142 BROWN : 



kept for the purpose is half stifled by the mephitic vapor and 

 then hauled out to be ready for another turn, our party scorned. 



And here I must stop a half an instant to contrast the 

 hell of Virgil with the hell of Homer. That is a mere exag- 

 geration of what may be seen above. It is made as terrible 

 as possible, of course, but it strikes no awe. This, the "abode 

 of the silent," is vague, dark, cold, dreary, sordid, soundless 

 horror; that, to read of, leaves the soul aghast and sickened. 



Why I never went to Ischia I cannot tell you, unless it be 

 that I could have done so at any moment. And then, it is a 

 high island, like any other high island in a summer sea. 

 Why should one go there ? 



But Capri is a different matter. Its top is 1500 feet from 

 the water, and from that top I one day looked down into a 

 sea so clear and still that the larger fish were visible as they 

 swam about in it. If I were under cross examination, and 

 the lawyer asked me, sternly, " Will you swear that 5^ou saw 

 those fish ? " I should answer : "An oath is a serious thing, 

 but I declare to the best of my honest recollection that I saw 

 them. They were large, -they moved swiftly, and their white 

 sides glanced." 



Moreover I was told that there were old men up there (the 

 little village is called Ana Capri) who had never been down 

 to the sea in their lives. I say I was told so, and that a two 

 roomed stone house, weather-tight and fit to live in, could be 

 had for two dollars and fifty cents a year. This was in 1855, 

 when the only communication with above was by the then 

 well known Ana Capri stairs, up and down which men and 

 asses carried burdens. And a poor fellow, whose name I 

 have forgotten and who went to the island to die of consump- 

 tion, had the nerve to make that ride both up and down 

 rather than not see the place. I have been told that there is 

 at present a broad carriage way to go up by. 



Now you shall know that in those days I was rather by 

 way of risking my bones. So I resolved to get up to Ana 

 Capri without troubling the stairs — taking with me, as usual. 



