
g to serve as train bearers. * g ^
Two principal masters of ceremony. p'j ?

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238 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

CARDINAL DEACON, CARDINAL DEACON, CARDINAL DEACON,
second assistant at the for the Latin Gospel and mass, first assistant at the throne,
throne, Fan borne by a pri- Fan borne by a private
vate chamberlain. THE POPE— (Cut 13) chamberlain.— (Cut 14.)
wearing a white cope and tiara,
borne in his chair by twelve supporters — (Cut 15 — Pope's chair-bearer in livery) — in
red damask, under a canopy sustained by eight referendaries of the signature, in
short violet mantles over rochets.
His holiness is surrounded by his household. Six of the Swiss guards, representing
the Catholic cantons, carry large drawn swords on their shoulders.
Private chamberlain. Dean of the Rota, Private chamberlain,
in rochet and cappa. of sword and cloak. — (Cut 20.)
MAJOR DOMO, AUDITOR OF THE APOSTOLIC CAMERA, TREASURER,
in rochets and cappas.
Prothonotaries apostolic,
Regent of the chancery and auditor of contradictions,
all in rochets and cappas, two and two.
Generals of religious orders,
two and two. in their proper hahits.
On the cope of bright purple color which the Pope wears on
Palm Sunday is a silver plate richly gilt, bearing, in beautiful
relief, the figure ofthe Almighty. This was formerly of pure
gold, surrounded by three knobs of costly Oriental pearls ; but
the cupidity of the enemies of Pius VI. overcame their fear of
sacrilege, and they appropriated it to other purposes. Ben-
venuto Cellini, who was employed by Clement VII. to engrave
this plate, says, somewhat blasphemously, though in true artis
tic spirit, that he endeavored to represent the " Almighty Fa
ther in a free and easy position."
His Holiness selects the cardinals, seventy in number, who
form the high senate of the Church and the privy council of
the Pope. They in turn elect the Pope from their own num
ber. In Costume they are a shade less brilliant than the Holy
Father, wearing, when in chapel, red cassocks with gold tassels,
red stockings, white ermine tippets, and red skull or square
caps. On solemn occasions they add red shoes and white
damask silk mitres, with other changes of raiment, telliiig with
great effect in a procession, but tedious in description.
Throughout the whole edifice ofthe Roman hierarchy, cos
tume forms a very important and conspicuous part. < It is nice
ly graduated with decreasing splendor and diversified cut from

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 239
the pope, cardinals, archbishops, and the inferior clergy, who
are almost lost amid richly-laced petticoats and purple skirts,
to the laughable attire of the sacristans, choristers, and the
dirty and dolorous robes of the monastic orders. Each rank
has its mark and number, and it must be confessed that no
military display can compete, in variety and brilliancy of colors
and costliness of uniform, with one got up by the Church. The
nomenclature of papal costume is intelligible only to those who
pass their hves in wearing it. Each article has its peculiar
uses and degree of sanctity.
The etiquette of the papal court, whether in its spiritual or
temporal sense, is no light service. To give an idea of the
number and variety of officers attached to it, I have given a
programme ofthe Procession for Easter Sunday as it appears
in Saint Peter's previous to High Mass and the General Bene
diction and Excommunication. The engravings given of sev
eral of these ecclesiastical personages and their suites will
bear out the assertion that no operatic or theatrical spectacle
can pretend to vie with the papal court when it dons its holi
day suit. Imagine the surprise of St. Peter, were he to be
present, upon being told that that sleepy-looking old gentle
man, so buried in gold and jewels as scarcely to be discerni
ble, and borne under a magnificent canopy on the shoulders of
twelve men clothed in the brightest scarlet, performing the
pantomime of turning from one side to another his uplifted '
thumb and two fingers as illustrative of the blessing of the
Holy Trinity, was his successor ! I question whether at such
a sacrilegious libel the old Adam within him would not be
more signally displayed than it even was in the garden, for
the zealous apostle would least of all forgive humbug. I speak
only of the effect on my own mind, contrasted with what I
conceive to be the proper display of that religion which con
sists in visiting and comforting the fatherless and widows in

240 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
their affliction. There are others, as we often see, on whom
the glitter of a court, or the music and architecture of a church,
have greater weight than the humility and simplicity of Gos
pel truth. They would be loth to confess that the avenue to
their minds and hearts closed with their eyes and ears ; but
take away the curiously wrought robes, the cunning of the ar
tificer, the genius ofthe artist, the harmonies of music, and the
entire combination of pomp and venerable tradition by which
Rome upholds her religion, and how much of faith and con
viction would be left to them ?
Besides the officers who figure in the above procession, there
are a legion of others attached to the court, which swell its
bulk to a degree that weighs heavily upon the petty temporal
dominions of the Popes, and is out of all proportion to their
necessities. There are private gentlemen ofthe bed-chamber,
and among them a secret treasurer, who purveys for the alms
and amusement of the Pope. So little bodily exercise does
the Boman etiquette allow to the successors ofthe fisherman,
that his present Holiness has been ordered by his physician
to play at billiards daily, to counteract his tendency to obesity.
There are one hundred and eight officers and valets, under
different titles, attached to the personal service ofthe Pope ; a
modest number, when the extent of his several palaces is con
sidered. No sovereign pays the penalty of greatness more
severely than the Holy Father. His sanctity dooms him per
petually to solitary meals, except on extraordinary occasions,
there being no one on earth sufficiently elevated to sit as an
equal at table with him. This is the rule ; but a spiritual Pope
no doubt finds means occasionally to reconcile his social in
stincts and rank at the same time. Then, too, every dish must
be previously tasted, for fear of poison ; an antiquated custom,
which at present no one would conceive to have any founda
tion in necessity. His chambers are coldly splendid. Mar-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 241
bles, paintings, mosaics, and gilding there are in abundance,
but the whole arranged with more than the usual chilling
aspect of a state palace. His private rooms, no doubt, are
more comfortable, but the whole state and circumstance that
surround a Pope, so far as the public eye can judge, is one
which makes him, in all the relations of personal freedom and
enjoyment, a being little to be envied. Each natural instinct
and generous impulse is so hedged in with sacred etiquette or
pusillanimous fear as to be a torture rather than a pleasure to
its possessor. A bad Pope can be personally free only by be
ing a hypocrite ; a good Pope is a martyr to a rank which in
its daily duties involves a constant contradiction of the sim
plest principles of Christianity, and is a standing reproach
upon common sense.
All access to the Pope is guarded with mysterious care.
He has his private chamber-men — not maids — private cooks,
sweepers, and domestics of all classes. Besides these, he has
his confessor, preacher, chaplains — queer necessities these for
the fountain-head of religion — his porters,, jesters, poultrymen,
and muleteers. These all have rank and appointments in the
sacred household, mingling strangely with " monsignori" the
secretaries of state and other officials. The private chamber
lains who wait in the ante-chambers are clergymen. In imi
tation of imperial cburts, we find cup-bearers, masters of the
wardrobe, grand esquires, private chamberlains of the sword
and cloak, who wear the black-spangled dress, the most grace
ful of all court costumes, and a guard of nobles magnificently
uniformed, a section of which attends at divine service in the
Pope's chapel with drawn swords.
Each cardinal and high officer has a little court of his own.
When the revenues of Christendom flowed into the papal
treasury, it was no\ difficult to maintain this state and ex
pense ; but, now that it falls mainly on the Roman Sacristory,

242 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
it becomes a burden which Christian humility might consist
ently seek to lighten. When there exists so numerous a corps
of servants, whether of the household or Church, invention
must be racked to find' employment for them ; consequently,
we are not surprised to see that during high Church ceremo
nies — for instance, on Palm Sunday — it requires •' a prince,
an auditor of the rota, two clerks of the chamber, and two
mace-bearers" to present a basin of water to the Pope, in
which he washes his hands, while a cardinal dean holds the
towel, a senior cardinal priest hands him the incense, which
he puts into a censer held by the " senior voter of the signa
ture." Verily, St. Peter could have written all his epistles in
much less time than it would have taken him to learn the ti
tles and employments ofthe household of his successors inthe
nineteenth century ! " In the sacred functions of the altar,
when the Pope assists without officiating," says Bishop En
gland, " he selects the officers from a number of names pre
sented by the chapters of each of the three patriarchal basil-
ics, selecting always a nobleman, if his other qualifications be
equal to those of his associates" — the wisdom of which choice,
and its consistency with Christianity, all Republicans can not
fail to perceive.
The mode of electing a Pope is curious. The conclave is
the assemblage of cardinals for that purpose. They select
their own place of meeting, in general choosing simply be
tween the Vatican or duirinal palaces.
The day after the last day of the funeral ceremonies of a
deceased Pope, the mass of the Holy Ghost is repeated with
great solemnity, a Latin discourse pronounced, and the proces
sion of cardinals enters the chapel, chanting Veni Creator.
The bulls concerning the election are read, and the cardinal
dean harangues them upon the duties prescribed for the oc
casion. Each cardinal then takes his place in the conclave.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

243

THE CORPSE OF THE POPE EXPOSED.

that is, retires to his cell, a small room of about twelve feet
square, modestly furnished by himself, with his arms over the
door. These cells are all alike, upon the same floor, and ar
ranged in galleries. Chimneys are not permitted, warmth

244 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
being communicated from the neighboring rooms., To make
the isolation complete, in winter the windows are all built up,
excepting a single pane. In summer the cardinals are per
mitted to look into the garden.
For the service of each cell there is allowed a secretary and
one gentleman, who are obliged to perform the duties of do
mestics ; but as the emoluments are great, consisting of a con
siderable sum before the conclave, and a distribution of ten
thousand crowns by the new Pope after his election, besides
certain advantages for their future career, these posts are much
sought after by the younger ecclesiastics.
The conclave is allowed also the services of a sacristan, two
sub-sacristans, a confessor, four masters of ceremonies, two
physicians, an apothecary, three barbers, a mason, a carpenter,
and twelve valets, whose livery is violet.
Before the cardinals enter into conclave, should any feel
not adequate to the discipline about to be imposed upon them,
he is warned to retire. Once in conclave, they are placed in
solitary confinement, each in his own cell. Every avenue to
the palace is strictly guarded by detachments of soldiers, and
each door carefully closed. The only communication from
without is by means of small revolving shelves or boxes, like
the " tours" of foundling hospitals, through which the meals
are passed, and also any official communications, but only in
the presence and with the approbation of their military guar
dians. Vocal intercourse is permitted only at certain high
apertures in the walls, in Italian, and with raised voices, so
that the guards can hear and understand the conversation.
The utmost precautions are taken to prevent the inmates of
adjoining cells from communicating with each other. If a
cardinal become ill, he is permitted to go out, but he can not
re-enter his cell during the conclave.
Before the closing ofthe conclave, a final day is permitted

246 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
to the visits and conferences of the cardinals, in the hall ar
ranged for that purpose. These interviews are according to
prescribed rules.
All the expenses of the conclave are borne by the Apostolic
Chamber. Among these, the meals are not the least. As
nothing is done in Rome without a procession, the dinners of
the cardinals are served up in the same manner. The order
is as follows :
At the head, two footmen with wooden maces.
A valet with the silver.
The gentlemen in service, two by two, bare-headed.
The chief cook, with a napkin on his shoulder.
Cup-bearers and esquires.
Two footmen, carrying upon their shoulders a huge dish-
warmer, containing the meats, &c.
Then follow the valets, with wine and fruit in baskets.
Upon arriving at the palace, each cardinal is visited in turn
by the procession, and his dinner deposited. But, before this
Is done, every dish is inspected, lest some letter or message
should be concealed within the viands. The bottles and
glasses are required to be transparent, and the vases suffi
ciently shallow to show their depths. With all these precau
tions, however, diplomatic ingenuity at times contrives to con
vey hidden communications. The fruits often speak intelli
gibly for themselves. A truffle has served to baffle a rival
combination, and destroy a choice fixed upon for the succeed
ing day. This species of culinary diplomacy was due, as
might be expected, to an embassador of France.
There are four modes of electing the Pope : the " adora
tion," the " compromise," the " scrutin," and the " accessit."
The votes are deposited by the cardinals, according to cer
tain prescribed rulfc, in a chalice placed upon an altar, either
in the Sistine Chapel, or one of the same dimensions at the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 247
Cluirinal. They are summoned twice a day, at six in the
morning and at the same hour of the evening, to deposit their
votes. These are carried by themselves on golden plates.
Each bulletin containing the vote is carefully sealed, and
stamped with some fanciful design known only to the voter,
and prepared expressly for his vote. Great care is also taken
to disguise the handwriting, so that no external clew to the
voter's choice can be detected. This act is preceded by an
oath to choose whom they believe the most worthy, and is
accompanied by sacred chants. The officers designated by
lotto examine the votes,. inspect them with the most minute
attention and precautions, for fear of fraud. If a cardinal has
obtained two thirds of the votes, they are verified by compar
ing the names ofthe voters with their chosen devices. Should
two thirds ofthe votes be wanting to one name, the bulletins
are burned, and the voting commences anew. The smoke
which arises from the chimney attached to the chapel at this
hour telegraphs to an expectant crowd without the failure of
the vote.
Election by " adoration" is when a cardinal, in giving his
vote, goes toward his candidate, proclaiming him the Head of
the Church, and is followed by two thirds of the cardinals im
itating his example. The " compromise" is when the uncer
tain suffrages are given to certain members of the conclave
from which to elect a Pope. The " scrutin" is the secret bal
lot. The " accessit" is the last resource for a choice, but as it
is seldom resorted to, and I do not clearly comprehend the pro
cess myself, I can not give it to my readers. ' During the ex
amination of the votes by secret ballot, the cardinals say
masses upon the six altars of the chapel.
The excessive precautions taken to insure purity of choice
betray the extent to which faction and corruption must have
intruded into these elections. In times past, the most scan-

248

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

dalous scenes have preceded and accompanied the intrigues
which, despite the severity of the regulations, find entrance
into the holy conclave, splitting it into unholy factions. Dur
ing the comparatively recent conclave which resulted in the
election of Pius VI., the cardinals even proceeded to blows,
and their excitement rivaled the worst scenes that have ever
occurred in any democratic Congress.

After his election, the Pope selects the name bv which he

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 249
wishes to be known. The Master of Ceremonies then clothes
him in the papal vestments, and the cardinals, each in turn,
kiss his hands and feet, the Pope giving them upon the right
cheek the kiss of peace. They then chant, " Behold the high-
priest, pleasing to God, and found just !" The guns of St. An
gelo thunder forth a salute, every bell ofthe city augments the
joyous clamor, and drums, trumpets, and timbrels, amid the
acclamations ofthe people — if the election be a popular one —
complete the noisy chorus.
After a special adoration in the Sistine Chapel, the Pope
seats himself under a red canopy before the grand altar in St.
Peter's, where he receives the adoration of the people. This
finished, he is borne in grand procession to the palace which
he selects for his residence. In the adoration paid to the Pope,
enlightened Romanists disclaim, and with justice, no doubt,
any act of personal idolatry. But while they render the same
forms of homage to a man which we are taught to believe are
due only to God, it will be difficult for the mass to discrimin
ate the nice distinction they would make. Their example, at
all events, is so much weight in the scale of idolatry, while
their motives are far beyond the capacity of ignorant minds to
comprehend. During the interval between the death of one pope and the
election of another, the papal functions are administered by an
officer called the " Camerlingue,'' or Cardinal President, ofthe
court of Rome. He holds one ofthe three keys ofthe treasure
of the Castle of St. Angelo, the dean of the sacred college an
other, and the Pope the third.
The unity and policy of the papal court is undoubtedly the
same in all ages, so far as concerns its claims to temporal and
spiritual power. Were it not counteracted by the spirit ofthe
age, there is no reason to believe it would not now assert its
authority as distinctly and frankly as in the thirteenth century,
L2

250

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES,

*i§iffl^

in the mandate of Nicholas III., cited in the ninety-sixth dis
tinction ofthe canon law, viz. :
" It is evident that the Roman pontiff can not be judged of
man, because he is God !"
In a bull of Gregory IX., inserted in the Decretals under
the title of " Pre-eminence," we read as follows :

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 2:>l
" God has made two great lights for the firmament of the
universal Church — that is to say, he has instituted two digni
ties : these are the pontifical authority and the royal power ;
but that which rules in these days, that is to say, over things
spiritual, is the greater, and that which presides over things
material the lesser. Therefore all should know that there is
as much difference between pontiffs and kings as between the
sun and moon. We say that every human creature is sub
jected to the sovereign pontiff, and that he- can (according to
the decretal of Innocent III., called the Prebends), in virtue of
his full power and sovereign authority, dispose of the natural
and divine right."
At this age of the world we may smile at these doctrines.
But the spirit which conceived them still exists, though the
power then enforced has departed. The haughty ceremonies
that accompanied these assumptions of power are yet in full
sway, yearly growing in imbecility, as the authority which
alone could make them respected becomes more remote. That
which once carried with it terrible meaning, has now degen
erated into pitiful farce. Spectators now gather to Rome dur
ing holy festivals, not to worship or to acknowledge the great
head of the Christian Church, but to wonder at the debasing
shows proffered, and the haughty magnificence displayed by
priests who found their creed on a gospel of humility and love.
Should these remarks be construed as uncharitable, I can only
add that where religion, as I intend showing, is metamorphosed
designedly into a mere spectacle, it must expect to be subject
ed to the ordinary laws of criticism.

CHAPTER IX.
THE HOLY WEEK AT ROME.  PAPAL CEREMONIES.
The grand object ofthe Roman Catholic Church in its ob
servance of the Easter festival, as stated by Bishop England,
is " to use the most natural and efficacious.mode of so exhibit
ing to a redeemed race the tragic occurrences of the very ca
tastrophe by which that redemption was effectuated, as to pro
duce deep impressions_for their religious improvement," 8-nd
he hazards the following observation, that " if the multiplica
tion of rites be superstition, then is the God of Sinai, its most
powerful abettor." Acting upon this view of the inspired
word, the Church of Rome combines -" music, scenery, action,
and poetry" into a grand melodrama to excite those emotions
in the minds of its disciples which it substitutes for religion,
or, to use the words of its expounder', "to bring the mind to
any particular frame," so that " the effect is almost irresistible."
There was a period, doubtless, in the history of Christianity,
when certain religious transactions, simply given in a pictorial
manner, were not without efficacy in arousing heathen minds
to inquiry and interest ; but, multiplied and diverted as they
have since been from their original purposes, they are now
presented to us more as a theatrical resource to sustain and
show off priestcraft than as illustrating the truths ofthe Bible.
Yet I would not be understood as asserting that there are eio
hearts moved, even in this age, to a clearer appreciation of
the sublime doctrines which they are intended to illustrate by
these subtle appeals to the senses and the imagination. Many

254 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
a simple Romanist bows in adoring faith before image o* relic,
and arises from his devotion justified before God, as was, the
poor publican in the Temple who beat his breast and cried,
" Have mercy upon me, a miserable sinner," while the skep
tical Pharisee, who thanked Heaven that he was not as other
men, left with additional sin upon his heart. The sin lies not
with those who believe, but upon them who deceive those that
" huno-er and thirst after righteousness." If the ceremonies
of the Roman Catholic Church, to which I shall allude, are
the " bread of life," then is her skirt free from this great
wickedness ; but if, on the contrary, they confirm mankind in
superstition, substituting evanescent emotion for practical pi
ety, and shut the gates of heaven to all except those who bow
before their idols and leave their gifts at her shrine, then, in
deed, have the enlightened men who have upheld and sanc
tioned a system so much at variance with the simple precepts
of the Gospel and the example of its Author incurred a weighty
responsibility. A fortnight before Easter, the church edifices are all put in
mourning, the ornaments generally removed, pictures veiled,
and crosses clothed in violet, in token of grief and penance.
During this period, the greatest activity prevails in prepara
tions for the coming solemnities. Each church seeks to dis
tinguish itself above its rivals by the splendor of its decora
tions, its pomp, music, lights, and all those outward appliances
to attract the eye, in which the Roman people for upward of
two thousand years have been so curious and critical. All
the communities of sisters are as busy as so many hives of
bees, with the needle, embroidering, sewing, plaiting, bleach
ing, or repairing the linen ofthe altar, the damasks and velvet
hangings ofthe churches, and the robes ofthe priesthood. To
them, as to their isolated brothers, the monks, the coming spec
tacles are an event in their monotonous lives, and they enter

, ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 255
upon the work ofpreparation with all the zest of secular am
bition, all striving to exalt the object of their labors before
God and man by the splendor of their work. Their degree of
success promotes correspondingly the veneration or enthusi
asm ofthe people toward the particular patron saint they thus
delight to honor. Consequently, upon the good works of their
hands hangs, in no small part, the piety of their congrega
tions, for, as we have seen, their avowed object is to create a
powerful impression upon the imagination. The Holy Week
comprises the profoundest griefs and the greatest joys of the
Church — including, as it does, the crucifixion and resurrection
of the Savior. All that human ingenuity and expense can
provide to make apparent the one and give eclat to the other,
is lavished upon the ceremonies of this festival.
Rome overflows with a gaping, wondering, worshiping, or ¦
skeptical multitude. Whatever may be the creed of each in
dividual, or whether of no creed at all, the entire mass come
up to gaze upon the show. Albano, Frascati, Tivoli, and all
the neighboring towns, pour in their picturesque and hand
some population by tens of thousands. On a transalpine
stranger, no portion of this grand gala makes a more agreeable
impression than the variety and beauty of the costumes and
races about Rome. Slouched-capped pilgrims, with staves,
cockle-shells, and scrips, are scarcer now than a few centuries
back, but enough are to be seen to complete the romantic hu
man variety which Rome calls from the four quarters of the
globe to witness the pride of her abasement. Every Europe
an country sends its representatives, and even the Republic
ans of America add greatly to the throng.
Rome at no time has much to boast of in the extent and
cleanliness of its accommodations. It is a city a century be
hind all other European capitals in every public convenience
except good water, in which — a legacy from imperial Rome —

256 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

it is as far ahead of them, possessing fountains and aqueducts
sufficient for the wants of a million souls. The result is, that
during Holy Week Rome is crowded to an extent that Paris,
in its most brilliant fetes, never realized. Prices are quadru
pled ; indeed, there is no limit to the demand of a Roman
where the necessity is pressing. Every hotel and apartment

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 257
 • 
is crammed at prices which rival those of California when
houses were scarcer than golden ingots. Alas for those tardy
ones who arrive but a few days before Palm Sunday ! They
are to be seen anxiously driving from hotel to hotel, and from
apartment to apartment, imploring to be " taken in" on any
terms, paying for the carriage gold in lieu of silver, and at last
content to mount some hundred steps, grimed, one would sup
pose, with the accumulated filth of centuries, to a dimly-light
ed back room, a few feet square, containing little else but an
apology for a bed, on which perhaps two or three are to take
their slumbers at the rate of ten dollars per night. Such is
not a rare experience. Others fare worse and p'ay less. Some
are compelled to pass the night in their carriages. Friends of
mine paid a dollar each for the use of chairs at a cafe until
morning: — a counter to sleep upon was an unexpected luxury.
Others even were compelled to find quarters in towns ten or
twelve miles from Rome.
A Roman shop-keeper or landlord is at all times a stolid,
proud character, indifferent whether you buy, and careless
whether you are accommodated. The former, at times, is too
lazy to take down his own wares for a purchaser ; the latter
does better, but both during Holy Week are sublimely elevated
above all personal considerations beyond raising their prices,
to swell the stream of cash which is sure to flow in to them,
like their own golden Tiber, in a flood. Above all considera
tions of dirt, punctuality, or even a sufficiency of food, the
traveler must take his meals at hotel or cafe, as he can get
them. The table laid, there is a rush of the first comers, who
Soon leave but a few cold fragments for those whose intuition
could not tell them that the table-d'hote of yesterday, at the
fixed hour of seven, was to-day at four. The desperate mob
at cafes is amusing. All the world being anxious to arrive at
some solemn spectacle at the same moment, they are all

