and wisdom of the Romans, from whom they had adopted their art of government and the organization of their cities." These are the words of a nonItalian historian.

Intellectually then the Italians had not submitted to the influence of a civilization higher than that which they possessed. There was in fact no higher civilization in the world than the Latin. There had been no higher civilization in the world before the Roman, except the Greek. It was the result of Greek and Italian mind united, which had created the greatness of Rome, and which made its vitality felt in politics, in literature, in art, in society, long after the twilight of its splendour had vanished in a long series of dark centuries. The Scandinavian, Teutonic, Scythian, Slavonian tribes would have lived for many centuries a nomadic, wandering, savage life, if they had not invaded Italy, where they learnt the arts of civilization.

But if the foreigners were barbarians, when compared with the Italians, if they had to learn all the elements of art and literature from the latter; still, it is evident that by the conflict of customs, manners, institutions and tongues; by the influence of their northern and eastern imaginations; by their more wild but stronger and more primitive nature, by their peculiar chevaleresque institutions and supernatural mythology, new blood is infused into the Italian race which powerfully increases the intellectual wealth of the nation. It is as a flood, which whilst bringing devastation and destruction on a rich, fruitful, and beautiful country, leaves, however, after its passage, additional fertility to the soil, having brought from afar new seeds of other regions, which afterwards grow and become indigenous.

By the foundation of these and other seeds we will see arising the new literature, and the new arts of Italy. But in order to bring down this general sketch to the tenth century of the Christian era, we must mention an event which had a singular and powerful influence

the revival of art and literature in Europe.

This was the belief spread by ill-inspired prophets, supported by some illinterpreted passage from the Gospel, confirmed by the authority of some early Italian sectarians, that in the year one thousand the world was to end.

Ridiculous as such a prophecy may appear to the majority of the people in our days, it was not so in those ages. The corruption of morals, the abuse of brute force, the violation of all rights, the ignorance and superstition of the people, and, more than all, a famine which lasted many years-of the effects of which chronicles have left us most heart-rending descriptions-made men dejected, and disposed their minds to believe that God was going to punish their sins and to put an end to the human race. The imagination of the people was inflamed. The coldest minds could not escape the epidemic of feverish excitement at the idea that in the fulness of their health and of life, at a fixed day and hour, they were going to find themselves in presence of their Creator and of Eternity.

This excitement, which prevailed for at least fifty years before the dreaded day, had its influence on art, literature, and society in several ways.

In the first place, religious life being considered as more fit to bring men to God, people rush to the monasteries and convents, and places of worship in such numbers that new churches, cathedrals, and convents have to be built. And as money given in alms, or in the erection of sacred buildings, or in the dotation of convents is so much dedicated to God for the good of their souls, so no money is spared to make them splendid. Hence a great impulse is given to ecclesiastical architecture. The number of churches and cathedrals erected in and out of Italy during the half century preceding the year 1000, and the half immediately following it is really wonderful. In France, in Germany, in England the same movement is going on, and the same revival

Cologne, Mayence, Winchester, Worms, Chartres, Gloucester, and Westminster, all belong to this period.

In the second place the clergy and the monks, whose revenue had swelled to an enormous amount through the donations of many believers, employed painting, and especially mosaics, to impress more sensibly on the people the image of the eternal world, with representations now of glory and joy in Paradise, now of sufferings and torments in hell, now of expiation and penance in purgatory, and now of the terrible last judgment before which all were in a short time to appear. Miraculous revelations of the other world, visions and legends, fill the popular literature of the time, and form one of its principal features, and we shall see how these legendary traditions adopted by painters and poets, and how they gave to Italy Giotto and the Divina Commedia.

are

The third consequence of this excitement is, that, having raised the religious. enthusiasm of this people to the utmost, it became possible to tax them to some advantage; as popes, kings, and monks did by preaching the Crusade against the most formidable foe of Christianity, the Mussulman. To fight against the infidel, to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is to prepare for a better world. Thus the western sinners rush to the East, as the best and shortest road to Paradise.

When, after that terrible night of the 31st of December, of the year 1000, people wordered that they were still standing on their feet, and saw the sun still shining on the face of the earth, and on the buildings they had erected, confidence revived, churches and cathedrals were still built to thank God for the miracle of having spared the world. from destruction; but there is commerce also, there is trade, industry, activity, the feeling of a new life, the resurrection of military valour, and the rise of new and powerful cities, precursors of a new era which is rapidly approaching. Italy begins a new era, but this era is

it is no longer limited to one province, it is general, it is totally and exclusively Italian.

Italy, however, this new Italy, has not yet a language. No wonder. There was a time, says a great writer, when nearly all the nations of Europe had no language of their own. When the strong unity of the Roman empire broke down, the countries which had been its provinces lost the language of their conquerors and formed their own dialects. These dialects, however, bear the mark of the tie which once bound their people to the victorious chariot of the metropolis of the world. Provençal, French, Catalan, Castiglian, Portuguese, Walachian, and Italian are all romance or neo-Latin languages, which still preserve, though in different degrees, their affinity with Latin. Their principal difference depends on the modification they undergo in the mixture of Latin with their primitive languages, or the languages of their new masters. causes a period of transformation, when these languages are no longer Latin, and still not French, Spanish, or Italian; then they are like the burning sheet of paper described by Dante,

This

"Which is not black, and yet is white no more."

