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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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High And Low Life In Italy,
| $ B 0 & J > Mt toad ? the Princefcfc li | w ^ S inM etll ho ttf b uilt a \< 0 g jtiiMe wall Against its # & t ^ i ? sL At an expense of fifty pOU § 3 s Jjiore it might have retained its natural border of
arbutus and laurel , its little craggs and coves , its little bays and promontories . The security of the passenger would Have been as perfect as it is at present , by placing , in spots the most precipitous , rude blocks of native stone detached
from the other side . Of such Spots there were few , the whole bank being coveted with ancient evergreens . Nature has lost
for ever this appanage to her dignity , but no where on the globe does she exhibit a countenance niore sedately sublime . We must leave our native land
with strong prejudices in its favour if we compare even Ulswater or Derwentwater with the Larius . But the Larius has not its Wordsworth and its Southey ! If it had , shameless as are the Italians , and nursed
in ignorance , bigotry , and slavery , music and songs and cheers wquld resound from every ; boat that passed their houses . Do we pay this willing
tribute to our great superiors , our " approved good masters , " are we tnpre wise than the ignoraht , more susceptible than the barbarians , or mote jUst than , the dishonest ?¦
jfcfR STIVERS TO LADY C . ' ;• ' * i V . ' ' ¦ ¦ F & pM the goodnature of my frifend M * Tallboys , I thought that he WOttlci go all lengths witk j Ue ; so I jiSked him for k
High And Low Life In Italy,
dozen o * two & F moderately sized poems , jufct enough for such a volume ag the roftjte *? me * not 9 to publish them in my own name , telling him fairly that he should have half the
money , and assuring him that my principal reason for ^ questing the favour was , that 1 Wag anxious to see in a Frontispiece , " Poems by J . J . Stivers Esq . & c . "
" No ; Mr Stivers / ' Said he , " take my prose and welcome , but my poetry is that by which I hope to go down to posterity /' He only laughed at me , when
I replied , that 1 had seen many poets go down , but none so far as to posterity , and that a reasonable man oughE to be contented with a sort of half-way house . However , now I have
acopy or two of his before me , I will try what I can do for myself . In poetry * as in skaiting , if you dash off boldly you are sure to succeed , but if you are timtfroils , you lie flat upon the ice .
" Fortitude and Fortune , " said Mr Tallboys , " are the same words pronounced differently , or , according to my own creed , two names for one Goddess at the option of the worshipper . " We shall lose him in a few
days . He likes Florence ; tod loves pictures and statues a $ much as I do the best things they represent . He says that Italy is one magnificent saloon , in which the greatest men and , loveliest women that eyfer lived are all assembled , and giro
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