258 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
 «  .  -  —
equally anxious to breakfast in season. Pell-mell they tum
ble into the cafes, demanding coffee and toast in a dozen lan
guages in one breath, carrying one forcibly back to the first
breakfast scene after the polyglot confusion at the Tower of
Babel. The waiter slaps on the table an unwiped cup, and a
napkin that has seen a week's hard service. After waiting
in an agony of impatience, for fear the Pope will bless the
faithful and you be found not among them, and no coffee in
sight, you angrily again summon the waiter, who comes when
he can. To your emphatic remonstrance he replies, " What
would you have, sir? it is Holy Week'" — the stereotyped an
swer to every species of annoyance and extortion to which
strangers are subjected during this most unholy of periods, and
with which they must.be comforted, for none other will be
vouchsafed. To all the principal sights of the Church there are reserved
seats or positions, for which tickets are issued in the ratio of
about five to one as to accommodation. These are given to
the several embassadors in proportion to tho number of their
applications, which of course greatly exceed the number of
tickets they receive for distribution. Hence arises another
scramble for these permits to witness the sacred mysteries
within the privileged limits. Women are required to go in
black and veiled ; men in a ball dress or uniform. By a
strange anomaly, in all Catholic countries, the sword has the
preference of entry to all temples ofthe Prince of Peace. To
return to the tickets. A hapless week is the Holy Week for
the embassador or banker. He is besieged by notes, flattery,
interest, and every weapon, feminine and masculine, to furnish
the reqired billets of entry. How to gratify one, and not irri
tate five whom he can not provide for, is a moral problem our
diplomatic Solons and financial Rothschilds are not always
successful in solving. However, they do their best, and dis-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 259

tribute the papal tickets, a different color for each day, as far
as they will go.
Palm Sunday, so called from Christ's triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, is the first grand day ofthe holy series. But pre
ceding this there was formerly a stately cavalcade, when popes
and cardinals were better riders than at present ; but as it be
came necessary to tie some of the " eminentissimi," as the
cardinals are called, on their steeds, on account of theis defect
ive horsemanship, and Phvs VII., who succeeded the handsome
Pius VI., being an infirm man, the custom was changed. Since
then, when the procession passes into the street, the huge pa
pal state-coach is used, in which the Pope follows the man
carrying the cross, mounted on a white mule, his Holiness the
meanwhile scattering his blessings over the crowd by an in
cessant twirl of three fingers, reminding one of the favorite
Italian game of "morra." This coach, notwithstanding its
color, was the special object of hate to the Red Republicans
in 1848, who would have destroyed it had they not had more
respect for a sacred doll called " the most holy baby," to which
it was given for its daily airings.
On Palm Sunday the cardinals pay homage to his Holiness
on his throne by going according to precedence, and bowing
three times before the Pope — a bow for each member of the
Trinity — and then kissing the border ofthe cope which covers
his right hand. The choir commences with the Hosanna of
the children, after which come appropriate prayers and chants,
The Gospel finished, the second master of ceremonies gives
artificial palm-branches to the sacristan, deacon, and subdea
con, who, kneeling before the pontiff, hold them up for his bless
ing. While the sign of the cross is made over them, a prayer
is offered that God will bless all those who will carry them
with right sentiments.
It would be impossible as well as unprofitable to describe

260

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

rm

<4y

*H -I3to
all the etiquette accompanying each religious ceremony ofthe
Holy Week. The programme of the procession for Easter
Sunday will serve to show the variety and extent of the sacred
household, each member of which has not only his appropriate
ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES, 261
costume, but his specific amount of kissing, homage, and genu
flexions to perform, or to fulfill some petty duty expressly
created to give him something to do. No little time, and not
a few learned heads, are constantly employed to regulate the
numberless questions of duty and precedence, and all the non
sense of bombastic etiquette that naturally find growth in so
prolific a soil of folly and absurdity. Thus the Pope reads in
broad daylight, by a lighted candle, some sacred lesson which
no one can hear.
The cardinals again pay homage, as each receives a palm
from the. Pope, by kissing the hand that gives it, the palm it
self, and the right knee of the holy father. After them, in
the order ofthe procession, follow the different hierarchal ranks
down to the mitred abbots, who, with all that succeed them,
kiss simply the pontiff's foot. Last pf all come the military,
and the foreigners of distinction at Rome who are admitted to
this honor, each bearing away a palm. This, with the accom
panying service, takes up a great deal of time, and is a very
tiresome affair. The music ofthe Pope's choir is the best that
Italy can provide, and the procession, seen for the first time in
St. Peter's in all its elaborate pageantry, is worth perhaps all
the squeezing and wrangling for room which it occasions, to
say nothing of the odors arising from an unwashed, uncombed,
garhc-fed Roman peasantry. Vast as is St. Peter's — so vast
and massive that the same temperature is maintained during
summer and winter — the smells arising from foul humanity
overpower the fragrant fumes ofthe numberless censers, and,
for days after the great festivals, leave the church in. a disa
greeable condition.
One of the drollest sights of the Holy Week is to see the
Cardinal Grand Penitentiary from his throne dispensing abso
lution to the crowds that flock to him. He alone can absolve
in those cases which the Pope reserves to himself, besides

262

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

granting dispensation for contravention of civil law, illegitiJ
mate births, vows, simony, and every sin or error which, for
cause good or bad, the Church takes upon herself to pardon.
That pardon for every crime has its price is no fiction in the
annals of Rome ; not that the traffic in absolution is openly
indulged or always abused, but that it is in some cases openly
avowed I know, and sermons preached proclaiming the de
testable doctrine, and the price attached to the greatest crimes

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

263

against the law of God. Such a one was heard by a friend
of mine in Spain, in which the tariff was distinctly laid down.
Good priests of every persuasion will reprobate this evil ; but
the Church of Rome, from which it sprung, still permits a
practice so fruitful in profit to her treasury. The instances of
absolution witnessed by myself bore a very ludicrous aspect.
A large crowd surrounded the confessional box in which the
cardinal sat. Several valets preserved order, and made the

264 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
crowd approach and disappear as rapidly as possible. Some
five or six would kneel at once. He touched in silence their
heads lightly, and as rapidly as one could count, with the tip
of a long brass rod, and the ceremony for them was over. A
woman brought up two daughters of six and four years of age.
At first he declined putting the rod to their heads ; but the
children, who evidently had been taught to consider that some
mysterious good was connected with the operation, refused to
budge. \,The cardinal at last impatiently gave the elder the
required tap ; while the younger, who kept bowing and kneel
ing, was thrust aside unabsolved to make way for fresh sin
ners. Perhaps he considered her as "one ofthe little ones"
who need no absolution from man.
The interval between Palm Sunday and Wednesday-eve is
not without its catalogue of sights to the profane or pious who
are moved to attend. But there are enough grand ceremonies
to weary both soul and body, without giving heed to the lesser
offices ofthe Holy Week. The great rush is to hear the three
Misereres in the Sistine Chapel. The first is on Wednesday.
The office is called the tenebrm, or darkness ; though why, no
one knows. At the " epistle side" of the sanctuary there is a
large candlestick, surmounted by a triangle, on the ascending
sides of which are stuck fourteen yellow candles, with one at
the apex. There are various conjectures among the Roman
Catholic writers as to what these mourning candles are intend
ed to typify. Some say the Apostles and the Three Maries ;
others, the patriarchs and prophets ; but the plain truth is, that
as no one knows any thing about the original meaning of the
ceremony, any one has the right to conjecture what he pleases.
These lights are gradually put out during the office, and this
extinction testifies grief.
The uses of many of the articles that find such conspicuous
positions in Roman Catholic worship are an enigma to the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 205
 1  _
most enlightened papists themselves. They are retained be
cause custom has made them venerable, and they add to the
show. But the reasons which ecclesiastical ingenuity invents
to justify many palpable absurdities are quite worthy of the
era which originated the learned discussion as to how many
angels could dance at one time on a needle's point. For in
stance, the large tans,Jlabelh, made of peacocks' feathers, which
were originally nothing but fly-brushes, are now exalted into
monitors for the Pope. The brushing away of insects from
the altar is considered as typical of the " endeavor to banish the
distractions of idle thoughts from the mind of him who approached
to offer the holy sacrifice. Being formed of peacocks' feathers,
and even now, when eyes are seen in the plumes, it admonishes the
Pontiff that a general observation is fixed upon him, and shows
the necessity of circumspection in his own conduct."
My quotations, when not otherwise mentioned, are from
Bishop England's " Explanations of the Ceremonies of the
Holy Week." I consider' it necessary to mention this, lest
some of my readers, in their simplicity, should accuse me of
satirizing what I can not commend. I go to Rome to view the
Papal Church, because it is there, in the city of its choice and
power, that we expect to find it in its purest forms. I quote
its doctrines from its own historians and clergy, so that my au
thorities shall be above impeachment. If either fact or faith
appear too strange to be true, reader mine, make a pilgrimage
of doubt to the Eternal City to relieve, through the medium of
your own eyes and ears, a skepticism excusable, it must be
confessed, but without foundation.
Hours before the commencement of the " Mattutino delle
Tenebre," as the Italians call this impressive service, the royal
staircase of the Vatican, which leads toward the Sistine Chap
el, is crowded with the impatient multitude of both sexes who
have the right of entry. Until the doors are opened they have
M

THE SISTINE CHAPEL DURING! MASS.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 267
no resource but to remain quiet, forming queue, as at the French
theatres. But the moment the head of the mass finds itself in
motion, there commences a rush and scene of confusion fright
ful to witness and dangerous to experience. If the salvation
of each individual depended upon being first within the chapel,
greater and more desperate efforts nature could not make to
win that goal. It is no vulgar mob that writhes, pushes, pants,
and struggles, like a knot of impaled worms, within those sa
cred walls. There are there the distinguished of all countries
— noblemen and noble ladies — the»curious traveler and the
pious pilgrim — the delicate invalid, who would die despair
ingly without hearing those more than mortal notes ; and the
gallant soldier, whose brilliant uniform gives him precedence
over the black veils of women and the dress-coats of men — all-
push forward in one selfish effort to secure the coveted posi
tion within those narrow precincts. In the melee, the stalwart
Swiss guards, that endeavor to control this living torrent into
something like order and respect for the sanctuary, are not un
frequently roughly borne back, and obliged to exert no slight
violence to disengage themselves. They are often more rude
than necessity requires, and I have heard fierce words ex
changed, even during the service, between them and visitors
whose tempers were not proof against their insolence and
roughness. In general, however, they are assiduous to protect
the weaker sex, and to keep the two sexes as distinct as pos
sible, for the papal rule, like the Jewish, is, that they shall not
mingle during these holy offices. To speak together, whatever
may be the "necessity, is promptly rebuked by the presiding
officers. The ladies are rapidly hustled into their reserved
seats. The gentlemen and the superfluous ladies remain stand
ing, wedged firmly together, in the restricted limits below the
tribune reserved for royal families and embassadors. I had
literally in my arms a lovely English girl, who 'threatened every

268 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
moment to faint from the heat and pressure, while, I am quite
sure, our double weight was sustained in great part by ladies
in our rear. Some do faint, and it is with the greatest diffi
culty that they are borne out. Dresses are torn and jewels lost
as a matter of course. More serious accidents have occurred
on these occasions. A gentleman had his leg broken, and a
young girl was killed not long since, or rather died from the
effects of the injuries she received.
From what I saw, I should say that there is no place equal
to the Sistine Chapel for testing what amount of danger, in
convenience, and even rudeness, delicate females will submit
to for the gratification of their curiosity. The excitement
seems to develop in them a spirit of ferocity toward each other
— of course, I refer only to the exceptions to their general ami
ability — but the curious will observe stout ladies slyly making
their way by sticking pins into those in front, and slipping by
as they turn to discover the aggressor ; others seize hold of
gentlemen, or make use of them to aid their progress, as if the
idea " delicacy'' had become obsolete ; while one powerful
French girl, who wished the situation of an Italian lady of my
acquaintance in front of her, abruptly demanded it. Being re
spectfully declined, she, by a process well known to school
boys, knocked the lady's legs from under her by striking her
in the hollow of her knees, so that she fell as suddenly as if
she had been shot. Before she could recover herself or her
presence of mind, her place was gone.
The first portion of the service is the ordinary chant, a long
and drowsy performance, including the Lamentations of Jere
miah, severely trying the patience of the standing spectators.
As this proceeds, one by one the candles are extinguished, ex
cept that which typifies the Virgin Mary, who alone of the
household of Christ is supposed, in his hour of trial, to have
retained her faith unshaken. As the day declines, the gloom

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 269
of the chapel, unrelieved except by the hidden lights of the
choristers and the soft rays of twilight, becomes exceedingly
impressive. The faces of those severely-grand Prophets, and
the speaking Sibyls of Michael Angelo, look down with super
natural force from the lofty ceiling, as if from out of the firma
ment of heaven, while high up on the distant wall, amid the
shadows of evening, the awe-struck spectator beholds the ter
rible outline of the avenging Judge, hurling the damned to
endless woe. Beneath, amid the fires of the bottomless pit,
grinning devils savagely seize their prey. The Virgin Mother
pleads with the stern Son, whose mercy has now turned to
justice. Saints and martyrs, bearing the instruments of their
earthly tortures, are arising from their graves, and floating up
ward to the glory that awaits them. At this hour, and with
such music subduing the soul to breathless silence, the Last
Judgment stands forth as the most awful triumph of earthly
art. Human strength at times faints beneath the emotions
produced by the combination of such powerful appeals to the
fears and sympathies. The chords of the heart and imagina
tion vibrate in unison, and many vainly struggle to suppress
their distress as the Miserere proceeds. After pauses of si
lence which, like utter darkness, seems as if it could be felt,
a hundred accordant voices, as one, sue Heaven for pardon to
a guilty world, in strains such as human ears -might well con
ceive to arise from penitent spirits ; solitary voices of wonder
ful sweetness and power, in alternate verses, continue the
lamentation, all mingling in the last passages, when the full
choir again is faintly heard in notes that die away like the ex
piring wail of lost humanity, but end in one final burst of cho
ral harmony, which sends its thrill through the very soul.
Previous to the Miserere of Allegri, the Pope comes down
from his throne, and kneels while two treble voices sing,
" Christ was made for us obedient even unto death," and the

270 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Lord's Prayer is silently repeated. After the singing, the Pope
reads the closing prayer, and the service is concluded by the
choir's imitating the confusion of nature at the death of the
Redeemer, and the fear and grief ofthe attendant soldiers and
spectators. The pathos of music is now exhausted ; neither
art nor sympathy could bear more;
The effect of this service varies, of course, according to in
dividual temperament. Many do not consider it worthy of
the fatigue and exertion it requires ; but no one would con
sider Rome as visited unless he had heard the Miserere by
the Pope's choir in the Sistine ChapeL It can be heard in per
fection nowhere else, because there alone are those wonder
ful associations of art that contribute so greatly to its effect.
There is no accompaniment to the voices.
Holy Thursday is the busiest day ofthe sacred seven. The
mass is, if possible, more tedious than usual. There are end
less shiftings of vestments, the yellow candles of the altar are
changed for white, and the ornaments covered with white in
stead of purple, as indicating a less degree of mourning. The
bells, and even the clocks, are all tied up until Saturday noon,
or after the Resurrection, which is then announced by all the
uproar they can make. The Pope blesses the incense which
is used to perfume the altar, and then submits to being in
censed himself by the senior cardinal priest. This is by no
means a pleasant operation, if the incense be very powerful.
The officiating prelates are incensed also in their turn ; a
rite which strikes one as wholly pagan in its origin and appli
cation. The kissing of the robes and toes goes on as usual,
but not the kiss of peace, because it is the anniversary of the
betrayal of Judas. The Pope, in solemn procession, bare
headed, and with incense burning before him, deposits the
body of Christ on the altar in the Sistine Chapel, which is
brilliantly illuminated by six hundred wax candles for the oc-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 271

casion. All kneel as he passes. Why the apparent burial
should precede the crucifixion is an anomaly that the Church
does not explain, except so far as it gives the faithful an op
portunity to worship the Holy Wafer. The devotion now dis
played is one of the most impressive features of the Roman
Catholic faith. No one can enter this beautiful chapel, and be
hold the multitudes kneeling in silent adoration before the sac
rament, without feeling stirred within him the spirit of devo
tion. It is no graven image that they worship. They believe
that before them lies the very flesh and blood of their Savior.
They prostrate themselves before their God. Protestants may
wonder that faith can be pushed to such a degree ; but can
those who thus believe do less ? I am not one of those who
are surprised that the ignorant Roman Catholics resent the in
difference and contempt that Protestants too often show to the
Holy Sacrament. They overlook neglect of courtesy toward
the Pope, and even disrespect to saints and images ; but want
of reverence to the body of Christ strikes them as the unpar
donable offense against the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of
transubstantiation is the widest of all the gulfs between the
two creeds. Imagine the horror of the Italian landlord when
called upon for a dish of pigeons by an Englishman, who could
make himself understood only by repeating the name given to
the dove in religious processions, viz., Espirito Santo — literal
ly, " a dish ofthe Holy Ghost."
As the papal benediction on Thursday extends only to the
city gates, there is no great crowd to receive it. A portion of
the Pope's prayer is as follows : "We ask, through the prayers
and merits of the blessed Mary, ever virgin, of the blessed
John the Baptist, of all the saints," &c. ; after finishing which,
he showers down " plenary" indulgences by the handful.
I have met very few who knew' what an indulgence was.
I find the general idea among Roman Catholics to be that the

272 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
indulgence of the nineteenth century means shortening their
time so much in Purgatory. Upon that principle, heaven be
comes simply a matter of bargain with the priesthood ; the
wealthy realizing, no doubt, with them as much difficulty in
opening the door as did the rich man spoken of by our Savior.
But in the latter case it was the cares of the world that stop
ped his progress ; in the former, it is the tariff of the Church.
The squeeze to see the washing of the feet and feeding
pf the pilgrims is equal to that to hear the Miserere. Thir
teen priests are the selected recipients of this act of papal hu
mility. They are all dressed in loose white gowns, with caps
ofthe same material on their heads; The object of this cus
tom is " to give the Pontiff the opportunity of learning and
practicing a lesson of humility." The lesson of humility is
studied in' the following manner. A throne for the Pope is
first- placed in the hall, with the usual tokens of sovereign
rank. A large retinue of nobles and ecclesiastics assist his
Holiness. Two hold the Pope's train, a third bears a towel
for washing his hands, while two clerks of the chamber aid
him in his own ablutions, after his labors on the pilgrims.
The pilgrims, alias priests, are seated on a high bench. The
right foot, having been previously made most scrupulously
clean, is left bare. The Pope changes his uniform for a less
splendid one, and, after being duly incensed, a fine cloth,
trimmed with lace, is tied upon him. Attended by his mas
ter of ceremonies and deacons, he humbly proceeds to the
washing. A sub-deacon lifts the foot ; the Pontiffkneels, and
sprinkles it with water from a silver basin. He then rubs it
with the laced cloth, kisses it, and goes on to the next. A
nosegay and towel, and a gold and silver medal, are given to'
each pilgrim. This lesson of humility lasts about two min
utes. Another rush, and the crowd find themselves within the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

273

" Salla della Tavola,'' where the pilgrims are fed. The Pope
puts on an apron, pours water on his hands, hurriedly hands
the pilgrims a few dishes, which are presented to him by

THE PILGRIMS' DINNER.

kneeling prelates, blesses them, and retires. Thus ends les
son two of humility. The dinner is a good one, and all that
M2

274 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
the pilgrims can not eat they carry away. When the Pope
does not feel in the mood for the latter ceremony, he delegates
it to a substitute.
The exhibition of the Cross of Fire, suspended above the
tomb of St. Peter, around which burn night and day two hund
red silver lamps, has been discontinued for upward of twenty
years, owing to the scandalous scenes which took place among
the crowd in the church, after its adoration by the Pope and
crowned heads then at Rome.
On Good Friday the papal chapel presents its deepest tone
of grief. It is stripped bare of carpets and ornaments. The
cardinals wear purple stockings, and leave their rings behind
them. The lessons are appropriate to the day; but the satis
faction which would otherwise arise in the heart at hearing
the offices is wholly lost in the tedium and disgust attendant
upon the insipid ceremonies which accompany them. For
merly, the clergy came barefooted ; now, only the Pope and
some ofthe superior clergy and cardinals take off their shoes
during the Adoration of the Cross, from which the violet cov
ering is removed. The Pope casts his offering, a purse of red
damask trimmed with gold, into a silver basin. Then there
is a procession to and from the Pauline Chapel. But the chief
attractions on this day are the music and sermons at the sev
eral churches, which rival each other in their preparations for
the Tre Ore, the three hours of agony of Christ upon the
cross, lasting from twelve to three. This is a religious drama,
and, when not exaggerated, by the aption and grimaces of the
preachers, and the tawdry scenery ofthe churches to represent
Calvary, into a burlesque, is solemn and impressive.
The service ofthe Tre Ore is divided into seven acts, found
ed upon the seven supposed speeches of Christ upon the cross,
at each one of which the Roman Catholics believe that a dag
ger entered the heart of his mother. She is called, on that

PENITENTS ON GOOD FRTTMY.

