Vol. XXX, No. 4 



WASHINGTON 



October, 1916 



TI 



JMATDOMAL 



Alpine 



INEXHAUSTIBLE ITALY 



By Arthur Stanley Riggs 



Author of "The; Beauties of France," in the Nationae Geographic Magazine 



SOME parts of the world are re- 

 nowned for their beauty. We visit 

 them to satisfy our inherent love 

 for the picturesque. Some, again, are 

 famous as the scenes of great and stir- 

 ring events which have made history ; 

 them we visit to stand enthralled in the 

 presence of the great spirits of old. Still 

 other parts attract us strongly because of 

 the vivid kaleidoscope of their modern 

 life and customs. 



But what shall we say of Italy, at once 

 exquisitely beautiful, glowing with life 

 and contemporaneous interest ; and, above 

 all, quick with the memory of her glori- 

 ous past? One writes of her in despair 

 of giving more than a bald sketch of the 

 character and attributes that endear her 

 to all mankind. Richly — lavishly ! — she 

 returns love for love, and they who most 

 tax her find her the most inexhaustible, 

 ever giving, ever repaying, with bound- 

 less interest, the affection of her children 

 of the entire world. 



WE ARE ALL HER CHILDREN 



The compulsion of Italy is based upon 

 the deep, pervasive humanity of soul she 

 shares with no other in degree and with 

 but few in kind. That humanity, with 

 its essential heights and depths of spirit- 

 uality and grossness, glows in the grand- 

 est art the world has ever seen and been 

 inspired by ; it pulsates lustily in litera- 

 ture that to this day is the envy and de- 

 spair of mankind ; it dominates us who 



still live in the closing era of the Renais- 

 sance that only the splendid individualism 

 and genius of the lustrous Florentines 

 could make possible. 



Italy is not of the Italians ; she is of 

 the world. We are all her children, and 

 some of the most sublime lessons life has 

 to teach vis have been learned of her wis- 

 dom and accumulated experience. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF ITALY 



Indeed, in considering the great epochs 

 of civilization, we often overlook the fact 

 that more than half of them developed 

 in Italy. Classifying history, we find five 

 periods : the Culture of the Ancient East ; 

 Hellenic Civilization ; the vast Roman 

 Organism ; the Domination of the Roman 

 Catholic Church ; and, last of all, the 

 "emancipation of Europe from medieval 

 influences" in what we usually speak of 

 as the Renaissance. In a word, there- 

 fore, we owe to Italy three of the five 

 periods — the three which have exercised 

 the world most potently in both practical 

 things and the things of the spirit. 



Geographical position is not sufficiently 

 recognized, except by the special student, 

 in its influence upon the character and 

 achievements of a nation. This is pecu- 

 liarly true in the case of Italy. A single 

 glance at the map (see page 360) discloses 

 its position as one of the chief sources of 

 the country's individuality. 



From the beginning Nature set Italy 

 apart. Every boundary is perfectly clear. 



