side, why might not the rest without any? What would they all be when hindrances were removed, when mutual intercourse, mutual instruction, mutual advantages of every kind, were unrestricted? Why should not all be as free and happy as the few? They will be, when learning has made way for wisdom; when those for whom others have thought begin to think for themselves. The intelligent and the courageous should form associations everywhere; and little trust should be reposed on the goodwill of even good men accustomed to authority and dictation. I venerate the arts almost to the same degree as you do; for ignorance is nowhere an obstacle to veneration; but I venerate them because, above them, I see the light separating from the darkness.

Michel-Angelo. The Arts can not long exist without the advent of Freedom. From every new excavation whence a statue rises, there rises simultaneously a bright vision of the age that produced it; a strong desire to bring it back again; a throbbing love, an inflaming regret, a resolute despair, beautiful as Hope herself: and Hope comes too behind.

Men are not our fellow-creatures because hands and articulate voices belong to them in common with us: they are then, and then only, when they precede us, or accompany us, or follow us, contemplating one grand luminary, periodically obscured, but eternally existent in the highest heaven of the soul, without which all lesser lights would lose their brightness, their station, their existence.

If these things should ever come to pass, how bold shall be the step, how exalted the head, of Genius. Clothed in glorified bodies of living marble, instructors shall rise out of the earth, deriders of Barbarism, conquerors of Time, heirs and coequals of Eternity. Led on by these, again shall man mount the ladder that touches heaven; again shall he wrestle with the angels.

Machiavelli. You want examples of the arts in their perfection: few models are extant. Apollo, Venus, and three or four beside, are the only objects of your veneration; and although I do not doubt of its sincerity, I much doubt of its enthusiasm, and the more the oftener I behold them. Perhaps the earth holds others in her bosom more beautiful than the Mother of Love, more elevated than the God of Day. Nothing is existing of Phidias, nothing of Praxiteles, nothing of Scopas. Their works, collected by Nero, and deposited by him

in his Golden Palace, were broken by the populace, and their fragments cast into the Tiber.

Michel-Angelo. All? surely not all? Machiavelli. Every one, too certainly. For such was the wealth, such the liberality, of this prince, and so solicitous were all ranks, and especially the higher, to obtain his favour, I entertain no doubt that every work of these consummate masters, was among the thousands in his vast apartments. Defaced and fragmentary as they are, they still exist under the waters of the Tiber.

Michel-Angelo. The nose is the part most liable to injury. I have restored it in many heads, always of marble. But it occurs to me, at this instant, for the first time, that wax would serve better, both in leaving no perceptible line, and in similarity of colour. The Tiber, I sadly fear, will not give up its dead until the last day; but do you think the luxurious cities of Sibaris and Croton hide no treasures of art under their ruins? And there are others in Southern Italy of Greek origin, and rich (no doubt) in similar divine creations. Sculpture awaits but the dawn of Freedom to rise up before new worshippers in the fulness of her glory. Meanwhile I must work incessantly at our fortress here, to protect my poor clay models from the Germans.

Machiavelli. And from the Italians; although the least ferocious, in either army, would rather destroy a thousand men than the graven image of one.

XVIII. SOUTHEY AND LANDOR.

Southey. Of all the beautiful scenery round King's-weston, the view from this terrace, and especially from this sundial, is the plea

santest.

Landor. The last time I ever walked hither in company (which, unless with ladies, I rarely have done anywhere) was with a just, a valiant, and a memorable man, Admiral Nichols, who usually spent his summer months at the village of Shire-hampton, just below us. There, whether in the morning or evening, it was seldom I found him otherwise engaged than in cultivating his flowers.

Southey. I never had the same dislike to company in my walks and rambles as you profess to have, but of which I perceived no sign whatever when I visited you, first at Lantony Abbey, and afterward on the Lake of Como. Well do I remember our long conversations in the silent and solitary church of Sant' Abondio (surely the coolest spot in Italy), and how often I turned back my head toward the open door, fearing lest some pious passer-by, or some more distant one in the wood above, pursuing the pathway that leads to the tower of Luitprand, should hear the roof echo with your laughter, at the stories you had collected about the brotherhood and sisterhood of the

place.

