

A NOBLE GROUP OF MOUNTAINS 311 



charming. Every unnecessary branch is cut away and bound into faggots; 

 the cones are gathered for firewood. . . . 



On my way back I was startled by one of those processions that in one 

 fashion or another tread all human ways. I was on the terrace of a villa, 

 gazing at the distant prospect, when from the door of a house there appeared 

 a boy with a banner surmounted by a cross; next after him an old priest 

 with his book ; then a bier on which was a slight uncoffined body, covered 

 with a white cloth. This bier was borne by four young peasant women, 

 dressed in their holiday attire, and each carried in the free hand a white wand, 

 which I suppose represented the usual candle. There were no other persons ; 

 the little train went away in silence toward the parish church ; their bur- 

 den seemed easily borne. 



Monte Morello : 



February 27, 1882. 



Northwest of Florence there is a very noble-looking group of mountains 

 known as Monte Morello. They are only about three thousand feet high, but 

 their steep slopes lead with noble lines from the plain, so that they are grander 

 than many mountains that labor up to thrice their height above the sea. . . . 

 In times of storm, when the clouds enfold them and their deep ravines are 

 full of abysmal shadows, they seem the very abodes of thunder. In the clear 

 day their gray masses rise above the plain, with its crowd of villages and 

 villas, an image of the stern, desolate eternity of space which wraps in this 

 little skim of life and merriment that is borne upon the surface of the world. 

 ... I know no greater fortune that can be given to a city than the sight of 

 such a nobleness of unchangeable nature. The only thing is that few among 

 its people ever look from its ways up to the throne of the Infinite that stands 

 beyond the gates. 



Alluding to a scene in a little schoolroom, where the children 

 were learning an arithmetic lesson and at the same time keep- 

 ing their fingers busy plaiting straw, the journal continues: 



This excessive laboriousness does not seem to be absolutely a thing of ne- 

 cessity : the children are all well clad, and outside of the cities and away from 

 the alluvial lands they look the picture of well-fed contentment. The land 

 system assures food even in bad seasons ; every farm, nearly every field, has 

 wine, wheat, and silk for its products, and out of these some one is sure to 

 succeed. This ceaseless toiling is partly due to the want of other diverting 

 activities ; the mind of the people is not much occupied with politics, they 



