I50 BROWN : 



I wish rather than hope that I may have given you without 

 putting it into words the idea of Naples of which my mind 

 has always been full. A hint of it appeared a moment ago 

 when the place was spoken of as Paradise. Now Paradise 

 and the Happy Valley of Rasselas, which is Paradise and 

 water, are both delightful, but most uninteresting. There is 

 so little of the work of man to see and speak about. What 

 would be, what has been written of Florence, for instance, is 

 altogether different. The hills about Florence are all very 

 well, very fine, indeed, if you choose ; the climate is not good 

 and not agreeable, however much people may try to deceive 

 themselves. But what matter ! It is the men and their 

 works. lyook at the stones in the Cyclopean walls of Fiesole ! 

 The Tower of Giotto is, architecturally speaking, worth all 

 Naples put together. I did not visit Naples. I lived there ; 

 but I have only a vague remembrance of the streets and 

 public buildings. The Cathedral has passed out of my mind 

 altogether, except for the crypts. They are very old, indeed. 

 Older, as I seem to recollect, than the edifice. In their open 

 niches are lying bodies put there many centuries ago. I dare 

 not say how many. When I went there in '55 or thereabouts 

 they were by some extraordinary^ combination of circum- 

 stances almost at the discretion of the public. What one saw 

 in its niche was a single mound of damp, lightest colored 

 matter, between five and six feet long and eight or ten inches 

 wide. At both ends and in the middle was a little, raised 

 heap. Some few, strangely enough, were intact, wholly 

 undisturbed. My friend, whose profession made him more 

 indifferent than I could possibly be, coolly groped in the 

 pile at one end of one of the longish heaps, until he brought 

 out a white and shining tooth, which he carried away, "to 

 remember the man by," as he remarked. I never have been 

 able to account to myself for the amazing neglect which 

 exposed these bodies in this way. After all, the care of them 

 was in the hands of the priests, and not of the government, 

 which was the king, and that King Bombino, as he was nick- 