276

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

account, " Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows," and painted, as
is often seen in churches and shrines, with a bloody heart on
her breast, with seven daggers stuck around it.
The preacher I heard was a Jesuit, at the church of that
order, the most gaudily decorated and richest in Rome. His
sermon was decidedly dramatic, both in language and acces
sories, but much less so than one might expect from the Ro-

A ROMAN PREACHER.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 277
man taste. The style and arguments were admirably calcu
lated to arouse the languid devotion of his flock, who appeared
fully impressed with the solemn event they had assembled to
commemorate. This immense church was crowded with wor
shipers. In the evening I drove to the Hospital of the Trinita de
Pellegrine, to witness the washing of the feet and feeding of
pilgrims by the nobles of Rome. This immense building has
accommodation for five thousand pilgrims, who are here gra
tuitously fed and lodged for three days during Holy Week.
The washing and feeding here was no farce, whatever may
have been the motives that induced these acts of humility.
Roman gentlemen and nobles, in the garb of domestics, wash
ed and waited upon these dirtiest of all mortals with the ut
most zeal and apparent cheerfulness — the bounty being, as I
was informed, so many days' indulgence to each.
In the female wards, I was told by the ladies that they saw
s.ome ofthe fairest and noblest of Rome's aristocracy on their
knees, scrubbing away at feet that had needed ablution for
many weeks previous. At supper they attended them as hum
bly as if they had been bred to serve, and even the loveliest
among them took the filthy babies from their mothers' arms,
and nursed them as tenderly as they would have nursed their
own, whilejtheir hungry mothers ate.
On this evening there is a performance at some of the
churches of another manner of mortifying the flesh. This is
the self-flagellation of penitents, who are clad investments of
coarse dark cloth, which completely disguises them, leaving
only holes for their eyes. After an exhortation from a friar,
the lights are extinguished and scourges distributed. Of
course, it is impossible to tell how far the ceremony is a farce
or penance. At all events, the scourging and wailing sound
like earnest, while the dismal chanting of the monks does not

278 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
tend to enliven the scene, which lasts about half an hour, when
all depart with the satisfaction of having performed a merito
rious action.
The ceremonies of Saturday attract the attention of few be
sides the actors. They are numerous, however, and, as a mat
ter of curiosity, to see how far the Church of Rome carries its
typical mysteries, worth noticing. The converted Jews, if any
— Turks are considered a greater glory — are baptized early in
the morning at St. John in Lateran. After this, an ordination
of priests, in which several long hours are occupied in rites
sufficiently puerile and wearisome to make one doubt the san
ity of the performers. At the Sistine Chapel we have the
blessing ofthe fire and incense, and the blessing ofthe paschal
candle, by a deacon dressed in white, to represent the angel
announcing the resurrection. This candle is of immense size,
and pierced with five holes in the form of a cross, to represent
the five principal wounds of our Saviour. Five grains of in
cense are placed in these holes, as emblematic of embalming.
At this season, too, there is a general blessing and sprinkling
of holy water in private houses by priests, who gratefully re
ceive the current coin of the realm in return for their effica
cious benedictions. Even the brutes come in for a share of
this pious labor, but this is somewhat later, on the anniversary
of their guardian Saint Anthony. After each sprinkling from
the gacred brush, the priest repeats in Latin, " By the inter
cession of the blessed Anthony, these animals are delivered
from evil, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen!" Easter Sunday is the grandest festival of the year. To cel
ebrate the Resurrection, the Roman Church puts on all her
pomp and pageantry. The Pope performs high mass at St.
Peter's. This occurs but on two other festivals during the
year, viz., Christmas, and St. Peter's and St. Paul's day. The

ITAIJAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 279

order and magnitude of the procession I have already given.
Those who have seen it have beheld the accumulated mag
nificence and solemnity of the Roman Catholic ritual. The
courtly splendor of all other earthly sovereigns pales before
the dazzling display of the wealth and magnificence of the
successor of the poor fisherman of Judea. As soon as the

280 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Pope appears, borne upon the shoulders of his throne-carriers,
the choristers intone, in Latin, " Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not pre
vail against it." The deep-toned bells chime in with their
welcome. In the church are drawn up the grenadiers, national
guards, and soldiers ofthe capital, whose bands swell the notes
of gratulation to the self-styled representative of the Apostle,
and Christ's Vicar' on Earth. For those who admit the title,
this homage is appropriate ; but to those whose ideas of relig
ion are based on the humility and spirituality of the true
Christian character, and the equality of men before God, this
ostentation appears strangely anomalous.
One ceremony occurs during this mass which attests strong
ly the former depravity and present fears ofthe Roman court.
The greatest caution is used to prevent the Holy Father from
being poisoned while he partakes ofthe sacrament. The sacred
vessels are carried to a credence-table, called the Pope's, on
the Gospel side ofthe altar. During the chanting ofthe creed,
the vessels are taken there and carefully washed. The keeper
of the cellar first drinks some of the wine and water brought
for this ablution. When the Pope goes to the altar to partake
of the body and blood of Christ, the sacristan eats in his pres
ence a portion ofthe bread provided, and tastes the wine, after
which the Pope does not hesitate to follow his example. How
strange a comment uponi the doctrine of transubstantiation, to
believe that poison and the actual presence of Divinity can co
exist in the same substances !
Two junior cardinal deacons stand on each side ofthe altar,
representing the angels who were at the sepulchre. During
the service Hie fingers ofthe Pope axe purified with much cer
emony, and when the mitre is placed on his head his entire
hands are washed. He then goes to the altar and concludes
the mass.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

231

No sooner is mass finished than the immense multitude
pours out of St. Peter's into the piazza in front, where the mil

itary are all drawn up, to witness the ceremony of the bene
diction. This time it is said to extend over the entire world.
On this occasion the whole French garrison were under arms,
besides the Roman troops. The two made a fine military show,
and to my eye furnished the greater proportion of the specta-

282 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
tors. Even the contadihi, the country subjects of the Pon,e,
who are in general devoted, if not to the Pope, to the ceremo
nies of the Church, did not appear in their usual numbers.
There were English and other foreigners by thousands. All
gazed anxiously up to the balcony, where the Holy Father was
to appear. After considerable delay he made his appearance,
and in an audible prayer invoked the usual blessing. The
soldiers knelt, in obedience to the order of their superiors.
What must have been the feelings of those disciplined repub
licans of skeptical France, thus humiliated before an old man
whose very existence in Rome was owing to their arms, it is
easy to conceive. I noticed that very few ofthe Romans knelt,
and many seemed careless about uncovering their heads. The
ceremony had evidently outlived its spirit, or else Pius IX. was
unloved in his own capital.
The illumination of St. Peter's and the fireworks have been
too often described to require farther allusion. They are the
terminating and most agreeable of the spectacles of the Holy
Week. St.Peter's shines out from the surrounding darkness
a colossal beacon of light; thousands of globes and stars mark
its giant outline in vivid brightness, while high above all rises
the illuminated cross, piercing with its bright rays the dark
shadows of night. Were the heads ofthe Roman Church thus
to illumine the moral darkness of the world, she should re
main for all time as conspicuous for her piety as St. Peter's
appears from artificial splendor. While thinking thus, as I
gazed on the beautiful spectacle, a bright star came twinkling
out of the cloudy obscurity, and took its place high and serene
in the firmament, shedding its soft and lucid light in steady
rays through the heavens. This was now, as in the infancy
of Christianity, its true emblem. How utterly insignificant
the borrowed brilliancy of the church appeared beside this
single star ! Could we see the nightly beauties of the uni-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 283
verse, which Providence has made as free to the eye as air
to the lungs, rarely as man exhibits his counterfeit glories, we
should turn in disgust from their puny attractions, to wonder
and worship at the greatness and goodness ofthe Author of so
celestial a vision. But we gaze in rapture on our own pigmy
efforts, and coldly look upon the marvels of nature as the mere
truisms of physics.
I am not at all disposed to find fault with the Roman gov
ernment for celebrating after this manner — I allude to the fire
works and illumination — the resurrection of our Savior. A
Christian government does wisely to exalt its Author, and cel
ebrate his mission with all possible magnificence. It keeps
alive the principles of its origin, and periodically recalls to
public mind the memory of events unequaled in their conse
quences by any others in the history ofthe human race. In
this respect, therefore, I think the Roman Church wise ; but
in most others connected with the Holy Week I consider her as
degrading mankind and violating the very principles to which
she falsely appeals for sanction. As yet we are only upon the
threshold of her profitless mummeries. I shall barely open
the door to a few of the principal falsities with which she de
ludes the world, and leave my readers, who may differ from
me in sentiment, to explore farther, if they will, for their own
edification.

CHAPTER X.
THE HOLY WEEK AT ROME.  MACHINERY AND MIRACLES OF
PAPACY.
The ceremonies and labors of the Holy Week, one would
suppose, were sufficient for the wants of any clergy for the en
tire year. Not so with the Roman Church. She proclaims
and enforces the observance of some seventy distinct festas, or
sacred days, besides Sundays. Nearly a third of the year is
consecrated to idleness, which vice is exalted to the rank of a
virtue. I would exempt from this waste of time the periods
properly belonging to divine worship, which, of course, are
comprised within the duties of all men. But the Pope abso
lutely inculcates doing nothing on holidays, and denounces
heavy penalties on the disobedient. The laboring classes,
consequently, whose average daily gains are between a quar
ter and a half of a dollar, are compelled to abstain from all
work, and take part in religious processions, or in witnessing
superstitious rites of a character to confirm their own predi
lections. Without the physical labors which these holidays
force upon the clergy, they would be almost as idle as the pop
ulace themselves. But the dressings and undressings, the ge
nuflexions, and swinging of censers, the marching and counter
marching, the collection of alms, bearing of images, carrying
of candles, ringing of bells, and all the complicated and ingen
ious inventions of ecclesiastical brains to keep their hands
from being in the service of the devil — all these find the cler
gy in some degree of employment, while their flocks are left
to idly gape over their stereotyped displays, or find such

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

285

Wii'W

amusements as they can ; in short, to do any thing but con
form to the divine injunction, "Six days shalt thou labor."
The Church, however, discountenances irregular pleasures, and
does its best, consistently with its own example, to keep the
people in a moral vein. It endeavors to reconcile idleness
with goodness, and superstition with religion ; unions, like all
unnatural ones, prolific only in imbecility and disorder.

286 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
The weightiest objection to the absurd spectacles of the
Church, sanctioned by the Pope and high clergy, is, that they
cultivate credulity and ignorance among the people, and teach
them to rely more upon the blessings and supernatural care
of deceased saints than upon their own exertions or enterprise
in providing against the ordinary contingencies of life. Hence
human prudence is superseded by a puerile fatalism, equally
remote from the dignified practice and sublime doctrine of
Islamism. The Roman people, in particular, believe that the
special business of the saints in Paradise is to watch over
their daily occupations, and to interest themselves in the suc
cess of all their pursuits, good, bad, or indifferent. When an
accident occurs to man, beast, or vehicle, they do not hesitate
to rate their patron saint roundly and profanely for his negli
gence. If, on the' contrary, they escape an evil, they hasten
to offer a candle, or some gift in proportion to their means, to
his or her shrine, as the sex may be.
Among the many ceremonies my curiosity has prompted me
to witness, none more wearisome ever fell to my lot than the
midnight mass of Christmas eve. Prompted by the expecta
tion of good music, I went to the church of the " Annunciata"
at Florence, at the usual hour, about ten o'clock. The body
of the church was crammed with the unwashed multitude.
Behind the choir were admitted the strangers and fashiona
bles. During the dark and dismal service, gay conversation,
flirting, and promenading were going on. It was more like
the saloon of a theatre than the house of God. At midnight
a gaudily-dressed doll was held up for the devotion of the
congregation, and the ceremony was concluded.
The Roman clergy assemble five times a year in general
processions. The different orders of monks, being very prop
erly of the least consideration in the Church, march first.
Thirty-seven communities appear under the banners of their

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 287

A ROMAN PROCESSION.

several saints, twenty march under the flag ofthe Holy Sacra
ment, and eight others appear under different ensigns, of which
one is the banner of Death. They turn out to the number of
five or six thousand, when in full ranks, of priests, monks, and
clerks.

288

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

The most splendid of these processions is that of " Corpus
Domini," or the Fete of God. In this, the Pope and all the
civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries of Rome, and the military,
take part. Embassadors, governors, senators, princes, and no
bles of every degree, humbly carrying candles, appear in this

PROCESSION OF CORPUS DOMINL

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 289
colossal cortege. The pope is borne on his pontifical litter,
high above the heads of all, surrounded by his court, and car
rying in his' hands the holy sacrament, in vessels radiant with
gold and jewels, before which the spectators prostrate them
selves humbly and uncovered, as the procession slowly passes
through the different quarters of Rome, on its way to and from
St. Peter's.
The doctrine and abuses of relics are among the worst cor
ruptions of the Roman Church. As they are sources of incal
culable pecuniary profit, they will be among the slowest and
most difficult of reformation. Doubtless "the Church of Rome
possesses, among its hordes of false relics, some true memori
als of departed saints. It is even possible, though not proba
ble, Jrhat St. Helena did put her in possession of some of the
genuine implements used at the crucifixion. Grant this much,
even, but hold her to her own doctrine in regard to them, viz.,
" That in religion relics are to be held in veneration corresponding
to that in which tokens of affection and memorials of endearment
are preserved in well-regulated and virtuous families." This is
right and proper.
But what use does the Church of Rome make of them ?
That she considers them of primary importance in her service
is evident from the fact that she constitutes a congregation of
relics, composed of six cardinals and four prelates, whose func
tions are to examine and classify the remains of ancient mar
tyrs found in the catacombs of Rome and elsewhere. Their
quarry is a large one, for already there have been taken from
this necropolis the remains of one hundred and seventy thou
sand victims — of death surely, if not of martyrdom — most of
which have passed muster as genuine relics, comforting to the
faith ofthe living and profitable to the treasury ofthe Church.
Unfortunately, the science ofthe priestly inspectors has not al
ways been equal to their zeal, and the remains of animals have
N

290 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
been sometimes confounded with those ofthe early Christians.
But, as a close inspection of relics is seldom allowed, distance
would lend as jnuch spiritual efficacy to the bone of an ass as
of a martyr, provided faith was equal to the sacred recognition.
St. Peter's boasts the possession of the most precious of the
sacred relics. These consist of a piece of the-true cross, a por
tion of the spear-head which pierced the side of Christ, a bit
ofthe sponge, and the true imprint ofthe Savior's face upon
the handkerchief of St. Veronica, which, according to Roman
Catholic tradition, she lent to Christ to wipe the sweat from
his brow while staggering under the weight ofthe cross. No
good Catholic presumes to doubt the authenticity of these rel
ics. They are exhibited to the people during Holy Week, all
incased in gold and precious stones, from one ofthe raised gal
leries above the tomb of St. Peter, nearly one hundred feet
above their heads, at which distance it is impossible to distin
guish one object from another. Besides these, there are eleven
columns from the temple of Jerusalem, and the one against
which Jesus leaned when disputing with the doctors. This
is carefully concealed from general sight in one ofthe chapels,
but I contrived to get in and lean against the same spot — I
must confess it, not without experiencing a sensation of pious
gratification altogether remote from skepticism — so far as the
iron grating with which it is jealously encircled would permit.
St. Peter's has also a chapel specially devoted to the arms,
legs, fingers, heads, and other portions of saints, the list of
which hangs on the outside, and is not a very attractive invi
tation to enter to sensitive stomachs.
There is scarcely a Roman Catholic Church in Europe that
does not possess a Golgotha of relics — disgusting objects, most
ly defeating their own claims- to authenticity by their impossi
ble pretensions and absurd traditions, the belief in which is
far more diligently inculcated than in the saving, doctrines of

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

291

ADORATION OF RELICS.

Scripture. The latter would put an end to these stupid im
postures, but the former exalt the reputation of the several
churches, and bring much treasure into their coffers. In fact,
they are ecclesiastical museums, for which heretics pay to grat
ify their curiosity, and the faithful to adore, and gain the prom
ised indulgences at the expense of their gifts left upon the al-

292 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
tars. I have seen thousands flock around a miserable old
Byzantine painting of the Virgin, of the twelfth century, scru
pulously veiled in order to increase the mystery, except on cer-
f tain holidays, when the public are admitted to kiss the silver
railing of the altar for the purpose of devoutly leaving a sum
of money with the priest for the edifying privilege. Ghastly
heads and remains of martyrs, in silver or gold cases, are peri
odically exposed to similar adoration in the principal churches,
or brought out in solemn procession on the occasion of drought
or some public calamity, to induce the defunct possessor to in
tercede with God, or more generally the Virgin Mary, to arrest
the evil. Who can view these imbecilities, and not hold the
Roman clergy accountable for withholding the bread of life,
and substituting pageantry and superstitions not one whit su
perior to the classical paganism they supplanted ? It is true
that the early popes, despairing to abolish altogether the
heathen customs of Rome, ingrafted many of the ceremonies
of the expiring ritual into their own. But their successors
have allowed fifteen centuries to pass without a single en
deavor to purify their religion from the corrupting influences
which their predecessors deplored, and submitted to only from
unavoidable necessity. Forms and names have been changed,
but Rome of the nineteenth century, under a Christian pontiff
and a learned clergy, in point of superstition and credulity, is
as essentially pagan as in the days of Augustus. The mira
cles of ancient Rome, so prolific in the pages of Livy, are every
whit as credible as those which figure in the annals of the
Church. When devotion flags, or money fails to pour abund
antly in at a certain shrine, a miracle is sure to ensue. Cu
riosity is excited, superstition stimulated, and the needed ex
citement produced. My readers will, I trust, agree with me,
when they have visited a few of these idolatrous shrines, that
the sooner they are swept from the earth, the better will be
come the temporal and eternal prospects of mankind.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

293

In the church of the " Ara Cceli,'' which occupies the site
of the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter, there is preserved a
wretchedly-carved wooden doll, loaded with an incalculable
amount of precious jewels. This doll belongs to the monks,
and brings them in yearly a revenue which enriches them all.
It is called the " Most Holy Baby," and the most diligent ex
ertions are made to keep alive faith in its sovereign virtues.

THE MOST HOLY BABY.

294 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Every stranger visits.it, as a matter of course, and pays the
accustomed fee ; but its chief revenue is from the sick. It
has a larger practice £han any physician in Rome. As soon
as a Roman despairs of his life or his doctor, he sends for. the
"Most Holy Baby," which is brought in great state. If he
die, the baby has called him, which is right ; if he get well,
the baby has cured him, which is right also. In either case
the monks receive their fee. It is so rich that it has a hand
some carriage of its own. Several times a year this idol is
exposed to the adoration ofthe crowd, no other having so great
a reputation in Rome
An old marble staircase, which had seen much service in
the ancient Lateran Palace, has contrived to gather to itself an
astonishing reputation for sanctity. Sixtus V. was the Pope
who brought it into notice. In rebuilding the palace, he dis
covered that it was the same staircase on which Christ de
scended when leaving the judgment-seat of Pilate. Hence
forth it became most holy, and endowed with incalculable vir
tues. Sixtus inclosed it in a building opposite the church of
St. John in Lateran, and provided lateral staircases for descent
and for profane feet. Several thousand years' indulgence
were promised to every one who made the ascent on his
knees, repeating at each step Paternosters and Ave Marias.
Go now when you will, and it will be found occupied by sin
ners, male and female, nobles and beggars, side by side, pain
fully winning their way to the promised indulgence. At the
bottom there is always on duty a monk, who demands alms,
and at the top a contribution plate beside a crucifix, into which
the pilgrims deposit their offerings while reverently kissing
and repeating a prayer over each wound of Christ. So great
is the concourse, that wooden steps have been placed over the
stones, to protect them from the pious wear. After all, the
pilgrims do not touch the veritable steps, a fact which they

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 295

THE HOLY STA1

seem entirely to overlook, but which one would suppose would
detract somewhat from the promised blessings. In my for-
getfulness of its sanctity, I began to ascend it on my feet, but
the attendant priest requested me to desist. While I paused,
some French soldiers went by with a wonderful celerity on

296

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

their knees, evidently in a profane race to see who would first
arrive at the top.
The Church contains a wonderful assortment of relics : the
heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, as usual in jeweled cases of
silver ; a lock of the Virgin Mary's hair, and a fragment of
one of her petticoats ; some blood of Christ ; the table at
which he ate the Last Supper— a small affair, suitable for a
cafe tete-a-tete, but never intended for thirteen, an anomaly the
relic manufacturers impolitically overlooked. Then there are
the rods of Moses and Aaron, with a portion of the Ark of the
Covenant ; the pillar off which the cock crew when Peter de
nied Christ, and other wonders surpassing belief.
The relics of the Virgin Mary in ecclesiastical museums are
surprisingly numerous, while Joseph appears to have left no
memorials behind him. At Loretto we have her entire house,

VOWS TO THK VtHCTN.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 297
transported by angels from the Holy Land. Were all her
property restored to it, one might get a tolerable insight into
her domestic affairs ; for we have quite a wardrobe of hers re
maining, besides the cradle ofthe infant Jesus, preserved at the
church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in total forgetfulness of the
scriptural fact that the new-born babe was laid in a manger.
I will give a list of some of the most noted relics preserved
at different shrines, to show what the Church of Rome exhib
its instead of the simple Word of God. They exist in such
profusion wherever the Roman Catholic priesthood have sway,
that it is really difficult to select a collection which shall em
brace the absurdities of all, as their number and variety are
legion. One of the richest and most select, however, of these
shrines is that of St. Mark's, at Venice. It is open at certain
hours to the public for a stated fee. The wealth in precious
metals and jewels lavished upon the vessels and tabernacles
which contain these ghastly remains is incalculable. Were all
the idle and idolatrous treasure of Italy actively employed for
the benefit of the living, it would give her schools throughout
her territory, or connect it by a network of railways ; in either
case affording education or work to her starving multitudes.
The sacristan of St. Mark's ushered me into the sanctuary
where its treasures are kept. At the first glance one would
suppose he had fallen into Aladdin's cave, so brightly shone
the gold and silver, gleaming with rare and costly stones.
Closer inspection, however, betrayed the contents of the glass
vials in which most of them were preserved. There were
arm and leg bones without number ; fragments of morbid hu
manity, of every shape and variety, labeled " a piece of Saint"
this or Saintess that — precious to the faith ofthe believing,
it is devoutly to be hoped, but repulsive to doubting eyes.
The taste of Roman Catholics for the morbidly horrible in
death's doings is strangely general. At Notre Dame, in Paris,

29S ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
they showed me the spine ofthe late archbishop, which had
been dissected from his corpse to be exhibited to his late par
rishioners. The relics at St. Mark's that I particularly noticed were as
follows :
The Thumb of St. Mark.
A lock of the Virgin's Hair, bright auburn, looking as if re
cently cut from a child's head.
Some of the Blood of Christ.
Some of the Earth soaked with it.
A piece of his Garment without a seam.
Four pieces ofthe True Cross, one of which belonged to the
Empress Irene of Constantinople.
One Nail' of the True Cross. (There is another at Paris, one
at Milan, one at Rome, and the iron crown of Lombardy is
said also to have been made of them.)
Two of the Thorns of the Crown.
A Rib of St. Peter.
A Rib of St. Paul.
A portion of the Skull of St. John the Baptist. (The entire
head is preserved at Geneva ; but duplicates of saintly remains
are no more miraculous than their preservation at all, and do
not appear to weaken faith in their authenticity.)
Two of the Stones used at the martyrdom of St. Stephen.
The most remarkable appeal to public credulity is to be
found at Cologne, in the well-known collection of the relics of
St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgin companions, all of
whom, the Church teaches her disciples to believe, were wan
tonly massacred by a horde of barbarians, somewhere between
the years 237 and 451 of the Christian era, for refusing to sub
mit to their embraces. " He must have an iron head," says
our high authority, " who will maintain that this sublime old
tradition of Cologne does not merit belief."