Landor. I have forgotten most of them, and nearly all: but I have not forgotten how we speculated on the possibility that Milton might once have been sitting on the very bench we then occupied, although we do not hear of his having visited that part of the country. Presently we discoursed on his poetry; as we propose to do again this morning.

Southey. In that case, it seems we must continue to be seated on the turf.

Landor. Why so?

Southey. Because you do not like to walk in company: it might disturb and discompose you: and we never lose our temper without losing at the same time many of our thoughts, which are loth to come forward without it.

Landor. From my earliest days I have avoided society as much as I could decorously, for I received more pleasure in the cultivation and improvement of my own thoughts than in walking up and down among the thoughts of others. Yet, as you know, I never have avoided the intercourse of men distinguished by virtue and genius; of genius, because it warmed and invigorated me by my trying to keep pace with it; of virtue, that if I had any of my own it might be called forth by such vicinity. Among all men elevated in station who have made a noise in the world (admirable old expression!) I never saw any in whose presence I felt inferiority, excepting Kosciusco. But how many in the lower paths of life have exerted both virtues and abilities which I never exerted, and never possessed! what strength and courage and perseverance in some, in others what endurance and forbearance! At the very moment when most, beside yourself, catching up half my words, would call and employ against me in its ordinary signification what ought to convey the most honorific, the term self-sufficiency, I bow my head before the humble, with greatly more than their humiliation. You are better tempered than I am, and readier to converse. There are half-hours when, although in good-humour and good spirits, I would not be disturbed by the necessity of talking, to be the possessor of all the rich marshes we see yonder. In this interval there is neither storm nor sunshine of the mind, but calm and (as the farmer would call it) growing weather, in which the blades of thought spring up and dilate insensibly. Whatever I do, I must do in the open air, or in the silence of night either is sufficient: but I prefer the hours of exercise, or, what is next to exercise, of field-repose. Did you happen to know the admiral ?

Southey. Not personally: but I believe the terms you have applied to him are well merited. After some experience, he contended that public men, public women, and the public press, may be all designated by one and the same trisyllable. He is reported to have been

a strict disciplinarian. In the mutiny at the Nore he was seized by his crew, and summarily condemned by them to be hanged. Many taunting questions were asked him, to which he made no reply. When the rope was fastened round his neck, the ringleader cried, "Answer this one thing, however, before you go, sir! What would you do with any of us, if we were in your power as you are now in ours?" The admiral, then captain, looked sternly and contemptuously, and replied, "Hang you, by God!" Enraged at this answer, the mutineer tugged at the rope but another on the instant rushed forward, exclaiming "No, captain!" (for thus he called the fellow) "he has been cruel to us, flogging here and flogging there, but before so brave a man is hanged like a dog, you heave me overboard." Others among the most violent now interceded: and an old seaman, not saying a single word, came forward with his knife in his hand, and cut the noose asunder. Nichols did not thank him, nor notice him, nor speak: but, looking round at the other ships, in which there was the like insubordination, he went toward his cabin slow and silent. Finding it locked, he called to a midshipman, "Tell that man with a knife to come down and open the door." After a pause of a few minutes, it was done: but he was confined below until the quelling of the mutiny.

Landor. His conduct as Controller of the Navy was no less magnanimous and decisive. In this office he presided at the trial of Lord Melville. His lordship was guilty, we know, of all the charges. brought against him; but, having more patronage than ever minister had before, he refused to answer the questions which (to repeat his own expression) might incriminate him. And his refusal was given with a smile of indifference, a consciousness of security. In those days, as indeed in most others, the main use of power was promotion and protection and honest man was never in any age among the titles of nobility, and has always been the appellation used toward the feeble and inferior by the prosperous. Nichols said on the present occasion, "If this man is permitted to skulk away under such pretences, trial is here a mockery." Finding no support, he threw up his office as Controller of the Navy, and never afterward entered the House of Commons. Such a person, it appears to me, leads us aptly and becomingly to that stedfast patriot on whose writings you promised me your opinion; not incidentally, as before, but turning page after page. It would ill beseem us to treat Milton with generalities.