OFFERS FROM CHARLES V. AND HENRY II. 147 



he was told that he should have if he would overcome his 

 scruple 1 . 



In this mood he quitted London. Our capital itself 

 does not seem to have made any great impression on him. 

 In a chapter upon cities that he had seen, written soon 

 afterwards, he says of London only that it is about fifty 

 miles from the sea, upon the river Thames; but that to 

 confess what he thinks, it is not by magnificent buildings 

 or by walls that towns are made illustrious, but by men, 

 brave and excellent, who cherish virtue. Fine buildings 

 for a foolish people are a handsome body for no soul 2 . 

 That is the whole opinion given by him. 



Determining, for reasons before stated, not to go home 

 through France, Jerome left London for Dover 3 , meaning 

 to take ship from that port and cross the Channel. He 

 was detained there, however, for nine days by adverse 

 winds. Now he had conceived a desire or whim to carry 

 home with him to Italy an English boy 5 and as he was 

 talking of that whim on the evening before he sailed, 

 the person with whom he lodged showed him a boy 

 named William, twelve years old, honest, sensible, and 

 obedient to his parents. His grandfather Gregory still 

 lived, his father's name was Laurence, and they came of 



1 De Vita Propria, cap. xxix. 



2 De Varietate Rerum (ed. cit.), p. 672. 



3 For this, and the succeeding facts, see the preface to the Dialogue 

 de Morte, at the end of the book Somniorum Synesiorum, p. 344. 



L2 