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES 299
Be that as it may, tlie Church of St. Ursula exhibits to this
day, in the so-called " Golden Chamber, admission fixed at
thirty cents, for the benefit of the Church," one hundred and
seventy skulls, inclosed in velvet cases,, overlaid with silver
and precious stones. These are arranged on shelves, and grin
ghastly upon the spectator from their richly-decorated cases,
which contrast horribly in their mock splendor with the empty
eye-sockets and high cheek-bones of death. On the head of
St. Ursula there is a crown of great value. The attendant
monk, as he relates the legend of their death, calls upon the
visitor, with great unction, to admire the glossy flaxen hair of
the virgin saint, which he is allowed to handle, besides placing
his fingers in the cleft skulls of those who came to their deaths
by sabre strokes. Most of these skulls bear names, and are
thus catalogued :
No. 2. " The Head of St. Etherius, bridegroom of St. Ursula,
with the teeth well preserved."
No. 14. " Aurelius, King of Sardinia" — and a- large number
of bishops, dukes, priests, and soldiers, all numbered, in reck
less disregard of their unvirginlike association of sex and em
ployment. No. 23. " St. Benedicta, Duchess, who led a cohort of the
holy legion."
No. 32. " Florentia, CLueen."
No. 36. " Florentia, a Princess of Negroes,"
No. 50. "A small silver shrine, containing parts of Christ's
rod."— What rod ?
Nos. 55 and 57. "The right Arm and Foot of St. Ursula—
her hair-net," etc.
No. 60. (The naivete of the printed description of this is
particularly funny. — " A Water-cruet used at the wedding meal
at Cana, brought to Cologne by St. Bruno. An eye-witness,
who has been in Cana, assures us that there are only five of

300 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
these water-pots, and that the sixth he has seen in our Golden
Chamber is perfectly like- the five other pots." Can we won
der at the simplicity of the flocks, when such is the erudition
of the shepherds ?
Besides these relics there are six hundred and twelve heads,
adorned with golden embroidery, in gilded glass chests.
This church is a Golgotha on a large scale.. The walls in
close a solid mass of bones, symmetrically piled for the space
of eighty feet in length by ten in height and two in width,
which the monks joyfully point but as confirmatory of their
legend. As late as the year 1642, some fourteen hundred
years after the martyrdom, the liquid blood of St. Ursula was
discovered, as fresh as if just shed; but the monks, probably
from fear of another discovery, immediately reburied it.
It is a dismal church, full of bones, and skulls, and coffins,
and all sorts of quaint pictures of monkish legends, and gloomy
architecture. "When I left it, darkness had overshadowed all,
and my shaven and cowled guide was obliged to light a candle
to pilot me out. As we passed a confessional-box, a woman
suddenly arose from her knees, and a priest stepped from that
silent witness of the heart's burden of grief and sin, and dis
appeared in the recesses of the tomb-like church. She had
just finished her confession ; and, with a rapid step and bow
ed head, passed rapidly by. But what an hour and what a
place to select for penitence and absolution ! The grim relics
of death above, below, and on all sides. Each step disturbed
the ashes and repose of a grave. Night lent additional ghast-
liness to the scene. A lady was with me. She pressed close
ly to my side, and drew a long breath of relief as we stepped
over the gloomy threshold, and found ourselves once more
breathing the pure air of heaven.
The most conspicuous object of adoration at Rome is a ven
erable bronze statnc of St. Peter ; a sitting figure, so ancient

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 301

that it is generally asserted to be an old pagan deity, perhaps
Jupiter himself, or, at all events, some eminent heathen char-

ADORATION OF THE STATUE OF ST. PETER.

acter, a consul or magistrate, but now transformed by modern
cunning into the sacred image of the fisherman-saint.
This is the particular idol which the Pope loves to venerate

302 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
in public ; consequently, all good Catholics follow his example
for their souls' sake. The motives of his Holiness possibly are
pure and orthodox ; but the act itself is idolatry, and, as such,
becomes not only a license, but an example to the multitude.
On certain festivals the Pope and high dignitaries go to St.
Peter's for this purpose, pressing their lips fervently to the
brazen toe, and then touching the foot with their chins and
foreheads in a most devout manner, greatly to the edification
of a countless multitude, who, in their zeal of imitation, rush
toward it with a fury that threatens to endanger the stability
of the statue itself. At all hours worshipers are seen before
this image. The rich and poor, the noble and peasant, infancy
and age, kneel and pray before it, never leaving without be
stowing the adoring kiss, and pressing the forehead against the
consecrated heel. So numerous are their embraces, that it
-has been found necessary to protect the toe by an additional
covering from being entirely worn away. For centuries has
this idolatrous worship been performed, not only unrebuked,
but sanctioned and ordered by the Roman clergy as a means
of salvation.
The degree of devotion which this image excites is very
various. It would be amusing, were it not mournful, to wit
ness the daily scenes enacted before it. I have seen an old
woman, tottering with age, seize the foot in her hands, and
kiss the toe twenty times in rapid succession with all the im
petuosity and warmth of a young lover, and leave with an un
mistakable expression of pious joy. Mothers press the un
willing lips of babes to the cold metal ; ignorant of its efficacy,
they cry and shrink from the embrace. Their older brothers
and sisters kneel, and lift their tiny hands toward it, as we are
taught to do when we say, " Our Father, who art in heaven."
Young girls and fashionable mothers in squads approach, bow,
take out their laced handkerchiefs, polish the toe clean, and

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 303
then apply their lips — some devoutly, and others with a hid
den laugh, as if nature repudiated the mockery. Old men
prostrate themselves before the silent mass of metal as if it
were the tabernacle ofthe " Most High." There is no mistak
ing their sincerity. The worship, however mistaken, gives
them spiritual satisfaction, doubtless far more acceptable be
fore Heaven than .the scoffs and jibes ofthe cold reasoner, who,
seeing no religion in this, denies the existence of a Deity al
together. The spirit of the age extorts, even from the Roman Church
in Italy, some qoncessions to Protestantism. She does not per
mit, but she shuts her eyes to the fact, that Protestants in
Rome, Naples, Florence, and other capitals gather together on
Sundays, in "upper chambers" or in humble chapels — to which
bells are forbidden — to worship. These isolated meetings, in
which religion is reduced to the standard of apostolic simplic
ity, carry one back to its early history, when, under the more
enlightened pagan emperors, all Christians were tacitly allow
ed thus to meet for prayer and exhortation. Is it not strange
that, after eighteen centuries, upon a nominally Christian soil,
the same limited privilege only is conceded to Christians by
the sovereign pontiff, the Christian head of the Church and
state, as then was permittedby a Claudius or Titus, sovereigns
and pontiffs of universal heathendom ? The Protestants ofthe
first century, in the fourth succeeded to the throne and power.
Jupiter was cast aside forever. The Roman Church banished
from the earth the grosser crimes and practices of paganism.
Mankind owe her much. But she is now in her decrepitude ;
she is dying out. The worship of St. Peter will be cast aside,
in its turn, as an obsolete idea. On its ruins there will arise
a purer faith, which, in presenting to man a " Father in heav
en," shall stimulate him to progress in virtue and knowledge.
In the mean time, Popery is busy preaching and proselytiz-

304

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

ing. The ignorant preacher seeks to excite the passions, and
not to awaken the understanding of his hearers. The Roman

STREET PREACHING.

is theatrical even in his church. He does not hesitate to re
call the crowd from Punch and Judy to the crucifix by exclaim
ing, as he points to the bleeding Savior, "Ecco il vero pulci-
nclla .'" " Behold the true Punch !" He knows how to touch

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 305
the chord of their hearts, for he has made them what they
are. One of her writers spoke thus of souls in Purgatory :
" Imagine that the poor soul has his eyes upon you, and
looks with anxiety to see whether you give or refuse. If it
perceives that you have your hands in your pocket, it experi
ences a delight, which augments in proportion as your offering
approaches the contribution-box ; when the money is held
over it, the soul jumps from the flames, and when the gift falls,
the soul springs with pleasure. Oh ! to procure to those that
you love a moment so sweet, to make them taste these delights,
if you have not money yourself, borrow of your neighbor, who,
if he refuses, will be more culpable than you."
A small sum will buy, at almost any of the churches of
Rome, sufficient masses to free a soul from Purgatory for from
3000 to 30,000 years ; and it needs but more money to extend
the time indefinitely. Hell-fire is not, however, to be bought
off. The rich have no difficulty in compounding in this life
for any peccadilloes or doctrines that do not affect the suprem
acy of the Church. The Pope issues, for a consideration, ab
solution in full for all past or future sins. The poor would be
badly off were it not that every where friars in sackcloth, or
greasy-looking individuals in long white night-gowns, piously
beg through the principal streets — rattling a tin box in the
ears of the passers-by — alms for the poor in Purgatory,
Of all the processions of the Roman Church, the final one,
which bears its member to his last home, is the most curious
and lugubrious. None but the rich can afford this display.
The corpse is decked in its most brilliant attire, with its face
painted to resemble life, and placed upon an open bier, which
is borne through the streets of Rome, followed by as many
deputations of friars and monks from the several convents as
the familv of the deceased can afford to hire. These fall into

306 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

ranks like so many military companies, bearing crosses and
candles, and chanting most dismally at the top of their voices,
so that they can be heard long before they are seen. The
effect at night from the glare of their torches in the face of
the corpse, and the monotonous and mournful notes of the
hired mourners, is unequaled by any spectacle I have ever
seen of this nature, except the funeral corteges of the South
Sea Islanders, when a whole tribe lift up their voices and wail
for a dead chief. There is no cry equal to that for sadness
and filling the soul with melancholy. Among the savages,
every act is consonant with the sad office. The tears fall to
earth, but the wail rises to heaven. In Rome, the mingling
of the vanities of life with the realities of death is shocking.
I have seen a young female, on an open bier, her cheeks
blooming with color, flowers on her head, while she was
dressed as it were for a ball, and looking as fresh and rosy as
if life still animated her rigid limbs, borne through the streets
at night, the torches lighting up with a ghastly hue her beau
tiful countenance, which seemed as if it only slumbered, while
the rain poured in torrents on her lifeless form. The wetted
priests had ceased their chant, and hurried along at a rapid
pace to finish their job. Few strangers would have supposed
it a funeral, and fewer still that that lovely corpse was not a
waxen image. But it was unmistakable death on one of its
saddest errands.

A ROMAN FUNEEAL.

CHAPTER XI.
EFFECTS OF ROMANISM OX SOCIETY.
I have universally found that the difference in the relative
prosperity of the inhabitants of Catholic and Protestant coun
tries was in ratio ¦ to the degree in which the Holy Father
would consider the former faithful and the latter heretical.
This has indeed become a trite observation among travelers of
both religions. But no less a writer than the Abbe' Lamen-
nais denies its truth, and instances for his authority the very
countries which Protestants claim as their own evidence.
England, Sweden, and Protestant Germany, according to him,
are given over to irreligion, licentiousness, and political tur
moil ; while those countries that repose under the shadow of
the Holy See are stable in their institutions and united in
their faith. A monk of St. Bernard, in conversation with me.
on the extent and progress ofthe United States, acknowledged
that we were indeed a great nation physically ; but, said he,
" what a pity it is you have no religion. You will soon perish."
Such is the general sentiment among rigid Catholics. They
can not conceive how good morals, prosperity, a wise govern
ment, or salvation can exist independent of papal authority.
To secure its supremacy, they are ever ready to trample upon
those rights which we believe to be essential to human prog
ress. Liberty of press and conscience, and the separation of
civil and religious government, they consider equivalent to an
archy and atheism. The very enterprise, toleration, and free
dom of thought which are developed by our political institu-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 309
tions, and which we fondly conceive to be the fruits of our
righteousness, are, in their eyes, so many witnesses of our cer-
Tuption and infidelity. With them, absolution, or centring
faith and power in the Roman Church, is the " one thing need
ful" for humanity. This accomplished, they close their view
to all farther comparison ; or if by chance they look abroad,
and the wide gulf between the wealth, comforts, intelligence,
and energy of Catholic and Protestant states is too obvious not
to be acknowledged, they class the latter among those who, in
gaining the whole world, are losing their own souls.
. Believing, as we do, that the possession of the good things
of this earth proceeds mainly from those qualities that heap
up most treasure in heaven — or, in other words, that virtue
and vice, whether of the individual or nation, have their ap
pointed rewards and punishments in this life as well as in that
to come — we consider it a fair rule to judge papal rule by its
fruits. In one Swiss canton we find no beggars, universal
thrift, cleanliness, and enterprise ; in another, beggary, pov
erty, dirt, and general distress. The one is Protestant, and
the other Catholic.
But as Protestantism predominates in Switzerland, the con
trasts are not so striking as between those Catholic countries
which are exclusively the religious property of the Roman
See, and England, Prussia, and the United States, where Prot
estantism, although enforcing toleration, sways or influences
the entire population. France is in a transition state, a chaos
of atheism, bigotry, and sentiment. Its shop-keepers, in min
gled devotion and blasphemy, scarce knowing themselves
which impulse predominates, place over their doors, "La
Grace de Dieu" (the Grace of God), as a sign to attract custom,
as may be seen in the street St.Roch, at Paris. The Span
iards call a fighting vessel the " Most Holy Trinity ;" and the
Romans name a bank " The Holy Ghost ;" but these names

310 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

are given in sincerity and solemnity. France has grown pros
perous and strong in proportion as she has become tolerant
and free from the control of Rome ; while Italy and Spain,
the beloved of the Church, are filled from one extremity to.
another, in proportion as they are steeped in Romanism, with.
indolence, superstition, beggary, and their concomitant vices.
If, then, wherever Romanism is omnipotent we perceive these,
results, it is natural to infer that they follow the relation of
cause and effect.
My inquiries relate to Italy, and chiefly to Rome. Through
out the peninsula, except where the newrborn liberality of
Piedmont stimulatesj or the iron hand of Austria, as in Lom
bardy, crushes, we find indolence the national characteristic/
The Church encourages this parent of vice by appropriating.
more than a quarter of the year to festivals,; on .which, all la--
bor is forbidden and amusements encouraged. The vacations;
of the schools, on this account alone, are so numerous,. that the.
general ignorance ceases to be a wonder. Undoubtedly many;
of the holidays originated in the desire to relieve overtaxed
labor, and recall the untatfght mind to sentiments of religion;.
but, during so many centuries, saints have so rapidly increased
as to threaten to entirely monopolize the time of the living.
" Let the dead bury their dead;" has a pointed moral in Italy
in the present age.
Another cause of indolence are the fetters imposed on
knowledge. There are numerous primary schools, it is true.
Rome alone possesses three hundred and seventy-two, which;
receive about fourteen thousand children of both sexes.
Throughout the country they exist gratuitously ; but, besides
the simplest elements of instruction, they, as well as the uni
versities, are made subordinate to papacy. The instructors,
in general, are priests. The Church Catechism is a text-book.
All knowledge that tends to expand the mind,. liberalize ideas,.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

311

or develop physical energy unsuited to the theory of absolu
tism, is rigorously tabooed. Their intent is not to make citi
zens, but to make subjects—to train disciples, andnot masters.
Catholic teachers are free to receive Protestant children, but
a Protestant teacher is forbidden to receive a Catholic pupil.
Indeed, it is with-difficulty that Protestant parents can educate
their children, unless they submit to the requisitions of the
priesthood. : Even the Catholic, principal ofthe best institu-

312 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

tion in Tuscany, a Frenchman, has with difficulty, by the in
terference of his embassador, been allowed to continue his
school, because the authorities conceived that he was bringing
up his pupils to be " too manly.1' They even wished to exile
him from the country.
The field of knowledge being thus limited, enterprise is pro
portionally so, so that the educated, who have means, become
in general effeminate idlers and corrupt in morals, while the
poorer sort obtain some nominal office under government at
one or two shillings per day, or else. try their fortunes in the
few and in general despised branches of commerce left to their
option, sufficiently unfettered as to admit of hope. In Ameri
ca we can not realize the extent ofthe restrictions to personal
freedom, even in the commonest concerns of life, which are
the lot of Italians. If you are living on the sea-shore, you are
denied the use of a boat unless as a licensed fisherman. Each
city has its custom-house. I have seen a carriage stopped at
the gates, and a penny's worth of cake, which a little girl held
in her hand to eat, taken and taxed the smallest copper coin —
equal to a mill — for which a receipt was regularly made out
and given before the carriage could enter. The poor are un
mercifully fleeced at every gabelle, while the rich can carry
loads of merchandise, unopened, in their trunks from one end
of Italy to another, for a bribe of fifty cents given at each cus
tom-house. From Rome I have gone by land to Naples, thence through
some of the northern states of Italy, and back to Florence, and
never once opened a carriage-load of trunks. The gift was
expected, as a matter of course ; but for the officers to do their
duty, that was quite another affair. The system is seen in its
greatest corruption in the Neapolitan kingdom. At every ten
miles or so the traveler comes to a dogana. The soldiers stop
the carriage. The ladies are requested to alight, and the gen-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 313
tlemen are ushered into an upper room, where, in solemn dig
nity, sit the officials, who become prolix upon the necessity of
a strict examination of the baggage. Should you, in your in
nocence, offer the keys, they speak more to the point, and at
last plainly «y that it will save both trouble and expense for
you to give them a fee. Otherwise they will be sure to find
something contraband. If you hand a Napoleon, they look as
tonished at your meanness, and shake their heads, and say this
will never do. They would do the same if it were a shilling.
An Italian official must always be twice paid. The smallest
additional gratuity settles the difficulty ; and with a profusion
of bows and good wishes, you think you are ready to proceed.
Descending the stairs, your mistake is at once rectified. First
comes the officer of the guard for his gratuity ; next, the cor
poral ; next, the soldiers, each of whom swears he has been
your special guard — that is, he has invited himself to a ride on
your box for a mile or so ; and, lastly, the facchini, or porters,
the most extortionate of all, who claim high pay for not taking
your trunks off. This is all done amid a throng of beggars
and thieves, who pick your pockets or steal from the carriage
as opportunity offers, at the same time stunning heaven with
cries for charity, or calling upon the Madonna to pass to your
credit above the coppers you have distributed among them
below. A little farther on occurs a similar scene at a so-called pass
port-office. I have had money, with which I was paying a
porter, snatched from my hand in the streets of Naples by a
sentinel on duty, and no one thought it strange. Go where
you will in this kingdom, and you find a similar system of or
ganized robbery, which makes one almost regret the good old
days of banditti, when novelty and excitement added zest to
the adventure ; but now it is barefaced extortion, disgusting
wrangling, and inevitable pillage. Formerly there was a
0

314 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

chance of escape — now none. If you refuse to pay, your bag
gage remains untouched, but you are not allowed to proceed.
The same corruption extends through all classes, with, of
course, some honorable exceptions. The King of Naples is
well known as the chief of the lazzaroni. Hats, handker
chiefs, and sundries are not always safe at an Italian ball, or
among even what may be considered a genteel crowd. These
peccadilloes, with lying and cheating, so common among even
the better classes, bespeak a defective moral education, and
find their solution in great measure in the confessional, which
acts as a safety-valve to the conscience, a little money or tri
fling penance securing indulgence or absolution, until at last
habit destroys the sense of sin and shame altogether.
In France, lies are expected as a matter of course. Among
the ladies they pass under the softened expression of " broder"
(to romance) ; with gentlemen, more vulgarly, " blaguer" (to
fib) ; but both practice the vice either to please or to add
piquancy to scandalous gossip, but seldom from baser motives.
They so love to exaggerate, that their daily newspapers are
universally dated a day in advance ; even Galignani has been
compelled to follow their example, to do away with the charge
that he did not give the latest news.
With the Italians, however, lying is a downright vice. With
out the courage and gallantry of the French, they lie from fear
as well as fun. One need have no greater evidence of the de
pravity of morals among the higher classes of Italian cities
than the universal scandal, which spares no one, and at the
same time announces a general corruption inconceivable in
similar circles in Protestant countries, or which, if existing,
would doom the offenders to social isolation. So the universal
suspicion proclaims the equally-spread habit of falsehood.
However much courtesy may gild social intercourse, the ser
pent-head of distrust is seen beneath. Jealousy is equally

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 315
common ; not the more honorable sentiment founded on a re
gard for chastity, but the meaner spirit begotten of envy. It
is really extraordinary to see how ludicrously, not to say in
humanly, domestics and the lower classes will sometimes ex
hibit this, when one would suppose that common wants would
produce common sympathies. As for the former, when it ex
ists, it is chiefly among lovers, and not married couples, whose
connubial eye is supposed to be blind. I have heard it re
marked, by other ladies, of one ofthe chief nobility ofTuscany
— a wife and mother that it would be wellfor the country if
it possessed more of — " How strange it is that the Duchess
 contents herself with only her husband." Such is the
common sentiment. Matrimonial fidelity is the exception.
Generally speaking, Italian women are untidy, both as house
keepers and in their toilet, when not dressed for their diurnal
drive. This arises from indolence and want of good home ed
ucations. Convents are the schools of Italian mothers. Slip
shod at home, they loiter or doze away their time after the
most approved listlessness, indifferent to every thing but ap
pearing well on parade or at the Opera. Their households are
neglected, children intrusted to servants, and their work, if any,
confined to embroidery, rarely music, and sometimes a little
painting or design. Their want of good taste in dress, in
which, as a class, they are behind every other civilized nation,
is the more strange, as they possess a natural taste for the
beautiful in art. When the sex is thus unrefined in person,
the mind is upon a par ; so that one is not astonished to find
a latitude in conversation, and an ignorance on general topics
no less lamentable, but combined with an amiability and wit
which, under better auspices of government and religion, would
raise them to the level of their sex in more favored countries.
The generaf effeminacy and want of energy of the male sex
would astonish any one not versed in their political history for

316 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
the past two centuries. They weigh like nightmares upon
the race ; but, without scope for ambition, or even ordinary
physical action, what else can be expected ?
The care which an Italian dandy takes to preserve himself
from the fresh air of heaven, to avoid all exercise, and to de
velop effeminate beauty, is ludicrously wonderful. There are
said to be not over three days of their delicious climate in a
year which are all right for an Italian. What with its being
too hot or too cold, too dry or too humid, too changeable or too
monotonous, the poor weather is little able to satisfy the race
on which he lavishes most of his bounties. I was at a sea
side watering-place last summer. The water to me, who
have lived eight years within the tropics, was uncomforta
bly warm ; but the titled Italians first prepared themselves
for their sea-baths by aperient medicines and a course of
warm baths, so that their systems should not undergo too great
a shock. To return to schools and ecclesiastical education. One of
its chief principles tends to perpetuate a canker which is gnaw-
ing'at the vitals of Italy. The Church honors beggary in its
bosom by sustaining numerous communities of/idle monks,
who live on the charity and industry ofthe public. It teaches
through all its lessons, even as an article of faith, that alms ex
piate sins, and that it is necessary to give continually and
abundantly to win heaven. Her charity is not of doctrine ;
she holds none in store for those who deny her faith — they are
inevitably damned ; but in good works and alms-giving she is
lavish, because by them she buys salvation for herself. This
abuse of the doctrine of charity is twofold. It makes heaven
a matter of barter, and teaches the poor to believe that it is
only necessary to wear rags, and live in filth and idleness, for
the wealthy to become their debtors ; while the excess of good
works of the Church provides them with a bed in a hospital

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 317
when ill, a snug retreat when old, and the gifts of the rich at
all times.
" By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy bread," was
the early mandate of Heaven, carrying with it a blessing. Tho
spur of want is, however, the only sure provocative to labor.
In Polynesia, and those climates where Providence, as it were,
houses and feeds man gratis, the human race remains station
ary, never rising above the incipient stages of civilization.
What Providence has seen fit to do for certain races of savages,
limiting at once their sphere and their supply, Rome, from the
days of the Gracchi through its long decadence, sought to do
for its turbulent population. But that which God did in wis
dom man imitated in folly. The Romans looked upon the
state as a parent bound to provide for its offspring. From
daily bread, they soon learned to demand their daily oil and
wine ; then money ; and, finally, spectacles and amusements
— all gratis. The consequence was, that Rome trained its cit
izens into a mongrel race of beggars and robbers, resolved to
live without labor. They succeeded, but Rome fell ; for the
curse of idleness was upon it.
The Church succeeded the Empire. To destroy its legacy
of corruption was no easy task, but one to which Christianity
was equal, had she not herself bowed to idols. Under her im
perial patrons she conquered, but did not reform. True, indi
vidual virtue, and occasionally able and upright rulers, did
much to counteract the prominent heathen vices, which slowly
disappeared before the principles of the Gospel ; but with all
their power they were inadequate, in the hands of papacy, to
cleanse the foulest fountain of them all.
The modern Italians — I refer to the lower orders in cities
and the great highways, not to the peasantry of the interior,
than whom a more kindly, frank, and appreciatory race does
not exist — like the ancient Romans, remain a race with out-

318

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

stretched hands. They are beggars. Beggary has become an
hereditary vice. Shame, if it ever existed, has long since for
saken the practice. With unblushing falsehood, it is to be seen
in the palace and in the hovel, in all its cunning degrees, from
the throne of St. Peter's to the veriest wretch that coils his
scabby limbs under its shadow. The Church is responsible
for much of this, not from design, but from its mistaken doc-

ITALTAN MKN'DTCANTS.

