12 THE CAUSES WHICH PROPAGATE 



in Italy. To float on the sea, to angle at Venice of a summer^s 

 evening, and watch the sun decline behind the misty campaniles 

 and palaces of the Doges ; a morning's reverie with philosophic 

 Germans at Castellamare or Sorrento, watching Vesuvius eternally 

 steam a summery cloud ^vith hectic glow over the cindery heaps 

 of Pompeii, and sheer beneath a rippling wash of starch-blue 

 water; to sit on Ana Capri, and sti-ain the eye toward Cape 

 Misenum and Baja, till the galleys of ^5^neas loom in the sea 

 mist, or the phantom ship of the apostle veers on the low 

 volcanic hill behind Pozzuoli ; to gaze from the Caj)itoline over 

 queenly Rome and the warm and flowery Campagna, until with 

 shouts the long triumj)h winds upward, and the marble forms 

 around start and glow with life ; to turn to watch the urban 

 veils and handsome oflficials, enhanced with a certain mediaeval 

 lustre acquired from classic books, paintings, pedigree, and not 

 a little set off by those traditional tales of the large knife and 

 rapier, in which a Mrs. Radcliffe and Lord Byron used to glory, — 

 such is Italy to the many, Italy in some respects, may we hope, 

 as it was. 



Another aspect has Italy for the dilettanti in her works of 

 art. Many see nothing beyond the middle ages ; and Raffael, 

 Rienzi, Dante, or Petrarca are the spirits that animate every 

 grove and fountain. To forego blue sky and spring flowers for 

 a silent zephyry seat where Madonnas float on the light arras, 

 sombre martyrs sink death-pale, and little children dance in ring; 

 to walk echoing aisles of mouldering mosaic, Avhile music 

 sweeter than the nightingale's awakes the holy trance in colours 

 of the camera obscura or woof of Iris ; to sit on marble steps 

 amid ivory tracery, where jDrinces once walked and rustling silks 

 swept by, but where now the townsfolk hold gala and pass 

 simple jokes; to trace historic streams where war has left a 

 sanguine streak, and Guelphs and Ghibellines drew a fratricidal 

 sword to storm the gate and charge the foe, — this, with the 

 addition of ices and lemonade, makes a comprehensive Italy to 

 another class of philosophers. 



But every country acquires a mundane dress with every-day 

 occupations, and in Italy, despite the dolce far niente of the 

 cafes, the pursuit of insects has asserted its rights as a study or 

 relaxation ; so that the Societa Entomologica, founded, I under- 



