r LONDON MUD 45 



no escape even by good luck. The Nolan, who had 

 studied and practised in the schools more than we, 

 bade us follow him through a passage, that he thought 

 to see, filthy though it was. But he had not ceased 

 speaking when he was planted in the mire so firmly 

 that he could not drag out his limbs, and so with 

 mutual help we went through the midst of it, hoping 

 that the purgatory would be of short duration ; but 

 by unjust and hard fate he and we found ourselves 

 engulfed in a slimy passage, that, just as if it were 

 the ' field of jealousy ' or the ' garden of delights/ 

 was bounded on this side and on that by good walls, 

 and because there was no light to guide us we could 

 not distinguish between the way we had come and 

 the way we ought to go, hoping at every step for 

 the end." ..." Higher up the street we found a lava 

 which on one side left a stony place where we could 

 walk dry ; step by step we stumbled like drunk men 

 and not without danger of breaking a head or a leg. 

 To make a long story short at last the Elysian fields 

 appeared, viz. the broad, ordinary street and then 

 from the houses we discovered we were about twenty 

 steps from the place where we had set out to find 

 the boatman, and not far from the Nolan's rooms ! " 

 The temptation to give up the expedition was over- 

 come, and after sundry adventures with apprentices, 

 servitors, and bravos of the gentle class, they arrived 

 safely at Fulke Greville's, where supper was already 

 in progress. 



In the Italian dialogues the personal note of com- Hostility 

 plaint sounds more highly than in Bruno's other works, England " 

 and we may imagine that Bruno himself felt neglected 

 in England more than in other countries, while 

 English hostility to his teaching was probably more 