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 319
trine, that the greater blessing attends the giver than the work
er. It honors idleness, sanctifies- the spread palm, and thus im
pedes labor. Sixtus V. labored diligently to arrest this evil.
He established work-houses, forbade mendicity under the se
verest penalties, and sought by energetic measures to extirpate
the pest, but in vain. After brief intervals of apparent reform,
it reappeared as vicious as ever. The popes forgot that, while
weeding with one finger, they were bountifully sowing tares
with an open hand. The Romans, of all Italians, have in con
sequence the most profound aversion to labor. They are list
less and silent even in their amusements, varied only by occa
sional flashes of passion or the excitement of the Carnival.
The rich give abundantly and with indiscriminating gener
osity, but as frequently from policy or ostentation. Like the
old patricians with their clients, they gather about them a
numerous horde of idle dependents or professional beggars,
who, content in the abasement of receiving gratis their daily
subsistence, have ceased to envy the enormous possessions of
their lords. Nearly three fifths of the real^estate within the
walls of Rome belong to less than one hundred families ; the
remaining two fifths to the hospitals and convents. Conse
quently, not one in a thousand of the inhabitants of Rome has
any fixed property. The Church and government, including
the few noble families able to support their state, own all Rome
— a state of things sufficient in itself to kill enterprise, and
keep the city as it is, a century behind even the other capitals
of Italy.
Each city has its characteristic type of beggars, though none
is without specimens of all, as they are a wandering race,
and move to where charities are most abundant. Rome, how
ever, is the capital of beggardom. In Venice they ply their
art in gondolas. In Florence they dress in filthy rags, whine
piteously, expose infants, and train bright-eyed young girls to

320 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
waylay strangers, demanding alms with a pertinacity proof
against all repulse, though liable to the penalties of the law ;
in fact, throughout Tuscany they are the dirtiest and most beg
garly set of beggars Italy can show. At the entrance of Vas-
sieux's reading-room, a white-haired old man, bent with age,
his clothes hanging together by scanty stitches, is to be seen
sitting in one position, and always in the same spot : for years
he has been thus ; he never speaks, but, as the visitors pass,
meekly bows his head — silent if he receives a copper, and
equally silent if disappointed. His dumb appeal is not with
out its fruits. A more expressive image of venerable patience,
poverty, and humility the imagination never conceived ; and
yet, I presume, the old dodge, like Beppo, the legless, roguish
king of beggars at Rome, is rich, and able to dower his daugh
ters, if he have any.
In Naples they beg for the fun of it ; bright-eyed, merry
boys, full of life and activity, or lazzaroni, up to a thousand
tricks to excite compassion and gain the trifling sum that will
feed them for a week, while for a bed, stone steps or a basket
are sufficiently comfortable. But at Naples they are all ready
to do any thing but actual labor to unloose your purse-strings ;
they will lie, cheat, or steal, as temptation offers, and, if it
please you, dance, sing, ingulf macaroni, and play the jack
anapes after the drollest fashion possible. There is fun and
mischief in their begging which half disguises its viciousness.
The begging monks form a class, sui generis, under the es
pecial patronage of the Church. They are the greatest eye
sores of the community, being in general men of almost bru
talized appearance, unctuous and ignorant, and of correspond
ing habits.
Beggary in Italy is elevated to the rank of an occupation.
Men and women are born and die beggars, as their parents be
fore them. This class appears the more numerous, because

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES,. 321
they have the art of multiplying themselves, as it were,
interminably. They are the carrion crows of benevolence,
stripping it to its very bones, and scenting their game afar off.
There is no end to their disguises and ailments. Proteus-like,
they change their rags and diseases to suit every phase of
charity. With an ubiquity that savors of marvelousness, they
are here, there, and every where at the same instant ; now
lame, then dropsical, all at once minus an eye, arm, or leg, cov
ered with sores, rheumatic, crippled by age or famished by
hunger ; surrounded by nursing, starving children ; assuming
every shape of disease or deformity, with crutches and all the
outward appeals to sympathy, they excite terror and disgust
as often as charity. There is no disguising their barefaced im
position. If their imperfections are real, the eighteen hospi
tals of Rome are ample for their relief. But they are like Bed
ouins in their habits, and prefer the plunder of the public to
the legitimate relief of their wants. They are to be seen
chiefly on the steps ofthe churches, when not begging, swear
ing, card-playing, quarreling, or sleeping from morning to
night ; where they then retire to, no decent mortal may know.
In contrast with these are the genteel beggars ; counts and
countesses, veiled ladies in black, who haunt theatres ; others
in gayer costumes, who track you to your homes ; all begging
under some pretext or other, and grateful for half a dollar,
when, from their appearance, you feel ashamed to offer the
man an eagle. I have had a well-dressed gentleman approach
me in the street, bow with great courtesy, apologize for inter
rupting me, and then go on to inform me that he was of the
higher classes, but had lost his money, and would be thankful
for a " mezzo baiocco," half cent ! Ladies, too, so grateful as to
kiss your hands for half a dime ! The degradation in such
cases is too deep for the poverty to be wholly genuine.
The system of asking is universal. At certain palaces where
02

;ENTEEL cr'cii.ui

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 32:1

you may have dined, the servants demand of you a fee. Me
chanics, tradesmen even, all who serve you in one way or
other, with few exceptions, ask for something additional, grate
ful if they get it, and nevertheless ready to try again if they
fail. Inthe country, on the usual routes of travelers, this nui
sance is universal. Children follow the carriage for miles
clamoring for coppers, and, if refused, salute your ear with a
curse, and " May you break your neck ! may the apoplexy seize
you !" or some equally welcome catastrophe, winding up with
some demoniacal sign indicative of bad luck. I have always
noticed that Italians never failed to counteract the spell by
some cabalistic movement of the fingers, known only to the
initiated. The usual reference is to the Madonna for your welfare,
though all the saints in the calendar are in turn invoked.
Sometimes, especially with the Romans and Neapolitans, there
is a touch of flattery, or a dubious wish expressed in their de
mands, extremely naive, and not always creditable to the mor
als of either party ; as, for instance, " May your handsome
¦ Excellency be fortunate in your amours."
Aside from the parasitical and fictitious misery of Italy,
there exists a vast amount of real, which even the colossal
proportions of Roman Catholic charity are not sufficient to re
lieve. The mass of the people, in ordinary times, are but
scantily supplied with even the most indifferent and least
nourishing qualities of food ; consequently, in times of scarci
ty, they are reduced to a condition bordering on absolute star
vation. Their chief diet is coarse bread, beans, and chestnuts.
Any thing better partakes ofthe character of luxuries. The
faintness or want of strength resulting from so meagre a diet
is relieved by the stimulus of large draughts of the light wines
ofthe country — in general, mixtures deleterious to the health,
though not very intoxicating. Indeed, one cause ofthe appa-

324 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
rent sobriety of the peasantry is said to be their inability to
swallow enough to make them tipsy, though there are men
among them that will drain a gallon flask at a sitting. They
drink sufficiently, however, to excite crime and disorders.
Their temperance may be considered rather a passive thaii
active virtue ; though, as men will seek artificial stimulants,
it would be an advantage to the United States could light
wines be substituted for strong liquors.
The effects of general want and poverty are shown among
the Italians generally, and especially the Tuscans, in their
short stature, heavy, lifeless look, and almost haggard appear
ance ; the tout ensemble of dress and mien betokening a dispir
ited, badly-fed, and worse-governed race. Their numerous
holidays prevent their being overworked ; but the pale, spirit
less faces, bent figures, and misshapen shoulders of the labor
ing women painfully tell their lack of generous diet and
healthful employments. I never walk the streets of Florence
without feeling pained at the sight of so much silent misery
that, callous as it were to its own wants, passes humbly and
painfully by, seemingly without pleasure in the past or hope.
for the future. It really appears wrong to dress well and walk
erect and joyful in the consciousness of health and the bless
ings of Providence, not to speak of the ostentation of the rich,
in contrast with the blight which has fallen so heavily upon
the lives of so many of our fellow-beings, through centuries of
oppression and miseducation.
It is difficult to procure reliable statistics in Italy, but the
few which I feel authorized te give will show not only the
extent of poverty, but the extent of charity also in this land.
Indeed, so numer ms and so richly endowed are the " palaces''
for the destitute, as the poor-houses and hospitals may truly
be called, that, in view of the general beggary and destitution,
we can not come to other conclusion than that they overdo

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 325

their own charitable" design. Too much assistance has made
the population lazy and improvident. They rely more upon
public charity than private enterprise ; consequently, reform
must commence with them.
In 1798 there were thirty thousand poor, or one fifth ofthe
population of Rome, on the lists of the curates of the several
parishes. Under the administration ofthe French up to 1814,
the proportion had been diminished to one ninth. Since that
period it has been on the increase.
There are in Rome nineteen hospitals for the treatment of
diseases. One of them, Saint Roch, is for the reception of
pregnant women who wish to be confined in secret. In eight
public hospitals the average number of sick daily is about
fourteen hundred, who cost nineteen cents a day each. For
every five patients there are two assistants or nurses, at the
daily wages of thirty-three cents each, so that nearly one half
ofthe revenues ofthe hospitals is expended on the well, who,
of course, are greatly interested in multiplying them.
The hospital of the Holy Ghost receives all bastards with
out question. They cost Rome yearly fifty thousand dollars.
There are, besides, some fourteen semi-convents, where young
girls are gratuitously received and educated. They never
leave these retreats except to marry or become nuns. If the
former, they receive a dowry of thirty-five dollars ; if the lat
ter, fifty dollars, so much is celibacy in Rome held in honor
above matrimony. As an anomaly, however, in this doctrine,
there exist at Rome, and in Italy generally, dotal institutions,
which annually provide a considerable number of poor girls
with sufficient dowries to tempt offers of marriage. The lot
tery is also a recognized institution of the Church, or, more
properly speaking, of its charity. Benoit XIV. ordered that at
each drawing five maidens should receive their dowries from
as many winning numbers ; hence the fortunate damsels are

326 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

known, not by their Christian names, but as Miss 79, or Miss
1025, as the prize numbers may prove. The hospitals succor
annually about five thousand poor, at an expense of two hund
red thousand dollars.
The Pope has various resources for his public and private
benevolence. The Apostolic Aumony provides him with about
five hundred dollars per month for general benevolence. The
Datary, whence briefs and bulls are issued, a sort of ecclesias
tical chancellary, which employs about one thousand persons,
and receives immense sums from the sale of dispensations, in
dulgences, and the usual paper traffic of Rome, produces the
Pope about thirty thousand dollars. An acquaintance of mine
paid to this institution two thousand francs for the privilege
to marry his deceased wife's sister. Shops for the sale of
dispensations from fasting, and all the numerous requirements
of the Church of Rome, to say nothing of more criminal in
dulgences, are common. The lottery produces fifty thousand
dollars ; the bureau of briefs and other offices some six thou
sand more, so that the Pope, unless prodigal, need never be
empty-handed. Venice, which once counted nine hundred rich and noble
families, now contains scarcely twelve in comfortable circum
stances. Some thirty others live obscurely in corners or lofts
of their dilapidated palaces, depending upon the scanty rents
received from strangers. At one period, more than two thirds
of its population, or seventy thousand souls, required public
aid. Milan, tothe stranger, presents neither beggars nor pov
erty ; its aspect is gay and brilliant, but this is owing rather
to the severe measures ofthe Austrian police to prevent men
dicity than to real prosperity. Its asylums are on the same
scale of palatial splendor as in other parts of Italy. As in
Sardinia, the poor are removed from sight, and placed in build
ings decorated with columns, mosaics, spacious halls and

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 327
courts, rivaling in architecture the stately palaces of their rul
ers ; which cold magnificence, associated often with forced
labor, they would gladly exchange for a gipsy life of privation
in the open sunshine. Two thousand eight hundred individ
uals, according to a Milanese writer, are daily succored by the
houses of industry of St. Vincent and St. Marc alone, at a net
annual expense of eighty thousand dollars. The same estab
lishments at Venice are more prosperous, costing the city but
about five thousand dollars, and even producing a saving, if
the cleaning and lighting of the streets, with which they are
charged, be comprised.
Mendicity in the beautiful and rich Etruria has been very
appropriately termed by Doctor Purchetti an " unarmed brig
andage." Its insolence and pertinacity, coupled with the
healthful and robust appearance of the majority who demand,
rather than ask alms, have won for it this character. Even
in Florence, where alone it is forbidden by law, it often stalks
the streets apparently unmolested, though it frequently as
sumes the disguise of traffic to blind the eyes ofthe police.
Unlike other parts of Italy, it seldom descends to wanton ex
posure of ulcered or crippled limbs, or other disgusting corpo
real modes of exciting compassion, but boldly says it is hun
gry, and simply exclaims, "Give me a quattrino." Florence
and Arezzo alone have organized houses for the unoccupied
poor. Elsewhere they are at the mercy of, or prey unmolest
ed upon, individual benevolence. All strangers arriving at
Leghorn are taxed nearly one dollar a head for the poor. But
their " palace" is occupied by Austrian soldiers, while, in rags
and vermin, they are allowed to infest the streets with more
the air of nobles than of beggars. Such sights are not grate
ful to the eyes of a court ; consequently, when the Grand
Duke goes to the baths of Lucca or elsewhere, the police are
active in clearing the roads of a class of his subjects which re-

928 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
fleet no credit on his government. After his departure, they
make up their temporary losses by harassing strangers with
twofold energy. In the capital, however, the severity of the
law, which inflicts imprisonment or fines for the first offenses,
and perpetual imprisonment, with forced labor, for renewed
transgressions, serves in some degree to abate the nuisance.
Formerly there were three hundred churches and convents
in the little city of Florence, owning the larger part of its real
estate. Thanks to the enlightened Ferdinand and the French,
the greater part of these abodes of idleness were suppressed.
Even now, however, the Church owns a large proportion of
the city. The numerous heraldic devices of the lamb and
cross, to be seen on so many of the houses and palaces of the
city, indicate the wealth of the Cathedral alone. At present
there are seventeen convents of men and fourteen of females,
besides seven houses of refuge for young girls under the charge
of nuns. Of hospitals of all kinds there are eight or ten; that
of Santa Maria Nuova, founded in 1287, being one ofthe finest
and best organized in Europe, and succoring annually more
than three thousand sick of both sexes.
In this hospital is to be seen the museum of the late Profess
or Segato, who discovered the process of petrifying animal
substances, so that, while they retained their natural colors
and shapes, they became as hard as stone. The Church, as
usual, interfered with his art, on the ground that it was con
trary to the scriptural doctrine of" into dust shalt thou return.''
Consequently, unable to prosecute the discoveries farther, he
soon after died, leaving to the world this unique museum as
the evidence of his success, and to tantalize science with re
grets for the lost secret.
It comprises every portion of the human body transformed
to stone,- destined to endure as long as the world itself, if not
ground to pieces by violence. There are two tables, one fin-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 329
ished and polished, the other incomplete, made of mosaics
formed by sections of human bones, brain, lungs, blood-ves
sels, intestines, and muscles, as firm as marble, showing the
internal structure of each, but resembling colored stones.
Without an explanation, every visitor would presume them to
have come from some stone mosaic manufactory, for they are
symmetrically arranged in squares, with the great variety of
colors nicely graduated. Different portions of the human
body, exhibiting the internal anatomy, are so perfectly petri
fied as1 to form perfect objects of study for the medical student.
Even morbid anatomy was subjected with entire success to
this process. Animals of all kinds, reptiles, chickens in and
out of the egg — in short, nothing that had warm blood was
capable of resisting his petrifying touch. The beauty of his
art was that it preserved the life-like appearance and color of
the animal; hence, for anatomical and natural history muse
ums, his discovery was invaluable. The student had before
him the real object of his study, perfect as in life, without any
ofthe inconveniencies and imperfections attending waxen rep
resentations and stuffed or spirit-preserved specimens. The
Roman Church, above all others, did wrong to discourage the
art. Next to medical colleges, it is the largest dealer in dead
men's bones. What an improvement it would have been, in
stead of exhibiting a knee-pan in a vial, or a dried skull in a
gold case, to have held up for adoration an entire saint as fresh
as in life. All skepticism in relics would then disappear, for,
however easy it may be to substitute one bone for another,
there could be no possibility of destroying personal identity.
The stone saint would be the actual image of the live saint ;
no daguerreotype could be half so exact ; and when not in
use, could be quietly laid by on the shelf, as is frequently done
in life.
What a gallery of great men might not be bodily perpetu-

330 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
ated to the world by this art! Who would not now like to
see the real Homer, Socrates, or Caesar, not in cold marble, but
looking as if they merely slept, their actual flesh and blood
stiff and erect before us 1 The sculptor would have aban
doned his art in despair. I can not say that I should look
complacently on the process as applied to one's own family.
Perhaps the relations of Homer, Socrates, and Caesar would
have had similar objections, and have preferred the funeral
pile to the adamantine embalmment. There is, however, irt
this museum the head of a young girl, with long flaxen hair
of remarkable beauty, as soft and tress-like as in life. Be
longing to this head is a virgin bosom, snow-white, and of a
perfection of form that nature seldom equals, and art never
surpasses. Powers's Greek Slave or the Venus de Medici could
exchange busts with this maiden without loss, so exquisite are
its proportions and so pure its outlines. Here, then, exists a
figure which women will envy and men admire through all
time, as cold and hard as flint, yet warming the feelings with
love and pity for the fate of one so young and beautiful. All
that is known of her is that she was found dead with others
under the roof of a church that fell in, and Segato possessed
himself of her corpse.
Hospitals for foundlings appear to be a peculiar charity of
Roman Catholic countries. They indicate both great distress
and a low scale of morality. Increasing as they must, from
the facilities they afford to illegitimacy and concubinage, evils
scarcely less than those they seek to remedy, Protestants
should be cautious in imitating them. Indeed, in countries
of their origin they are defended only as a choice between the
infanticide ai 1 abandonment which it is their peculiar prov
ince to prevent and relieve. Both legitimate and illegitimate
infants find a home in these asylums to the number of several
thousands annually. When of sufficient age, they are placed

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 331
in the families of the peasants, who receive a trifling sum for
their maintenance, which ceases when the children are able
to earn something for themselves. If the girls marry, they
are entitled to a dowry of about thirty dollars, but after they
have left the hospital and are at service, they frequently con
tinue to obtain this sum without the necessary condition,
through others to whom they furnish their papers for that
purpose. In 1825 there were 10,194 infants received into the
several foundling hospitals of Tuscany, The number increased
to 12,494 in 1834, owing, in part, to the increase of the popu
lation. In 1841 the family of the Royal Hospital of Innocents
of Florence alone numbered 7511, a large number of whom
are legitimate children, abandoned from cause of poverty by
their parents. They can, however, at any time reclaim them
by reimbursing the hospital for the expenses incurred. A con
siderable number, one in sixteen, are thus withdrawn, but,
with all the care and kindness bestowed upon those who re
main,, their lot is a hard one. I had a domestic once who
knew nothing more of her childhood than that she was found
in the streets and placed in one of these hospitals, where, after
receiving the usual fare and education for a number of years,
she was sent out into the world to gain her own subsistence.
She knew neither parent nor relative — in fact, was perfectly
alone, united to society only by the indissoluble chain of servi
tude; for what hope has one of these public orphans to contract
ties of family, when even noble-born maidens without dowries
are compelled to pine in solitude or seek religious consolation
in cloisters ? She was humble and grateful, but sad ; feehng
deeply her forlorn situation, aggravated as it was by a pulmo
nary complaint, which threatened soon to terminate her sor
rows in life, and unite her with Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.
I know not who are most to be pitied, the parent driven by
shame or poverty to violate the purest instincts of human na-

332 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES,
ture, or their offspring, fatherless and motherless, knowing no
kin, nursed during infancy by hirelings, or else confined with
in the walls of a charitable institution, deprived of the sacred
joys of a home, until bone and muscle are sufficiently grown
for them to take their places as "the drawers of water and'
hewers of stone" for their more fortunate brethren. Vice
brings with it another punishment. Whoever has noticed
these orphans will have perceived that they appear like an
inferior race of humanity compared with the civilized Euro
pean type. Their faces and forms seem as if run in one
mould, with dull, unintellectual, almost imbecile expressions,
and short, stubby figures, like those of well-fed swine. After
looking at these children, I ceased to wonder at the stunted,
haggard, lifeless population so often seen in the streets.
Naples, in its "Albergo dei Poveri," possesses one of the
most sumptuous poor-houses in existence ; one immense estab
lishment, accommodating upward of three thousand paupers
of both sexes, in which there are not only work-shops for the
fabrication of silks, cotton, laces, the cutting of coral, and other
trades, but also schools of music, design, arithmetic, and other
branches of knowledge, besides a printing-office, type-foundry>
and. other arts, so as to afford suitable employments and in
struction for all capacities. Notwithstanding this model es
tablishment and numerous others, whose annual revenues
amount to nearly two millions and five hundred thousand dol
lars, Naples is infested with an idle, begging population, to re
form which would require all the energy of well-directed lib
eral institutions, or else a severity which even its heartless
despotism dare not exercise.
There is an important distinction between Roman Catholic
and Protestant benevolence in modes of action. Both are com
prehensive, self-denying, laborious, and unwearied. The for
mer, however, partakes of the parade and ostentation of the

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 333
Church which controls and directs its operations. It delights
in uniforms, chantings, torch-lights, and masquerading. When
it visits the sick or buries the dead, it puts on its robes of of
fice. With all its apparent humility, it blazons forth its good
deeds to the world by a state and trappings that announce its
errand, and proclaim its subserviency to the Holy See. To re
lieve is the secondary, to proselyte is the primary object of its
creed. Its various associations form the militia of popery, and,
owing to their real virtues, they are the most successful of its
soldiers in extending its conquests. No one can meet the Ro
man "Brethren ofthe Dead," whose office is to bury the de
serted victims of contagion, see the mournful costume of the
Florentine " Brethren of Pity" in their more comprehensive
errands of mercy, or watch the noiseless steps of the French
" Sisters of Charity," as they glide, like ministering angels, to
the hearthstones of poverty or the bedsides ofthe sick and dy
ing, without feeling his heart respond to the sublime doctrine
of the universal brotherhood of man, and involuntarily rever
encing that form of Christianity which thus manifests its be
nevolence to the world. But is there not more real sublimity
in the silent, humble walk of Protestant benevolence — the do
ing good in secret — than in all the mighty machinery of Rome 1
The one takes hold of the sentiment, and exalts the imagina
tion ; it proclaims its work and demands its tribute . The
other also has in its ranks Sisters of Charity and Brethren of
Mercy as devoted and unwearied as any in the ranks of Rome.
But they go forth on their daily rounds of Christian love un
heralded by chants, and undisguised in the robes of state ; less
known to„the public than if, in their spiritual pride, they doffed
their usual habiliments to bury themselves and their good
works in those lugubrious costumes with which Romanism
coneeals all but the eyes, for fear that the right hand shall
know what the left doeth, while at the same time they bid the
world to do them reverence.

334 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Protestantism washes no pilgrims' feet, and feeds no pau
pers in the pride of charity amid the splendors of a dominant
hierarchy. It makes no theatrical exhibition of its benevo
lence, though its English form delights too much in good din
ners. Its benevolence flows not at the command of a human
" Holy Father," directed by one fallible will toward one infal
lible purpose, but is the offspring of individual hearts, con
centrated by love, for the simple purpose of visiting " the wid
ows and fatherless in their affliction."
Men see not the Protestant Brethren of Mercy as they pass
by, for they are like other men ; neither do women kneel on
stony pavements when the Protestant clergyman carries hope
to the dying, for his presence is not pompously announced by
a long train of priestlings in gaudy robes, with the tinkling of
bells, and the armed soldiers, who guard the Romarr minister
as he bears the body and blood of the Prince of Peace on his
way to absolve dying sinners ; nor do our Sisters of Charity-
wear other garb than that in which they so faithfully perform
their duties as Christian mothers.
Protestant benevolence appeals directly to " Our Father in
Heaven" to sustain and direct its energies ; it acknowledges
its accountability to the public, from which it derives its mate
rial aid ; and in all points it seeks to dispense its bounties as
Providence extends its blessings, silently and effectively, to all
who hunger and thirst. Both are the children of Christianity.
Which does it most honor, and partakes largest of its spirit,
the records of eternity alone may decide. Would that, while
both remain on earth, their rivalry were solely in provoking
each other to good deeds !
Roman Catholic cities, in their primary aspect, present a
higher appearance of public morality than Protestant capitals.
But few public women are met in their streets ; drunkenffess
seems rare ; and there is a general quiet and lethargy, the ex-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 335
act reverse of the bustle and enterprise of those towns that
acknowledge Protestantism. Nowhere is this parallel more
strikingly shown than between Geneva and Lucerne, Florence
and New York, or Rome and London. This external morality
is readily explained.
While the grosser forms of prostitution are not so openly ex
hibited in papal cities as in Protestant, the distinction between
virtue and vice is much less rigorously drawn. The Roman
clergy are able to repress it outwardly, but it extends inward
ly. Society in general is corrupt, while the streets are com
paratively pure. The forced celibacy of the priesthood ever
has produced, and will continue to, while it exists, a vast
amount of hidden concubinage. The religious restraints and
expenses of marriage produce more that is open, while the
general laxity of public opinion tolerates corrupt unions that
in England and the United States would bring upon the of
fenders the penalties of law and expulsion from society. Pos
sibly there are fewer public prbstitutes in strictly Roman
Catholic 'towns than in Protestant, but as an offset, the morals
of their women are looser, and afford wider scope for intrigue,
so that licentiousness is not concentrated, as in general with
us, to a class of degraded females; and reduced to the baser
condition of traffic. Our streets,'tob, are freed from a nuisance
which no traveler escapes from in Italy. Pimps dog his steps
every where, and though he may escape the sight of loose
women, he is constantly haunted by the obscene importunities
of their beastly male agents.
Intoxication is rarer, because strong liquors are nqf. so avail
able. There is, however, more general drinking, and perhaps,
in the mass, more aggregate vice and misery from this cause
than in America. In Italy all drink ; teetotalism is unknown.
If we possess a confirmed race of drunkards, they do not un
derstand the principle of temperance ; so that while they fail

336

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

to show as many repulsive specimens of this vice as we, they
exhibit more general misery and degradation.

