698 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



siastics, were set far above them. "Give up those trivialities," wrote Cardinal 

 Bembo to Sadoleto, in allusion to the Epistles of St. Paul, "for such inelegancies 

 are unworthy a man of dignity," Omitie has nugas, non enim decent gravem virum 

 tales ineptice. The coins of Mantua were marked with the head of Virgil. Pius 

 II. granted amnesty to the inhabitants of Arpino because it was the birthplace of 

 Cicero, and Alphonso the Magnanimous forbade his engineers to trespass on the 

 site of the orator's villa at Gaeta. Pomponio Leto delighted in leading the life 

 of a Roman sage ; tilling his ground in a manner described by Varro and Colu- 

 mella; eating his frugal meals, like a veritable Stoic, beneath the branches of an 

 oak tree on the Campagna ; and directing that after his death his body should be 

 placed in a sarcophagus on the Appian Way, amid the tombs of the republican 

 and imperial age. The class-rooms of professors were crowded to overflowing 

 with pupils from every grade in life, eager to catch each word that fell from the 

 teacher's lips. The palaces of wealthy citizens were thrown open to the disciples 

 of erudition, and in them assembled those brilliant coteries of scholars whose 

 discussions of ancient authors gradually unlocked the secrets of the past, ard 

 made them accessible to all mankind. The scenes which were presented on 

 occasions like these must ever possess an indescribable charm. As the modern 

 traveler stands in the magnificent gardens of Careggi, overlooking Florence, with 

 the Arno stealing silently away to lose itself in the purple Mediterranean, the 

 prospect of beauty before him vanishes like some lovely dream, and in its place 

 return those morning hours of newly awakened intellectual lite, when Lorenzo, 

 "the sure anchor of the storm-tossed muses," gathered the members of the Pla- 

 tonic academy about him, and spent the long hours of the afternoon in drinking 

 deep from that pure fount of truth, whose waters have refreshed the thirst of 

 great spirits in every age. Then, when their minds had become wearied by con- 

 centration, they seated themselves about the board of their munificent host; ris- 

 ing from it to wander forth among the acacias, rose trees and laurels, while the 

 air of evening, loaded with the perfume of countless flowers, fanned their temples 

 back to coolness, and the calm stillness of the Italian twilight stole over the land- 

 scape, whispering to them each its message of peace. Strolling thus amid the 

 garden beds, and communing with each other's thoughts, while day slowly van- 

 ished from the sky and the silent stars came forth one by one above them, with 

 the lights of Florence twinkling in the distance and the Apennines and the mount- 

 ains of Carrara sleeping in the east and west, what emotions must have thrilled 

 their souls, what visions have been caught sight of, what hopes, aspirations, and 

 high resolves have been theirs, as this new consciousness of power was awak- 

 ened within their breasts ! What wonder is it that these men were able so to 

 impress themselves upon their generation ; that Politian could tune his lyre to the 

 language of the three great nations ; that Pico della Mirandola, at the early age of 

 twenty-three, should have proposed his famous nine hundred theses at Rome, 

 offering to dispute with all comers on any subject in the entire domain of knowl- 

 edge; that Michael Angelo, even, should have produced the Moses and the 

 Sistine Chapel, or have sculptured those wonderful figures which sleep the cent- 

 uries away on the Medicean tombs ! — February Atlantic. 