AN ITALIAN WINE-SHOP.

The average morality of the Italian races, in other respects,
I consider as beneath the American. Why is it that the lower
story of every house and palace is fortified by iron gratings
and massive doors, so as to resemble more a prison than pri-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 337
vate dwellings, if it be not from the general sense of insecurity
to property ? Petty dishonesty, pilferings, and what may be
comprehended under the general term of knavery, extend to
degrees of society whose social position would apparently place
them above all risk of taint. The servility which panders to
vice and clutches at gain, through igno*iiny or disregard of
self-respect, is painfully apparent. Female servants kiss the
hands of their masters, and obsequiousness is the chief recom
mendation in domestics. There is much kindly feeling in the
relation of servant and master in Italy, it is true, to the credit
of both parties ; but the gulf between the two is an impassa
ble one — its boundaries are those of perpetual caste.
Italians are not educated up to the Protestant standard of
truth and honor. As beggary with the lower classes carries
with it no shame, so falsehood among the higher would not be
deemed a vice. The multiplicity of newspapers in the United
States prevents any crime from being long hid. Every thing
which in any way interests the public is spread before it, from
one extremity of the Union to the other, with the rapidity of
thought. In consequence, all our evil deeds are dragged to
light, and every day develops, as it were, some new crime.
At the first glance it would appear as if we were a peculiarly
criminal race ; but when we consider that the newspapers re
flect as a looking-glass the moral condition of a population of
twenty-five millions, our surprise is rather at the paucity than
the extent of crime. Italy presents nothing of the kind. Its
population is not one of readers. Journals are small, scarce,
and restricted to only what jealous governments permift to be
known. They are but an indifferent clew to the moral con
dition of Italians. Crimes may be common or rare, and noth
ing be heard of them away from their immediate circle. Still,
I do not believe that the Italians are given to the cold-blooded
atrocities which figure not unfrequently in the criminal calen-
P

338. ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

dars of England and America. At all events, we rarely hear
of coolly-planned murders for the sake of booty ; and yet brig
ands and assassinations figure largely in Italian tales. The
Italian kills in warm blood, or in his profession of a "bravo."
He uses his: knife, particularly the Roman, as an Anglo-Saxon
does his'fists. It is his national weapon, and the idea of cour
age is particularly connected With a prompt thrust in revenge

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 339
of real or fancied wrong. The Italian is like the Indian in re
spect to his mode of retribution. He seeks it in the way in
which he himself is safest ; and what Northern minds would
consider as base and cowardly, he considers as courageous and
justifiable. All who have read the appeals of Mazzini to his
countrymen will not fail to perceive that he relies chiefly on
treachery and assassination — a wholesale repetition of the Si
cilian vespers — to bring about a revolution. The criminal sta
tistics of Rome would show that he does not appeal to their
skill in the use of their national weapon without reason.
During the last century, the average of murders in Rome,
with a population of ohe hundred and fifty thousand souls,
was five or six a day, and on one occasion fourteen. While
occupied by the French, there were in a single day one hund
red and twenty assassinations; and as late as 1828 they av
eraged one daily. A chapel of the Madonna in the church
of the Augustins is hung about with knives, dirks, and other
murderous instruments, suspended there by their owners, at
the order of their confessor, as a condition of absolution and
evidence of pardon of their crimes.
The streets of Rome are not safe at the later hours of night,
even now, for any one who has aught about him to tempt the
cupidity of its highwaymen. Roman friends of mine are ac
customed to place their watches in their boots when out late
at night. Every housekeeper will tell you the risks they run
in not keeping the strictest watch over their premises ; and
a|iy one's experience in visiting Italian families will convince
him that they have more confidence in their portcullis doors
*and massive gratings than in either the honesty of their coun
trymen or the guardianship of the police. It is customary,
when a visitor calls, to reconnoitre, either through a loop-hole
or an upper window, so as to ascertain his quality and busi
ness before withdrawing the bolt. Fear and suspicion are

340 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
manifested to great extent in the domestic arrangements of
Italians, and with reason, for in no country is there more sym
pathy felt for the bandit. As he protects the poor, he is con
sidered more as their champion than a criminal. The ranks
of highwaymen are often recruited from the disaffected toward
the government, whose oppressions force them, as it were, into
open hostility. Hence they partake in part of the character
of patriots; and, even with the aid of French and Austrian
troops, Italy finds it no easy task to keep her roads and cities
safe for the traveler. Judge, then, what would be the condi
tion of the country were its five hundred thousand bayonets
reduced to the number that compose the army of the United
States !
The chiefs ofthe Roman brigands, from their audacity and
the" extent of their crimes, have ranked with the vulgar as he
roes. The Roman government, unable to cope with them,
has, after they had glutted themselves with plunder, pardoned
and pensioned them to keep the peace.
One of the most noted was Gasparone, who began his ca
reer by killing his confessor for refusing to absolve him for a
robbery^ Yet so scrupulous was he in the performance of
those religious rites that ignorant Romanism substitutes for
spiritual worship, that he acquired with the country people a
reputation for sanctity, particularly for his devotion to Saint
Anthony, and his careful abstinence from murders on Sundays
and Church festivals.
Another, Gobertino by name, killed during his career, wit!
his own, hand, nine hundred and sixty-four adults and six in
fants ; regretting only on his death-bed that he had not been
able to make up the number to a thousand. Aronzo Albagna
massacred his entire family, including his father, mother, two
brothers, and sister. America and England may contain crim
inals capable of rivaling these exploits, but it is certain that

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 311

the opportunity never would be allowed them. It is rare in
either country that a villain gets beyond his first great crime.
My object in presenting this unfavorable summary of Italian
character is to show to what extent, in comparison with Prot
estantism, I consider Romanism to be responsible for it, both
for what it has actually done and what it has failed to do. If
such are the results where Romanism is supreme, are not
other nations in which it seeks to find sway warranted in

342 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
viewing it, both in a political and moral sense, with a jealous
eye 1 If there be in the institutions of Protestant countries
any superiority over those of Roman Catholic, it is owing to
the purer faith, greater knowledge, and more elevated view of
human rights which they have developed. Protestantism is
progressive. It looks both to the temporal and eternal wel
fare of the individual. What it claims for itself it allows to
others, asking deference only to civil law, while creeds are left
intact. It seeks to convert the understanding, and not to ter
rify the nerves and lull them into a false repose.
Romanism, on the contrary, is the opposite of all this. She
forbids liberty of speech and freedom of the press. She re
fuses the appeal to the Bible. Intolerance is her constant
principle. By one weapon or another, by being all things to
all men, by persuasion when possible, by force when she has
the power, she seeks to bind all nations to her spiritual des
potism. Romanism and republicanism are antagonistic pow
ers. When together, one or the other must succumb. Inthe
United States, thus far, Protestantism has succeeded in ex
tracting the sting from her enemy. There are only two pow
ers equal to cope with her : democracy on the one hand,
strong in its own rights, and enlightened as to its true mission
to elevate mankind by the gradual spread of liberty sanctified
by religion and knowledge ; on the other, a despotism capable
of controlling elements as powerful as its own. In England
and America it is kept within restricted limits by the superior
power of an enlightened public opinion. In France it has
again become restless and aggressive ; not content with equal
ity, it seeks supremacy. Whether the infidelity of France will
be able to retain the toleration it has permitted to all sects in
the contest with the subtleties and fanaticism of popery, re
mains to be seen. The policy for Romanism is to demand for
itself all that it refuses to another : the golden rule has no

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 343
place in its creed. Protestantism asks nothing more than that
all sects should be placed on an equal basis, and left to find
their way to the hearts of men through the paths of knowl
edge and truth. In doing this, she disarms herself of weapons
that Romanism unscrupulously uses to her injury. They do not
meet on equal terms except on Protestant grounds. When the
Pope rules, the tongue is tied and the limbs fettered if they do
not acknowledge his supremacy. It is a mistake to suppose
that the attacks of popery are confined to Protestant countries.
Her power has been checked repeatedly by Catholic princes,
and equally against them she wages endless war on every
point that crosses her selfish interests. Venice was free and
powerful while she was tolerant and uncompromising to the
demands of Rome ; Florence populous and prosperous until
her rulers became priests and her interests confided to Rome.
All free communities that have trusted to her for salvation
have fallen by her arts. There is no hope for Italy while
popery exists as a dominant creed. It opposes an insurmount
able barrier to freedom and knowledge. None are more pain
fully convinced of this than enlightened Italians themselves.
Piedmont is now a rising state, but every step of her progress
is one of contest with the Pope. In Spain, popery refuses a
Christian burial to a Protestant. In Germany and France she
calls marriages concubinage when not sanctified before her
altars with gifts to her priests. But I have already pursued
this topic sufficiently far to bear my witness against the giant
cause of the darkness and ignorance that overspread so large
a portion of our globe.
One topic which enlists the sympathies of liberty every
where still remains. Will Italy ever become a united, free
country, or must she ever remain, in the words of Metternich,
merely a geographical idea 1 Nature evidently intended her
for a unity. This, however, has never been accomplished.

344 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Rome founded her dominion over isolated cities and kingdoms ;
she melted them in the crucible of her power, but did hot cast
them out a united state. Romans, not Italians, ruled the
world. When Rome fell, Italy resumed her previous condi
tion of rival communities engaged in ceaseless contests. Com
merce and war developed wealth and energy. Italy became
great from"the genius and arts of her hostile sons. She con
tained within herself all the elements of the first power on
earth but union. Her commercial cities were each worth the
ransom of kingdoms. They conquered territories and spread
their power abroad, while neglecting to insure it at home.
All paid homage to Rome as their spiritual head. Then was
the time for a patriot Pope to have healed their dissensions
and united them as one people. But no ! The Popes were
alive only to the extension of their own petty temporal sover
eignties. They esteemed it a higher honor to rule over a few
cities, wasted with fire and sword at their command, than to
be the saviors of Italy. To this end they sowed fresh dissen
sions; they repeatedly leagued with transalpine enemies; they
exterminated liberty, and finally became the chief among the
many sad causes which have contributed to make Italy what
we now find her — the mere foot-ball of European policy.
Besides popery, Italy is held down by twofold bonds. First,
the policy of France and Austria is to prevent a rival power,
such as she would be if free and united; from holding a rank
on the shores of the Mediterranean. Secondly, and by far the
greater obstacle, is the spirit of disunion among her own sons.
So long have they been accustomed to look upon cities as coun
tries, that each citizen considers his neighbor of another city
as a stranger — their country is embraced within the limits of
their city walls. The bitter recollections of former feuds and
rivalries are still active. Venice hates Milan — Leghorn, Flor
ence — Pisa both ; in short, the nearer are towns, the more cor-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 345
dial is the hatred that exists between them. Patriotism is
purely local. During 1848, the Livornese wished to plunder
Florence, and would have preferred turning their arms against
their countrymen rather than against their common enemy.
The little, poverty-struck Lucca, now merged into Tuscany,
mourns its court, and resents as an injury its absorption into a
greater and more powerful state. The feeling between the
numerous states into which Italy is divided is far more cordial
than between the cities of each state. Genoa is restless under
the sway of Piedmont, and exalts in her imagination the de
parted glories of the Ligurian Republic. Venice dreams still
of her old doges, and the power and commerce that have for
ever forsaken her wave-washed palaces. The peasantry of
Lombardy prefer Austrian rule to Italian, and fired upon the
patriots in 1848 who marched to their relief. Those of Tus
cany cling likewise to their bondage. They say, We would
rather have one " padrone" than many. The Grand Duke has
a right to be our master, because his family have always ruled
us ; so we had rather have him than new masters. The un
lettered Italian mind has no conception of political liberty. It
is a condition it never dreamed of. Despotism may be cre
ated in an hour, but republicanism is of slow growth. Those
who hope to regenerate Italy in a day are putting faith in
dreams. Is there, then, no hope of Italy ? Many shrewd observers
say no. I differ from them. True, I believe that the vices
of Italy are as "great as I have represented them to be. But
there is also, in her varied population, as much innate talent,
genius, and natural goodness of heart as exists in any country.
Even more ; for nowhere else, unless among the Greek races,
do we find greater intellectual vitality, if I may so term it, and
sensitiveness to the purely sensuous enjoyments of nature.
Romanism has indeed wilted all that it has touched, but the

346 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES,
germ still exists. Remove the causes, and the evils will dis
appear. In the simple-hearted inhabitants that people her
mountain valleys she has resources of mind and soul that need
but the talisman of cultivation to flood with new life her cities
and her fields. Her towns still shelter learning, science, and
virtue. Her industry is indeed crushed, and her commerce an
nihilated ; but the same race that once won the markets ofthe
world still exist, emulous of the fame of their fathers. New
Savonarolas, Michael Angelos, and Rienzis will arise. The
race of great hearts and lofty minds is not extinct* We say
that nations die out. Is it so ? A name may die out, but hu
manity never. It is a common saying that the races of Eu
rope are in their decline, as if races of human beings, by a
physical law, arose to a certain climax, and then degenerated
to mere brutes again. If this theory were true, what creates
the greatness ofthe United States, for Americans are but trans
planted Europeans ? In America the citizen creates the gov
ernment, in Europe the government creates the subject. This
simple fact explains the gulf between them. The European
thrives just in proportion as his government permits. The
Italians are but what their rulers have made them. Change
their rulers, and there is hope. Unfetter the mind, and it will
develop new channels of thought and enterprise. Mental stag
nation was never intended by Providence as the condition of
beings created in his own image. I willnot theorize as to the
immediate agencies by which Italy can be united and regen
erated, for that concerns more particularly her own sons ; but
that she can be, and through her own instrumentality, aided
by the sympathy and experience of other nations who have
passed through their agony of travail, I both firmly believe and
devoutly hope.

CHAPTER XII.

ROME THAT WAS AND IS.

In no city is the gulf between the Past and Present so
wide as in Rome. With this name, associations swell high
and strong in the voyager, as, launched upon the wilderness of
the Campagna, he slowly traverses its solitudes, with St. Pe
ter's dome as a colossal beacon in the mid-heavens, to direct
his eyes toward the site, not of the Rome of to-day,, but of the
spectre of the past, which, despite reason, will haunt his im
agination. The Campagna is a befitting frame, not to his men
tal picture, but to the moral reality which awaits his eyes in
the city of the popes as inheritors of the city of the Csesars.
From whichsoever side we approach Rome, the same treeless,
broken, dark soil, naked, hills, and wasted country meet the
view. Villages there are none. Broken masses of ruins,
shapeless and nameless, rise at intervals over its surface like
surge-worn rocks on wintry shores. Deserted, tottering tow
ers, Once the abode of mediaeval violence, in ghost-like rigidity,
cast melancholy shadows over the plain. Long lines of spec
tral fences lose themselves in the horizon. Far above them,
majestic, sad, and lonely, here in solitary arches, there linked
in stone embrace, continuous lines disappearing in perspective
threads, the imperial aqueducts lift their graceful forms.
Broken-masses of light, fringed by stone-cast shadows, stream
through the tall archways like rays of olden thought, or as
though eternity opened its eyes upon time. Along their di
minishing lines the sight wanders on until lost in space. By

348 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
them alone the view escapes from their bed of desolation to
the distant, island-like hills, smiling with life and crowned
with verdure, where towns and villas, sparkling with opal
tints as the sun flashes upon their white walls, heighten even
more by contrast the sterility of the Campagna.
In the natural wildness of prairie-land there are a sweetness
and freshness in the breath of nature that rejoices the blood.
Its virtues are simple, sincere, and soul-speaking. Green
space beneath, besprinkled with a gem-like wild Flora, a ho
rizon set with the dense vegetation of virgin forests, and the
pearly expanse of the clear sky above, make up a landscape
smile that none but a bad heart can look upon with a cold
eye. Not so the Roman Campagna ! Here Nature has lost
her purity. The landscape is withered and shrunken by age
and crime. Every trace of innocent beauty and primitive vigor
has been uprooted. Instead of rejoicing the inner life and
tempting the natural man to sport upon its surface, and to es
say its productive energies for his profit, it repels by a coun
tenance furrowed with selfish thought, and an anatomy racked
by pain and exhausted by futile effort. The curse of Cain lies
upon its unwholesome bosom. None but the Roman Bedouin,
the disease-stricken husbandman, or the skin-clad shepherd
cleave to it. Poverty binds them with fetters, unloosed except
by the angel of death, to their heavy tasks and scanty harvests
upon its poisoned soil. Such evidences of life as it yields are
but witnesses to its desolation. Stunted trees, repulsive shrubs,
fever-breeding streams, pools reeking with sulphurous smells,
rain-plowed ravines, bald hills, and verdure-stripped plains,
over which fly startled game, and on which ruminate melan
choly sheep and fierce cattle, with here and there a patri
archal tree, branch-torn and all but leafless, emblematic of
man struggling against misery — these are the external features
ofthe Campagna. Across it in various directions, Hke shrunk-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 349
en veins, wind the dreary roads that connect Rome with the
civilized world, imparting to her, however, but a faint current
of life. It is all she has. Were that stream withdrawn, Rome
and the Campagna would soon become one common home for
the fox and wild-fowl. The natural atmosphere of both is
death, moral and physical. And yet at times there pours over
the Campagna from the setting sun a golden, purple light, that
vails it with a beauty more of heaven than earth, as if to show
that hope never deserts nature. Even the Campagna can re
pent and be saved. Once human vitality gave it animation
and joy ; nature clad it in gay colors, and verdant robes ; it
was populous, civilized, and redeemed by industry. The sites
of cities and villas proclaim its former wealth. Antiquity,
therefore, found it a smiling wilderness. Modern enterprise in
vain tries its restoration. The luxurious villa soon becomes a
damp and repulsive ruin.. Farms, if any, exhibit the misery
ofthe husbandman and not the richness of the soil. Despair,
disease, and poverty brood over the scene. The Campagna is
now a fit setting for modern Rome ; an expanse over which
the eye moodily broods as it recalls the past, or hurriedly
glances as it gladly escapes to the hilly country beyond — its
use a game-ground or field for puerile fox-hunts by English
Nimrods and Roman imitators, whose horses quake at far less
er gulfs than that into which their ancestral Curtius so heroic
ally plunged. But repentance to the Campagna will never be
born of a Roman hierarchy. The ecclesiastical cancer has
eaten too deep into humanity for other cure than amputation.
The same scope and vigor of enterprise that once peopled; the
Campagna can alone redeem it. But " physician heal thyself"
can never be hoped of priest-throttled Rome. As is the Cam
pagna to the natural eye, so is the spiritual welfare of every
country overshadowed by this church colossus. Man and na
ture are redeemed only in the degree they escape its bondage.

350 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
The character of a city may be read in its environs. See
how the exuberance ofthe domestic- life of London escapes
into suburban homes, rays of wealth, taste, and joy from the
great sun of commercial civilization ! Paris, too, brilliant and
buoyant with life to its uttermost circulation ; Dresden, a dark
gem in a light setting ; Vienna, a grand dime in full toilet,
surrounded by a stately progeny of her own bone and blood ;
New York, a focus of enterprise and riches, giving birth year
ly to rival cities ; Boston, queen-like, with her train embroid
ered with towns and villages, the whole scene the fairest edi
tion of pictorial Christianity, wedded to knowledge and pros
perity, the world has yet issued. In these and kindred towns
we have but to glance at the exterior to detect the healthful
beat of the public heart, sending life-giving streams in every
direction. We approach these great central organizations
through avenues of life. Not so with Rome ! The path to
her lies over the plain of death. What the sluggish and mud
dy lagoons of Venice, when drained by the tide, festering in
the hot sun, and traversed only by snake-like channels, in the
beds of which squirm slimy eels amid tangled sea-weed, are
to that city, the Campagna is to Rome. But the ocean daily
bathes Venice with its waters, and proffers its tribute, as of
old, to its grateful mistress. An artery of modernism, the rail
road, saved her from utter desolation. Rome is an isolated
wreck amid the sea of the Campagna, clinging convulsively to
the rock on which she foundered.
What is the rock on which she has twice shipwrecked her
fortunes ? Absolute power ! In asserting universal dominion,
she has lost the power of self-preservation. As in her impe
rial dotage she became the spoil and contempt of barbarians,
so now, in her ecclesiastical decrepitude, she is the beggar of
Christendom, whining where she dare not threaten, her pride
equaled only by her poverty. , '-"**

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES, 351
The physical aspect of modern Rome, especially as seen
from the Pincian, is noble. Its sea of roofs is broken by an
archipelago of domes, on the right of which rises St. Peter's,
the leviathan of them all, giving to the city a grand atmo
spherical outline, in keeping with the stateliness of the neigh
boring hills. Against the horizon spectral pines stand stiff
and solemn. Toward the west, where the Tiber escapes from
broken walls and ruined arches, the Campagna, in great swells
of earth, rolls onward until it loses itself under the waves of
the Mediterranean. The eye instinctively follows the path of
the setting sun in its journey through space, luxuriating in the
golden robe of many colors with which it mantles the Eternal
City, as if, in giving it a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem, it
bade it repent and wear that garment of glory forever.
Modern Rome is born ofthe Church. I will not penetrate
beyond the skin to show its constitution. Such life, cleanli
ness, and comfort as it possesses have been forced upon it by
the exigencies of pilgrims to its shrines of arts rather than to
its altars. Real Rome is dirty, comfortless, and torpid ; the
home of beggars, indolence, and superstition. This is the true
city of the Church ; the city of the travelers is another work.
Withdraw them, and.you have the city ofthe popes — a carcass
picked by ravens. The scavenger-birds are sleek and lively,
but they thrive upon the flesh of their victims. True, there
are palaces, museums, and churches ; hospitals and alms
houses ; colleges and libraries ; treasures of knowledge and
miracles of art ; mighty souvenirs of intellect, wealth, pride,
and devotion. The spoils of Imperial Rome are the livelihood
of Papal Rome. But the Church takes no real delight in these
things. Her heart is with her mouldy bones ; her holy anat
omies ;, fragments of saints;, ghastly elbow-joints and sepul
chral curls ; Christ's cradles, Virgin's petticoats, rusty iron
from martyrs' crosses ; drops of blood that defy time to coag-

352 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
ulate ; Passover tables ; holy stairways ; columns sanctified
by the suffering of the Savior, handkerchiefs by his bloody
sweat; the toys of an age of darkness metamorphosed into the
idols of an age of light ; bambinos, holy dolls, tawdry and be-
jeweled, so hideous in their ugliness that an infant would
start from them in affright, yet daily slobbered over with sin
ners' kisses to win the papal paradise, and made richer than
any Croesus through superstitious hope to escape hell by buy
ing heaven ; heathen idols transformed into modern gods, be
fore whom more prayers are said than rise to Heaven from all
the closets of Christendom — such are the real treasures of mod
ern Rome. Her soul is in them. She prefers the millinery
and acting of her ritual, the multiplication of her holidays, the
robing of her priests and the tawdry decoration of her altars,
the propagation of a new dogma and the discovery of a new
relic, to all that science, art, and progress are doing elsewhere
for humanity.
In 1854, this century of so-called intelligence, the Holy Fa
ther, " with the aid ofthe Holy Ghost," as he claims, has add
ed to the Roman mythology a woman-god, " the most holy
Virgin Mary, Mother of God," to whom the faithful are to
pray. Despite the experience of Adam, the Roman Church
puts its trust in a woman, born of man. Can the imbecility
of dogmatism go farther ! The woman, of whom Christ said
at his first miracle, " Woman, what have I to do with thee ?"
I object not to softening the heart of man by elevating Mary
to the type of the perfect being of her sex, and thus making
her, by association, a humanizing element of religion ; but the
substitution ofthe Virgin as a direct object of worship in place
of God, as is the increasing practice of Romanism, is as posi
tive an act of idolatry as any for which Canaan was cursed.
The wheels of papal Christendom are turning backward. She
is in her dotage, and must give way, in her turn, to greater

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 353
light. Irr Rome alone can we see the full working of her
mind-destroying system. Elsewhere she is checked or mod
ified by civil institutions.
I have before me a circular, issued during Lent of this year
(1855), giving a list of English sermons to be preached in
Rome. At the bottom it reads, " The Holy Father has gra
ciously granted Seven Years' Indulgence to be gained by at
tending each one ofthe sermons, and a Plenary Indulgence
by attending them all, with the usual conditions annexed of
confession, holy communion, and praying for His intention,
the extirpation of all heresies, and the exaltation of Holy
Church." "These indulgences are applicable to the souls in
Purgatory." Such gibberish is gravely uttered by the spiritual head of
Christendom nearly two thousand years after the " Word was
made flesh," that it might be intelligible to mankind. What
hope has truth in the keeping of a hierarchy 1
Were the absurdities and inanities ofthe Roman ritual con
fined to Rome, one would pity and forget. But living in Rome,
and seeing it as the great heart from which, through the pow
erful arteries of superstition and faith, the great paralyzing
dogmas of papacy go forth to. stagnate the blood of Christen
dom, hanging like a black pall over intellectual progress, a
gloom shrouds the spirit and weighs upon the understanding.
Every where the spectre of this great lie lifts its head. No
feast is without the skeleton. Hence one weighty reason of
the moral depression that afflicts so many visitors at Rome.
They feel the effects without tracing the cause. Physical na
ture sympathizes, as we see in the Campagna, with the lack
of the vitality of truth, without which neither individual nor
nation can escape the curse of wasted talents.
The architecture of modern Rome, as a whole, is in keep
ing with its theology — either pompous, coldly rich, and incon-

354 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
gruously magnificent, as in St. Peter's and its sister churches,
or deformed, inconsistent, overloaded with inappropriate or
nament, made up of stolen classical wealth and debased mod
ern ornamentation, as in the general medley of styles of the
later churches. Externally, meagre or pretentious ; internally,
having widely departed from primitive simplicity and sincer
ity, it revels in tawdry decorations and theatrically contrived
effects, offensive to the cultivated eye, though dazzling, per
haps, to the rude imagination. Worship in Rome has been
resolved into external ceremonies, from which their ancient
significance has long since fled. The senses, and not the heart,
are attracted ; the passions, and not the intellect, are the levers
of papal power.
In domestic architecture there are but two types — the re-
naissant palatial, haughty and imposing, and the common,
poor, mean, and repulsive, yielding long, narrow, grimed
streets, the sham of civilization without the substance. These
two styles stare at each other in mutual hate, and both, with
few exceptions, have upon them a common deposit of ances
tral dirt, that tells of general poverty and untidiness
The Corso is an anomaly in Rome. It is a noble street — a
connecting link between Rome and modern civilization. There
are noble avenues stretching over its seven hills in all direc
tions, focusing the eye upon Egyptian obelisks, vast basilicas,
colossal statuary, and generous fountains. The series of ar
chitectural coups d'ceil are varied and wonderful. But the
city lacks in this respect individuality. Its external character
is not its own. As in antiquity a conquered world was pil
fered of its arts and wealth to adorn Rome, so in modern times,
Christendom for centuries has poured its tribute into her lap,
to recreate what the barbarians devastated. Imperial Rome
has proved an exhaustless- granary for papal Rome. The pres
ent city dates but little more than three centuries -back. It is

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 355
a medley of wilderness and crowded streets ; of buried and
disinterred ruins ; of mutilated or restored classical art, mon
uments, statues, bridges, temples, columns, severed aqueducts,
and forums — the wrecks of pagan empire transformed into tro
phies of Christian rule. That, however, most proudly shows
itself in the universal cross and keys of St. Peter, and in the
barbarous, preposterous, and grotesque variations which, born
ofthe Michael Angelique style, directed by monks, have made
the Church architecture of the modern city at once the most
pretending and the most abominable ofthe civilized world.
Of the domestic architecture of the city of the Caesars, ex
cept the palaces of the patricians, we have no relics. Con
fused piles of rubbish overgrown by vineyards, here and there
a broken shaft and mutilated capital peering through the soil,
alone mark the sites of the homes of the Roman populace.
Their houses were high, divided into floors as now, and in
size, distribution, and general appearance — except, perhaps,
some modern advantage in way of glazed windows, though
the Romans used glass for this purpose— no doubt they looked
then much the same as the common houses do now. Rude
doorways, rough pavements, narrow and dark passages, leg-
wearying stone staircases, windows pervious to every blast,
shutters sun-cracked and rickety, humble doors with the locks
of a Bastille, accumulations of dirt that bespeak long familiar
ity, festoons of washed linen hung to dry from front windows
— in fine, every thing which in manufacture and custom can be
condensed into the English sentence utter shiftlessness, are
the facts of a Roman household. With water in such abund
ance that, with the eyes shut, the play of fountains seems to
the senses a perpetual rain, yet no domestic interiors the world
over have probably so slight an acquaintance with that puri
fying element. Delicious water it is too, much too good to be
wasted on a dirt-loving population.

356 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
Roman habits remain as unchanged as their habitations.
Modern requirements have, to some extent, forced improve
ments upon Rome ; consequently, we have gas, paved streets,
good drains, and, as a whole, no doubt a more cleanly and con
venient city than Augustus could boast. Heliogabalus, on one
occasion, on a bet, collected in Rome ten thousand pounds of
cobwebs. He failed, however, in exterminating spiders, as
their works still show. Vespasian laid a tax on a certain
nameless public habit of the citizens in the streets, which ob
tains as freely to this day, though less in Rome than in Flor
ence, to the disgust of cleanly minds every where. Hopeless
of reforming their beastly customs, the Emperor sought to make
them subservient to the scavenger's work. The money raised
was employed in cleaning the streets of rotting carcasses, and
the bodies of those killed by lightning, or who had committed
suicide without just cause. These were left to rot in the pub
lic ways. Such sanitary facts are seldom put in conjunction
with the Golden House of Nero. Hence the imagination, no
doubt, often depresses new to the exaltation of old Rome,
whereas, in municipal cleanliness, the former has the ad
vantage. Between Constantine and Julius Second there is a wide gap
in the external history of Rome. The Cesars have stamped
their features indelibly upon the Seven Hills. We look in vain,
however, for the monuments of the mediaeval interval, that
age of violence, dissension, and ruin. A few Tuscan towers,
some restored mosaics and frescoes, relics of primitive churches
incorporated into hew, scattered bits of Lombard sculptures
and shafts to be traced in house walls in the Transtevere, the
so-called house of Rienzi, and two massive, dismantled brick
towers of the eleventh century, and we have all in Rome that
carries the mind into this deep gulf of time. Every other city
in Italy is alive with medieval associations. The buildings,

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 357
arts, and customs of that age still overshadow the present. In
Florence especially is this the oase. The homes of Dante,
Michael Angelo, and Galileo, the palaces of her Medician des
pots and her republican Gonfalonieri, the very roofs which
sheltered her Guelph and Ghibelline factions — in short, all that
gave character to Florence in this epoch, still remain to famil
iarize the present with the past. Every street has its tradi
tion. In Rome, no ! Rienzi's name is the sole link that as
sociates medieval history with a local habitation. Even this
is apocryphal. The names of Colonna, Orsini, Savelli, Mar-
celli, Maximi, and other historical reputations, live in Rome in
modern buildings and streets. They were the destroyers of
old Rome, leaving nothing behind them but the regret that
they ever existed. Consequently, at the present day, we must
see in Rome either the remains of the Imperial city, linking
our thoughts to associations of its universal empire, or the ec
clesiastical city, compounded of religious dogmas and classical
relics, arrogating to itself the spiritual guidance ofthe world.
Cosmopolitan in its claims, it is cosmopolitan in its making
up. Obelisks of Egypt ; statues of Phidias; master-pieces from
Greece ; precious works from all climes ; the noble arched
buildings of her own origin, mingled with the genius of Ra
phael, Michael Angelo, and Bramante ; the tasteless works of
Bernini ; Canova's superior art ; artists and designs from be
yond the Alps ; contributions from universal Christendom fused
together in the papal crucible, distinct and widely apart in
their elements, yet forming that solemn, strange, fascinating
whole we call Rome.
The " Niobe of nations" has played the chief part in the
history of civilization. Twice has she filled the role of prog
ress. Her ambition of universal political dominion brought
mankind into legally-constructed and governmental communi
ties, of which she was the heart. Men learned to be governed

358 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES".
by law after being subdued by the sword. Civilization, and
order followed her banners.: Unlike modern Rome, she did
not proselyte. Religions she left free, or received them into
her own prolific mythology. Thus she gave more than she
took. The ancient world was never more peaceful and pros
perous than when reposing beneath the shadow of Rome.
Her government and material civilization being superior to
others of that age, they succumbed ; but she depended too
much upon her material power, which was corrupt in princi
ple, sensual, and selfish. The imagination recalls only the in
domitable virtue of the republic, and the grandeur and civil
izing principles of the imperial sway. In Rome, therefore,
the mind, by the contrasting feebleness ofthe present govern
ment, its ragged magnificence, and futile claims to dominion,
is irresistibly thrown back to the great past, which looms up so
vast in the horizon of history. Mighty events, rather than
great souls, haunt the memory with their spectral shadows.
The Past lives while the Present swoons. Even the crimes
and spectacles ofthe old city, from their very scale,- become
attractive in contrast with the dwarfish efforts: of the modern.
It is difficult to sleep quietly where every stone has a tongue,
and the very air is peopled with the shapes of olden life, sin
cere and strong, in its contrasting lights of vice and virtue.
There is too much vitality of association for sensitive nerves.
This, joined to an atmospherical torpor, arising from pqisonous
exhalations, as well as the constant mental conflict between
reality and vision, the actual feebleness of papal rule in con
trast with its claims to infallibility, its acts warring with its
principles, produce an intellectual excitement in many minds
unfavorable to health. • Extremes meet in Rome. To some it
is a renewal of the lease of life ; while to others, every breath
they inhale savors of death. Two classes alone of strangers
can enjoy Rome. Artists who live only in their ideal world,

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 359
or visitors who turn Rome into a watering-place. Frivolity is
a wefed that thrives on every soil. One other race finds here
its natural atmosphere. In fact, it creates it. Priests have
made modern Rome. It is a labyrinth of churches, convents,
monasteries, and colleges, the clew to which is a feeble old
man, embalmed in ceremonies and swaddled in sacred robes.
Poor old Adamite ! the prisoner of Christendom — a mistaken
sacrifice to that " love which casteth out all fear !"
Rome filled her second rQle of progress when, in early Chris
tianity and the Middle Ages, society being ingulfed in the ma
terial wreck ofthe imperial sway, a strong arm was needed to
enforce strong principles, and unite mankind under one faith.
The Church fulfilled this mission. She spread Christianity
over Europe. By her system, it was done perhaps speedier
and more thoroughly than it could have been done by any oth
er. Papacy, therefore, has performed its mission. Selfish as
all human power has shown itself, it now says, " Perish prog
ress, spread idolatry, retrograde the world, but let me live the
Absolute !"
Papacy is still strong, because it allies itself to the selfish
passions and fears of mankind. Until the spirit is released
from external bondage, Rome will continue to be the night
mare on Progress.

CHAPTER XIII.
A DREAM OF VENICE.
Steam bore us whizzing along from Padua toward Venice.
It was near dusk: Without the cars, the rain poured in tor
rents. Within, cigar smoke poisoned still more the scanty
air, and stifled our breaths. Preferring a wetting to suffoca
tion, I opened a window and thrust my head into the damp
atmosphere. At the north lay the horizon boundary of the
Alps, looming up vast and mysterious in the distance, entirely
shrouded at times in purple mist ; then, as the rain gradually
ceased, rolling off its vaporous garments, and presenting its
craggy summits in all their solemn grandeur against the de
parting twilight. On either side lay canals and morasses,
water-filled and water-soaked to the brim. It was difficult to
reconcile the firm, elastic gliding of the cars with their appa
rently watery support. As we emerged from the last bound
ary which marked the termination of this amphibious soil,
and shot out, as it were, upon the clear lagoon, with its re
freshing salt breeze, the dash of ocean water before, behind,
and all around, while the narrow causeway over which we
slid was almost hidden from sight, it became even more diffi
cult to feel that we owed our progress to iron and stone.
Over our heads lay suspended a canopy of vapor. About our
faces blew the night wind. The sea moaned listlessly at our
feet. Just discernible in the rear lay the long, low,"sad coast
line. In front, toward which we were reaching with steam-
speed, as if we had suddenly been launched from substance

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 361
into space, rose dim tall forms, irregular opaque masses, inter
spersed with bright lights. As we drew near, they took hab
itable shape — high towers, massive domes, huge walls sleep
ing upon the water! There was an unreal sense in all this
that to the stranger gave the whole the idea of a phantom
ride and a phantom city. Nevertheless, it was Venice, in
fame and solidity unsurpassed by any sister town.
Each city in which Time has harvested rich associations
has a character as defined as that of the distinguished indi
vidual. Thought in relation to it becomes one. We speed to
its welcome as to that of an acquaintance, investing its mate
rial substance with ideas of mingled good and evil, lofty aspi
ration and base action — in short, the mingled virtues and vices
of its peculiar humanity. It becomes to us a great whole — the
Man city, that we wish to know in person, its past and pres
ent united and individualized.
The three cities which most powerfully appeal to the hu
man heart in this respect are Jerusalem, Rome, and Venice,
each the centre of ideas that have powerfully affected the hu
man race. Jerusalem lifts us toward heaven. In Rome we
see the civilizer and tyrant, the sepulchre of religion and free
dom, a nightmare among nations. Venice, the fallen queen
of commerce, that for a thousand years held the throne of the
seas. No other human marts can rival these in soul-emotions,
and stir within us more powerfully associative sympathies.
Pity it is that on approaching each, jarring notes are ever
struck upon the chord of our mental illusion, breaking the
magic harmony of the past by the vulgar necessities of the
present. Externally, at a distance and nigh to, no city more bravely
wears its crown of romance than Venice. Internally, nowhere
is the illusion of sovereignty more thoroughly dispelled. Yet
Venice, both from her site upon the waters and the associa-
Q,

362 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

tions of her name, still remains Venice, and will continue to
instruct and interest long after the last marble of her palaces
shall have sunk beneath their ocean beds.
The rudest shock to the imagination is received upon the
threshold of the city, at the station, an unromantic shed of a
building, into the farther offices of which the stranger is un
ceremoniously thrust, to be inspected by the police, and con
fronted with all the annoyances of the modern passport sys
tem, if possible made more diabolical from being Austrianized.
Having safely weathered this Scylla, his nose, eyes, and com
plexion being decided to be his own and no one's else, his
mission to Venice a legitimate one, the usual coins slid into
itching palms to prevent a worn coat being converted into mer
chandise contraband to a " free port," he is told to " step out,"
whereupon he finds himself upon Charybdis, in the shape of
a pigmy stone quay, surrounded by a rapacious crowd scream
ing, "Take an omnibus, sir?" Seizing upon him and his
baggage, he is bodily injected into a prosaic-looking boat, half
house, half skiff, which, to his amazement, he finds dubbed
" omnibus." Shades of the Doges, forgive them ! an omnibus
in Venice ! So it is, but it goes by paddles and human mus
cles, and, upon the whole, is not a bad contrivance for locomo
tion in dirty canals.
The night was dark, the rain had recommenced, the wind
was high, the waves as strong as scanty sea-room would permit,
when, confounded by the confusion of the mingled police and
custom-house examinations within, and blinded by the mist
and lights without, I found myself, with several ladies, shut
up, at ten o'clock at night, in an '' omnibus" on the Grand Ca
nal. There was neither room to sit upright nor to stretch
out. We were cramped into a sugar-box closed tight, and set
afloat on troubled waters. The omnibus rocked and bobbed
about, now scraping against a pier, now bumping against a

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 363
brother omnibus, the men shouting, the women-folks scream
ing "We shall be drowned!" and thus, amid darkness, noise,
and discomfort, after a half-hour's novel navigation, we found
ourselves suddenly arrested at .the steps of a grand mansion.
A large door was thrown open, the prow of the " omnibus''
was run over the threshold, the waves dashed in upon the
marble pavement, we sprang out, and found ourselves on the
water-floor of a " grand hotel." Up, up we mounted, a hundred
stone steps or more, over polished marble staircases, until we
were installed in the centre of the hotel life, under the eaves.
A room looking over the Grand Canal, toward the Lido, was
assigned to me. Huge, rickety wooden shutters protected the
interior from the outer air. I managed to throw one open.
Far beneath, the distance magnified by the darkness, I could
hear the waves swashing against the foundations of the pal
ace. Opposite and on either side, each building echoed to
similar sounds. An occasional light glanced over the fretful
waters, brightening their tiny crests. Above and about me,
the winds howled dismally through Gothic corridors and arched
window-ways, every rusty hinge creaking a harsh accompani
ment. A confused scene of rocking masts and tangled rigging,
sighing in the gale, lay before me. The wind came in salt
and angry from the ocean. Clouds swept by heavily and
hastily. The ladies had complained of feeling sea-sick in the-
" omnibus." I felt qualmish in the upper story ofthe massive
hotel, which seemed to sway with all the moving things about
it. There was a ship-feeling of unsteadiness to every thing,
or something worse, for it seemed as if we were far out to
sea, floating by uncertain magic, stone on water, destined by
the sudden return of Nature to her usual laws to be instanta
neously ingulfed. With such fancies I passed my first and
restless night at Venice, in doubtful and unrefreshing slumbers.
The morning, however, dawned brightly. Venice, with its

364 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
streets of water, busy with gondolas in the early sunlight, car
ried out the illusion of the previous night of a floating city,
but now nestling like a sea-bird quietly on the ocean. There
is an indescribable charm in the novelty, as it were, of living
on the bosom of so restless an element without seeing land, as
is the case in some positions, yet surrounded by all the secu
rity and comforts of the firm shore. The buildings, rising di
rectly from the water, seem to have no other foundation than
its treacherous surface ; hence the contrast between the solid
ity of the one resting upon the liquidity of the other, without
the intermediate agency of earth, to the. novice causes a sensa
tion of dreamy uncertainty, as if the whole scene was vision
ary rather than real. The common experiences of travelers
are all reversed. Consequently Venice, irrespective of its his
tory, merely from the peculiarity of its site and the general
varying of the perpendicular in its architectural lines, must
always retain a charm peculiarly its own.
This is increased by the absence of two of the common
nuisances ofthe shore. Here we have neither dust nor noise.
There is no difficulty in threading one's way on foot all over
Venice by means of its labyrinthine lanes, broken continually
by pigmy squares or piazzas, in the centre of which is usually
located a small reservoir, surmounted by elaborately-carved
well-tops in stone. These constantly remind one ofthe first
great necessity of a city built on the brine, viz., fresh water.
No animals intrude upon the streets of Venice. A citizen
may pass his lifetime among them, and never see horse or ox.
To him the commonest cattle of the farm-yard are as much a
curiosity as the elephant or leopard. He may, indeed, have
some conception of a lion from that of St. Mark's, which, in
paint and stone, stares at him every where from triumphal
columns and public walls. But the glorious standard of his
republic is now a mocking emblem, and he turns from it with

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 365
a tear in his eye and a curse on his lips. Should he conceive
of the real lion, he would doubtless imagine it with wings
like his own.
To me there is an unfailing source of pleasure in rambling
through the intricate streets of Venice. A city in which one
meets only the noiseless foot-passenger is something of itself.
No impudent hackmen or obstinate donkeys, as in other Ital
ian cities, disturb the serenity of one's contemplations. In
but few of the chief arteries is there ever any human press.
The pavements are scrupulously clean. Beggars are obsolete
under Austrian rule. No dust clouds the vision. Hoofs there
are none to clatter over the smooth stones. Opposite houses
almost meet at their eaves. There is an endless variety of
turns — sharp corners, suggestive of passages ending in blank,
impenetrable walls ; occasional bits of earth, scanty verdure,
or a few meagre flowers, exiles from the main land, water-
sustained and imprisoned in cold stone borders ; shops no
larger than American entries, with their contents most tempt
ingly thrust into the narrow streets ; every few steps, arched
bridges,,from the parapets of which you watch the silent, mel
ancholy gondola as it shoots underneath, its black blinds and
funereal curtains shutting out all view of its occupants. In
short, Venice is a creation by itself. Shut up amid its walls
and canals, one momentarily forgets the glad earth, reveling
in new emotions until their wearisome repletion recalls the
familiaT associations of nature's open skies and verdant fields.
A gondola and Venice are almost synonymous terms. Each
pictures the other. Neither admits of other associations. If
ever divided, both will lose their individuality, which, like
happy matrimony, is complete only by union. The first object
the stranger calls for is a gondola to conjure up his dream of
Venice. Fortunately, they are innumerable and cheap — less
than seventy-five cents per day for the best. For this sum, one

366 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
of these magic vehicles will attend you as closely as a shadow
from sunrise to midnight. Delicious is it- to lounge on their
luxurious cushions, shrouding one's self wholly from the world,
and, gliding over still waters with all the repose of a pleasing
dream, revel in sensuous ease. If your companion be one of
the dark-eyed, warm-hearted beauties of the sea-girt city or
Italy's burning soil, then the terrestrial enchantment is com
plete. Draw the curtains and throw open the blinds. It is
toward sunset in June. The Grand Canal swarms with gon
dolas filled with fair women, gallant men, and joyous chil
dren. They pass and repass with the silence and rapidity of
swallows, the gondoliers, now straining every muscle in effort
to outs'peed their rivals, then quietly and gracefully bending
their flexible forms to the propelling oar, sending their gondo
las as slowly and easily over the water's surface as clouds
float through a serene sky. Friendly nods, waving handker
chiefs, and meaning glances are exchanged, but there is no
levity even now in Venice. Seldom do its real sons and
daughters appear in public. They are a sad and impoverish
ed remnant of a race that won the rule of the waves. When
seen, they still maintain the serious yet benign dignity which
characterized their ancestors, sighing over the J?ast, and effort
less to know the Present.'
The graceful form of the gondola is rarely given by the art
ist. It floats swan-like on the water ; in appearance, though
not in reality, is as easily moved as if it had instincts and
powers of its own. Fair weather is its true element, for it
has no storm qualities. A worse sea-boat was never con
trived. Flat, long, low, and rising sharply from the water at
either end in serpent-like crests ; luxuriously carpeted, cush
ioned, and richly carved ; at once affording the most complete
privacy, or, with its top off, entire freedom of vision, it combines
in still water more advantages than any other mode of con-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 367
veyance. Unlike the row-boat, there is no jerking motion of
oars. Whether quick or slow, it invites repose and suggests
dreamy fancies, for which Venice affords ample food. Con
sequently, for the invalid or idler its effect is paradisiacal. The
gondolier being at the back, he is not seen. We glide, how
ever, with trout-like quiet and ease over the water, without
even the suggestion of labor to mar the soothing effect.
Formerly the gondolas were ornamented with various col
ors, rich gilding, and every decoration which could add to their
brilliancy and sumptuousness. Then the canals must have
glistened with opalescent tints, and the general effect been ex
ceedingly rich, especially as the national costumes, and even
the architecture, all showed the same fondness for deep and
rich coloring. Now the gondolas are all clothed in sombre
black. Were it not for their graceful forms and light motions,
they would be taken for water-hearses. As it is, their mourn
ful livery suggests mysterious fancies connected with the fate
ofthe republic, but the true reason, I believe, for their uniform
color arises from an old sumptuary decree of the state, which,
to check the extravagant expense lavished upon gondolas, or
dained the present equality in hue. General poverty and de
pression continue to enforce the obsolete law, so that we shall
probably never see a change in this respect, because, although
Venetians must continue to go, for ages to come as for a thou-
sandr*years back, to church and theatre, to their baptisms and
their burials, to their marriages and their lawsuits, to Opera
and office — in short, every where business, pleasure, or neces
sity call them, in gondolas, yet the soul of Venice has left its
body. There is nothing Venetian at heart. The real Venice
is dead — dead and buried in the irrevocable Past. That
which we now see is only the cast-off garment, here and there
betraying its original fashion, but disfigured with many a sad
rent and uncongenial repair. Modernism has set its practical

368 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
seal upon all that constituted its pride and glory. Picturesque
costumes have vanished before the Christian hat and trow-
sers. Old Jewdom, in its modern phase of homely, unpictur-
esque apparel, reigns triumphant over the quays of Venice.
A few Greeks and Turks, men from Africa or the Ionian Isles,
as yet refuse to bow down before modern unity in dress. Some
fishermen retain, with their manly forms and finely-bronzed
complexions, their red caps and colored sails, with quaint de
vices. But in general, the universal black hat and coat of
Christendom are fast triumphing over color and variety even
here, in their firm-set seat and richest expression, while the
wheels of steam froth its waters and send panic to the frail
gondolas. All is not lost, however. The architecture retains a por
tion of its adamantine hues, which time and the restorer still
respect. Jasper, porphyry, serpentine, those precious stones
which Venetians, in their love for their city and feeling for the
beautiful, so lavishly wrought into their palaces and churches
in harmonious combinations and deep meaning, still faintly
throw their shadows over the waters, which lovingly give back
their hues. Changed though thfr outer form may be, and weak
ened the force of man's works, yet the same warm sun, as it
sinks behind the far-off hills, bathes dome and tower in trem
bling purple mist, lighting up with golden brightness sea and
sky, while soft, vapory, variegated clouds, warm and tender,
brilliant with nature's loveliest hues, arch the heavens in al
most imperceptible gradation from their sinking source of beau
ty in the west. Toward this the eye wanders in an aerial per
spective, deeper and deeper into space, and finding no end save
as night slowly shrouds the glories that follow the sun in its
course to gladden other hearts. Nearer by, and lower down,
the long reaches of the great canals let the eye into shorter
perspectives ; shadowed water and palace reflecting ; soft

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 369
streams of hazy, twinkling brightness ; deep, luminous shad
ows, a mingled horizon of sea and city blending into each oth
er, and wrapped in one tender robe of twilight, harmonizing
with the hues of heaven's painting. Toward the Adriatic, tho
long, low line of the Lido lies like a thread upon the water.
Beyond, the setting sun glances upon white sails, that, ghost
like, seem to have no bodies, for the hulls ofthe vessels are cov
ered by the intervening land. Between the Lido and Venice
rise numerous sunlit islands, their white walls sparkling in
golden light, heightened by an occasional bit of deep green,
from the few trees that grow thereupon. But what words can
reflect that beautiful sheet of water between the Guideca and
the Ducal Palace, on which is mirrored all this loveliness ?
The summer's eve brings with it a goodly company of worship
ers, who repose in sensuous delight on its surface, spell-bound
by the enchantment. From many gondolas, music steals lov
ingly over the waters, caressing and caressed by the zephyr
that bears it harmoniously on its wings. The general silence
best proclaims the soothing romance ofthe scene. Occasional
ly a chorus of youthful voices breaks forcibly upon the ear in
some well-known Venetian strain, now rising loudly on the still
air, then dying away amid the intricacies of distant canals. The
lights from the Piazza San Marco, as night shuts in the scene,
come out brightly and joyfully in the distance. Towering far
above all other objects, dark, stern, and majestic, is the tower
of St. Mark's, the noblest beacon-pile reared by modern man.
Below it rise the clustered domes and forest of shafts of the
Cathedral ; a Christian thought in Oriental form and color ;
pregnant with the spoils of paganism, written all over with the
story of the new revelation — the world's creation and man's
redemption ; eternal and legible as enduring precious material
can make them ; the faith of Venice pictured for all time, and
gathered into one fantastic and yet glorious edifice, emblem-
0,2

5570 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
atic in the richness and variety of its decorations of all the
races of men, their artistic triumphs and their garnered knowl
edge, who are yet to come up to the new Jerusalem, and sit in
peace within its sanctuary; Who can tread the wave-like
mosaic floor of this venerable church, as it rises and falls like
the swell of the sea, and not feel that its foundations are in
deed laid upon the sands of the deep 1
" Jacomo, land me at the Piazzetta." " Yes, excellent sir."
I had been dreaming away an hour or more, indolently reclin
ing upon the cushions of my gondola, amid the above scene,
after my return from my usual plunge into the sea on the far
ther side ofthe Guideca. The prow ofthe gondola soon touch
ed the quay, and in another second I found myself wandering
among the throng. An Austrian band was playing in the
square. Thousands were promenading on its smooth and
clean pavements. It was brilliantly lighted. The cafes and
shops added greatly to the illumination. Groups of children,
ladies and their cavaliers, sat in front of each favorite cafe,
eating ices, chatting, and listening to strolling musicians. It
was a musical soiree in the open air to which all Venice was
free to come, yet none but well-bred and well-clad people
had gathered to the festival. Here they sat and walked, in
quiet enjoyment of the clear sky above and the enlivening
scene beneath, until late into the night. There is but one St.
Mark's Place in the world, and but one spectacle of complete
out-door domesticity, refined and sensuous, like this.
Venice existed as a state nearly fourteen hundred years.
The common associations with her name are those derived
through the poet and novelist. They are, unfortunately, con
nected chiefly with her vices and her crimes. We think of
Venice and the Bridge of Sighs — more of her damp dungeons
than her lovely palaces — her tortures than her festivals — her
crimes than her piety ; while, as we glide over her waters, our

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 371
eyes shudderingly turn from the bosom of that canal into which
no fisherman was allowed to cast his net from fear that dead
men might rise and tell tales. Venice to the popular mind
was a vast political inquisition, remorseless as the grave in
her state craft, and in her private life full of selfish luxury,
treachery, and prostitution. This was not the Venice of me
dieval ages. Had it been, the spoiler would have laid his
hand upon her long before. Her polity was not a perfect one.
It generated weaknesses. Wealth and pride, as they ever do,
cankered her heart. But for a thousand years her bones were
sound, while for centuries her strength was the bulwark of
Christendom. She had character ; a noble and vicious com
pound, it is true, but the mingled devotion and enterprise that
kept her for so long a period in the van of civilization leav
ened her whole system with faith and energy.
Catholic herself, she resisted the Popes as successfully as
she did the Turks. Devout, but not fanatic, the state, and not
the Church, ruled within her borders. She was as successful
in repelling the interdicts of the Roman pontiffs as in check
ing the spread of Mohammedanism. Unlike Spain, the Inqui
sition took not root in her soil. The free spirit of commerce
could ill brook such a nightmare upon its energies. Liberal
and just in her policy, Jew, Greek, and Gentile lived, traffick
ed, and worshiped in security beneath the shadow of her lion-
wings. While all Italy was convulsed with civil wars and
the dissensions of rival families, Venice always presented a
firm and united front to her enemies. Without and within,
she was ever a unity. Nobles and people have loved Venice
as no other country has been loved. The individual was
merged into the nation. From the time that the first settlers,
.flying before Alaric to the mother island of Tercello, saw in the
distance the sky reddened with the flames of their late homes
on the mainland, until Bonaparte deposed their last doge, the

372 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.

Venetians have ever been animated with a fanatic love of
country. Patriotism in them was a passion, narrowed to a
selfish policy, which sacrificed citizen or stranger alike to its
own end, governed at times wisely, but often misdirected, un
til, in contact with stronger selfishness, it fell shivered to the
ground like a thing of glass.
There must have been much that was true and lofty in the
soul of Venice to have preserved its independence during a
period which extends far beyond the existence of any modern
state. In the sixteenth century, we find her the residence of
the greatest artists. Emperors and kings, at a time when
Francis I. of France and Charles I. of Spain rivaled each other
in their patronage of art, and the Medici corrupted Italy in
lavish expenditure and bastard taste to the enrichment of art
ists, sought to win from Venice her noblest names. Like San-
sovino, they replied, that, having the happiness to live under a
republic, it would be folly to change for a monarchy. Her
patricians, unlike the ignorant nobility of the rest of Europe,
cultivated literature. Their doges, at once generals and ad
mirals away from Venice, on their return exchanged the sword
for the pen. Some, like Andrea Dandolo and Marco Fosca-
rini, became historians ; others, of the noble families of the
Carnaro, Justiniani, Morosini, Contarini, and Mocenigo, were
professors or simply librarians. All labored to instruct and
exalt Venice. It was owing to the profound respect shown to
art and literature by her noblest citizens, extending as it did
to all classes, that so many distinguished artists, few of whom
were born within her limits, were led to make their homes on
her congenial soil.
The cultivation of her intellect was therefore one source of
her long and refined existence. Among others, in her policy,
must not be overlooked her jealous resistance to the spiritual
and temporal encroachment of Rome. Her clergy were sub-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 373
ordinate to the state. Churchmen were not only excluded
from the Grand Council, but were declared ineligible to civil
employments. In 1434, even the relatives of priests were pro
hibited from the post of embassador at Rome. When eccle
siastical matters were discussed in the national councils, all
those members whose votes were liable to be influenced by the
ties of blood were expelled. Unlike other countries at that
epoch — the fifteenth century — a priest guilty of infraction of
the civil law was amenable to the police, without reference to
the tribunals ofthe Church. In 1484, a clergyman assaulted
a clothier with a drawn weapon. He was taken immediately
and hanged. This fact shows the severity and impartiality of
their law.
To avoid all pretense of Rome to intervene in their political
affairs, the Venetians respected scrupulously her religious dog
mas. They took no part in the heresies, councils, or religious
wars ofthe tirries. They were no less inflexible in preserving
their system of toleration. By commerce they lived and pros
pered. No illiberal doctrines were allowed to check the pros
perity of trade. All sects were permitted their houses of wor
ship. Even burial in churches was not refused to heretics.
With all this latitude, so unusual at that age, Venice preserved
her reputation for the purity of her faith. "We axe first Ve
netians, then Christians." This was her maxim, indicative of
her unalterable resolution that no partial or foreign policy
should interfere with the sovereignty of the state.
The Jesuits, in particular, were objects of suspicion. No
one of that order could remain in Venice more than three
years. The slightest disobedience to the authority of the
government was punished by imprisonment. Noble families
were not allowed to have their children educated at their col
leges. No Venetian could enter their order unless by the
sanction of the government. It was forbidden to will them

374 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
property. Such were some of the jealous safeguards with
which the state fortified itself against a foe as insidious,. im
placable, cold, secret, and selfish as its own policy, but more
deadly, because joined to a hydra-headed versatility of princi
ple, which made its professed friendship more to be dreaded
than its open enmity.
The governing spring of Venetian policy was her commer
cial interest. With her it was a restricted, purely selfish in
terest, looking only to her own aggrandizement, at whatever
expense of blood and prosperity to other nations. She did
not comprehend the wider maxims of modern civilization,
which see in general peace and prosperity the firmest founda
tions for individual success. On the contrary, she sought to
rise on the ruin rather than the competition and consequent
enlargement of the fields of commerce foreign to her own
channels of traffic. She brooked no rival. Insults to her
honor might be overlooked, but peril to her trade, never. Her
aspiration was to be the commercial heart of the world. The
policy which gave her tolerance in religion, a firm protective
government, encouragement to art and science, attracting with
in herself talent, capital, and enterprise, was wise and success
ful. But, inasmuch as she resorted to fraud and violence
without, sacrificing great truths to special interests, estimating
conquests only by the spirit of the ledger, their justice gradu
ated only by their facility, Venice in time corrupted herself.
From being the prey of her own avarice and wantonness, she
passed into the sordid embraces of the Northern stranger, who
coveted even the remains of a beauty he could never hope to
rival. This was a legitimate end for a nation that trafficked
its piety, exacting from united Europe the highest price for its
aid against the infidel, and finally broke faith and betrayed
religion for selfish gain.
The taint that pervaded the commercial veins of Venice

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 375
was a necessary consequence of her unscrupulous devotion to
Mammon. But throughout her history, especially in the first
thousand years, and particularly when moral worth and tried
talent were the choice of the people to their highest offices,
we find repeated and continued evidences of individual and
national nobility of feeling. There was a sound current in
her blood, that repeatedly brought her back to healthful action.
If it could not save Venice in the final turmoil of nations, it
constantly exalted her career, giving her power and might,
glorifying her existence even amid much error and abase
ment. Her saving grace arose from her piety. Founded in
disaster, nursed in warfare, passing rapidly from the greatest
reverses to the loftiest triumphs, the national feeling has ever
been devotional. Even when the rest of Italy was far gone
in infidelity, Venice maintained an external religious decorum,
which preserved her nationality intact, and sustained her rep
utation to the very verge of her final fall. National policy
subjected private piety to worldly ends, but the latter gave
strength and vigor to the former from its own fount of sincer
ity and enthusiasm. Virtue may often be misapplied, but its
own strength of lofty motive ever remains the same. Hence
selfishness is never more powerful and dangerous than when
it blinds religion to aid its designs. Occasionally we find,
from its inherent strength and purity, that it subjects its tyrant
and becomes the guide, trampling upon temporary expediency
and short-sighted state-craft. At such times the whole body
politic becomes inoculated with new life. The habit of con
fessing God in all the transactions of life, begun in sincerity,
and continued in serious and simple familiarity, feeling that
there is a " Father in heaven" whose name is ever to be hal
lowed in thought and action, has an important influence upon
human character. To this may be traced much ofthe dignity
and heroism of the Venetian mind, coupled with serenity and

376 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
energy of will, even when unworthily employed. Its fullness
was commensurate with the greatness of Venice, and its de
cline with her gradual and complete degradation, the more
conspicuous from her previous nobility, as the grossest corrup
tion proceeds from the richest soils. The same sun of right
eousness flowed in upon her mind, but it was no longer hum
ble or sincere ; instead, there were festering selfishness and
cankering avarice ; the heart that would have warmed humil
ity and sincerity into divine life and wisdom turned selfish
ness and avarice into putrefaction. Religion in Venice be
came mere formalism more slowly than elsewhere, owing to
the innate vigor and warmth ofthe national mind. At pres
ent, her piety, as her beauty, is but the shade of her former
self. The shallow lagoons, with their dull gray surface and
grassy bottoms, the habitations of slimy eels, truly reflect the
fallen image of that city, whose throne in ivory, gold, and pre
cious stones shone for ten centuries over the waters of the
Mediterranean, and whose flag so often triumphantly upheld
the Cross before the Crescent. Even the Turks were not in
sensible to the nobility of Venetian character in their most in
defatigable foe. Upon learning the death of Luigi Mocenigo,
they spontaneously put on mourning, draped their galleys in
black, and caused them to pass with respectful homage before
the place of his burial.
At Windsor Castle we see the portraits of England's distin
guished men appareled in gaudy cloth, covered with gilt and
precious stones, the trappings of power, pride of state, and
haughty self-consciousness of rank legible in ever}' touch of
the brush ; brave men, no doubt, strong in their own intel
lect, but, like Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold, set up to be
worshiped by the soulless throng. What have we in Venice 1
Wre see her great men, doges and generals, pictured in all the
vitality of existence by the pencils of Bellini, Titian, and Tin-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 377
toretto, not in the paraphernalia of external power, but in their
dignified costumes, serious and devout in mien, humbly kneel
ing before the images of their faith, the divine Mother and
Son, to whom they offer their crowns of success, indicative of
their trust in and homage to that Being who alone creates and
casts down, exalts and abases. This feeling is consistent with
the devotion of that doge who was carried in his dying hour
to the foot of the altar of St. Mark's, saying with his departing
breath, " Into thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit and the
.republic." So also Lorenzo Priuli, elected doge at a moment
when his country was suffering from the threefold plague of
war, pestilence, and famine, commenced his inaugural address
with the devout ejaculation, " Even though I walk in the val
ley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, because thou
art with me."
A prolific source of greatness to Venice lay in wise incorpo
ration of other natural elements of industry and strength into
her own system. She continually reinvigorated her own blood
by fresh streams from without. This was owing to the liberal
tone of commerce, which ever seeks for itself the best, irre
spective of origin. Consequently, we find in Venice, espe
cially in architecture, a variety that tells of Oriental, Byzan
tine, Lombard, and Gothic origin, yet fused by Venetian taste
into one consistent whole, each style adding value to the other.
Over all the earlier architecture there is thrown the spiritual
mantle of religious feeling. Borrowing largely as they did
from their Arab enemies their delicate and graceful architec
ture, with its rich coloring and prolific ornamentation, the Ve
netians, in transforming it to the service of their own loftier
faith, caused it to glow with hues that savored of celestial glo
ries, while its walls spoke to them in adamantine energy of its
mystic truths. Every where amid the public and private ar
chitecture of old Venice we find evidence of the devotion of

378 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.^
its citizens. They were hot ashamed to confess their God
equally in their bed-chambers and their council-halls. Their
continual going down to the sea in ships and incessant con
flicts with infidel foes, and having their homes, as they did,
upon the restless ocean, kept alive within them a constant and
sincere recognition of Him who holds the elements in the hol
low of his hand, and controls the destinies of nations by the
breath of His will. Hence their devout and serious character.
They gloried not so much in their own strength as in divine
protection. Nature had warmed their skies with the most
glorious of her hues. Commerce had made them familiar
with the brilliant tints of the Orient. Pearls and precious
stones, and all the rich stuffs of Arabian manufacture, were
gathered into her bosom for profit and adornment. From the
West and the North there poured into her canals a continuous
throng of commercial pilgrims or crusading heroes. Her con
quests were marked by a rapacity inoculated by the spirit of
trade. Wealth and monopoly were her axioms ; enterprise,
cunning, and force, her agents ; at times, high principles and
pure aspirations directed her councils ; at others, selfish max
ims and short-sighted policy ; but her progress for ten centu
ries, in harvesting to herself the riches of the earth, gathering
within her narrow limits the tastes, civilization, and knowl
edge of all nations, making a highway of the ocean, centring
all roads into her own lagoons, was steadily onward. Palace-
built Venice, with her jeweled shrines, wave-washed walls of
porphyry and jasper, her mystic sculpture and allegorical mo
saics, imbued with thought, and burning with the colors of rev
elation, her lone, lofty watch-tower, and her myriad of heaven-
directed spires, her marble-checkered pavements, and her half
Western and half Oriental homes, combining the energy ofthe
one quarter with the sensuous and jealous life ofthe other, all
beautiful and bright, like a sea-born pearl — such was the Ven-

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 379
ice that grew up amid the mud and shallows of the Adriatic.
So long as she held to her devotional energy, expanding her
thought with her fields of enterprise, she shone forth on the
waters their queen, splendid and prosperous. But when, in
a fatal hour, she adopted the renaissant paganism of Italy,
the vitality of her faith and the life of her action departed.
Enervated by luxury, corrupted by vice, commerce sought new
channels. Gleams of former virtue occasionally illumined her
dark horizon, but her brightness and her beauty no longer
shone with a pure flame, and she became a glittering corpse.
The renaissance had much to do with this — not so much as
the active agent, as the exposition of a changed heart. Archi
tecture is among all nations the exponent of its inner thought,
We can read the ruling ideas in its form and ornament. Every
curve and color can be made to tell the feeling of a people,
whether cold or passionate, pure or base, serene or false, relig
ious or sensual, with all their gradations from nobility to mean
ness. The youth of Venice was passed in prayer and tribula
tion. Her earlier architecture was simple, sincere, and sym
bolical. Inherited from Christian Rome, it partook of its se
verely graceful and classical forms ; the noble arch and rich
capital ; in which Lombard energy, with its rude and vigorous
imagination, wrote its homely and mystic thoughts, symbolical
of northern life and freedom. From this element sprang hardi
hood and enterprise ; vigor in war, sincerity in worship, and
commercial activity in peace. It embodied religious dogmas
into material forms, tending in the common mind to substitute
the worship of the thing created for the Creator. To coun
teract the idolatrous tendency of imaginative worship founded
upon the creature was the mission of the Arab, who, rolling
like a lava-stream from the hot South upon the decaying frag
ments of Roman civilization, proclaimed with ferocious energy
the unity and spirituality of a new creed. That which he

380 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
could not warm into a new life, he consumed. No other cry
to heaven was allowed where his sword flashed but that
which from his minarets told " There is no god but God."
This element, to the extent of its civilization, but not of its faith,
found a home at Venice, and mingled its grace and beauty
with Gothic fancies and energy. Thus we have the dome and
minaret, arabesque and grotesque, the profuse imagery of Eu
rope and the brilliant colorings of Asia, all united into a mixed
and not pleasing architecture at Venice, the central point
around which revolved the two great conflicting principles of
religion. The decadence of Venice became rapid from the period
when she abandoned those styles of architecture which sprang
from faith and were the offspring of devotional feeling dedi
cating its riches to the service of the sanctuary, for self-glori
fication and enervating ease. The Renaissance was the off
spring of modern infidelity. In proportion as Venice had been
pure in her faith, in that degree she became corrupt in her
idolatry. True, she did not go back to pagan mythology for
objects of worship. She did worse. Her idols became wholly
of sense, the external glorification of her own weakened power,
and the sensual expression of her own vitiated tastes. Better
by far had she worshiped the intellectual creatures of classical
ages, exalting humanity by elevating its types. But no. She
preferred the orgies of worldly pleasure to the excitements of
mental pursuits. The pride of power and luxury of life, amal
gamated into a sensualized existence, betraying themselves in
cold mansions, stately and selfish, emblazoned with insignia of
state-rank or individual pride, and ornamented with incon
gruous classicalism, now drove humility and belief in spirit
ualities into exile from their once cherished homes. The lech
erous and beastly decorations derived from corrupted pagan
imaginations became the rule for Christian architecture. All

ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES. 381
that was pure and good in spirit in classical architecture was
carefully sifted and set aside. All that was impure and bad
was extracted, and still farther tainted by the foul fancies of
the sensualized imaginations of modern art. Hence, although
some grace of design, convenience, and adaptation to physical
comfort may be allowed to the bastard architecture of modern
Venice, yet its spirit is wholly of the earth, earthy. It rooted
itself in her decline, and is symbolical ofthe vices that hasten
ed her fall
In viewing Venice, therefore, the traveler should carefully
distinguish between the several styles of her architecture as
illustrative of her ruling principles in the different epochs of
her existence. As plainly as character is typified in human
features, as legibly are the virtues and vices of nations to be
read in their architecture. Back amid sea-weed, choked ca
nals, silent and deserted, the time-stained shutters half drop
ping from time, rust-eaten hinges, with basements water-
stained and foundations cracked and broken, the sea each tide
oozing lazily in and out their stones, do we find many man
sions before which it will do us more good to pause than be
fore the stately piles of Palladio and less worthy architects,
who have usurped the sites of so many of the older and purer
palaces on the principal canals. In their obscurity, deserted
and poverty-struck, they are perishing piecemeal ; but on
their venerable fronts are still to be seen the records of the
feeling in which they were built. Symbols of Christian faith,
the noble abstraction of its pure tenets, each in its day " a
word in season" to the indweller and passer-by.
For ornament we see pure and simple forms of nature, elab
orately wrought or rudely carved, amid masses of richly-col
ored stones, each suggestive of life and beauty, and leading the
thought to the nobler forms and hues of God's own works.
Pause well before such buildings. There is a moral written

382 ITALIAN SIGHTS AND PAPAL PRINCIPLES.
on their fronts that modernism, in its dainty devices and pue
rile fancies, its science-worship and ease-coveting, is in dan
ger of forgetting. We whiten our sepulchres, and forget the
dead men's bones within. So long as we keep our soul unde
filed, the intellect active and sincere, loving beauty as the gift
of its author, and not debasing it to administer to selfish and
sensual desires, just so long need we take no heed to outer ex
pression. That will reflect the harmony and truth that reigns
within. But if we seek to disguise our own falsities by ex
ternal show, we shall as plainly expose the concupiscence that
burns within, as did Venice, when in her pride and infidelity
she practically denied the living principles that had raised her
to power and dominion.

THE END.