This is the period when writers work unconsciously to their formation.

The Italian writers are the last among the neo-Latin nations to cultivate the Italian language, for the reason that Latin is, for some time and to a great degree, still the language of the country. The languages of Spain, France, Provence, &c., are formed by the mixture of Latin with the native dialects of their countries; but the native language of Italy had long before become Latin itself.

Italian is but Latin popularized, it is the vulgar language, as it was called, the language of the people. Latin and Italian literature co-existed for several centuries, the one as the noble, the other as the popular literature. All the questioning then about the origin of the Italian, which has puzzled foreign and

Italian is contemporary with Latin as far as it is only a corrupted Latin. The corruption of Latin can be traced to the time of Tacitus and Seneca, that is to say, to the first century of the Christian era, when the barbarians had not yet invaded Italy. The translation of the Bible made at that time for the people, and revised afterwards by St. Jerome in the time of the Empire, and always, for the multitude, is the most important proof of this corruption. There we find the use of articles and prepositions, or signs of the cases for the first time. There we find Italian idioms, which are still the same. This corruption was, of course, continued and accelerated by foreign invasions, by the absence of a national literature, by centuries of popular ignorance and want of political existence, and by loose grammar; causes which even in our day would all lead to the same result.

We see then by this review of the principal features of the long and laborious intellectual revolution which took place in Italy between the Roman decline and the Italian revival, that the first and most important fact which transforms civilization, is the intro

duction of Christianity into Rome, the great centre of the ancient Pagan world. A second and also important event is that of foreign invasions, which more or less contribute to quicken a revival of art, science, and literature, and the influence of which originates in the courts, whence they spread to the nation.

A third and equally important fact is that of the political, artistic and literary traditions of Rome, which are still retained by the bulk of the nation, and like a smouldering fire, only wait the opportunity to break out; and they do in fact revive in the Italian Republics, and create the most splendid period of Italian history, which is also the golden era of Italian literature and art.

These three facts, influencing in different degrees, Italian art and literature before Giotto, and Dante, bring us naturally to the division of the three following Lectures, to which the present is but an introduction. That is to say, art, and literature in relation

1st, To Religious Life;
2nd, To Court Life;
3rd, To National Life.

EDOARDO FUsco.

DEAR MR. EDITOR,-I am much flattered by your request that I would send you another Card Article for your Christmas Number; but I fear I have almost exhausted the range of the subject. I have written on games of cards which may be played by a room-full of people (January, 1870); on games for four players (December 1861, January 1863); on games for three players (January 1873); on games for two players (December 1861); and last January you did me the honour to insert an article on games at cards for a single player. It would seem difficult to go on to games not played at all; but there is something like an approach to them in an invention lately put before the world, namely, games at cards played by machinery. I need hardly say I allude to the wonderful automaton,, exhibited by Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke, at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. This ingenious mechanical figure at present plays whist, and plays it well; but it would play picquet, cribbage, écarté, or almost any ordinary card game with equal facility and success. In default of a better subject I propose to give your Christmas readers some account of this singular novelty.

The proprietors of the figure are something more than mere exhibitors of the art of legerdemain, for they have for some years past attracted interest by novel and startling contrivances which have involved ingenious applications of physical science, and which, if their explanation had become generally known, would have secured a more honourable appreciation than the blind admiration of the wondering crowd.

Some time ago, acting on a hint given them by a friend, these gentlemen conceived the idea of making an auto

maton figure which should, without any apparent human agency, perform feats. exhibiting intelligence and volition; they spent two years in the manufacture, and the result was the production of "Psycho," who has been now before the public for about twelve months, attracting crowds of visitors, and exciting great wonder and curiosity.

Psycho is a figure a little less than adult size, who sits cross-legged in Oriental fashion, on an oblong box, resembling one resembling one of the hand organs carried about the streets. The dimensions of the box are, judging by the eye, about twenty-two inches long by eighteen inches wide, and fifteen inches high, and from the top of the box to the crown of the figure's head may be between two and three feet.

The box, with the figure on it, is entirely detached, and is carried about by Mr. Maskelyne and an assistant. When in action it is placed on the top of a strong hollow cylinder of transparent glass, about ten inches diameter and eighteen inches high. This cylinder rests on a loose wooden platform about four feet square, which again is supported at a distance of about nine inches clear above the floor of the stage by four short legs, one at each corner.

When Psycho performs his intelligent feats, both his arms move, in a way to be hereafter described, and he also shakes his head; but as this shake has not the tremendous significance of Lord Burleigh's, we may ignore it in our present description.

Before commencing the performance, the foundation platform is lifted up, turned about, and exhibited to the audience, before being placed in position. The glass cylinder is then handed round to the spectators, who may satisfy themselves it is nothing but

Italian is contemporary with Latin as far as it is only a corrupted Latin. The corruption of Latin can be traced to the time of Tacitus and Seneca, that is to say, to the first century of the Christian era, when the barbarians had not yet invaded Italy. The translation of the Bible made at that time for the people, and revised afterwards by St. Jerome in the time of the Empire, and always, for the multitude, is the most important proof of this corruption. There we find the use of articles and prepositions, or signs of the cases for the first time. There we find Italian idioms, which are still the same. This corruption was, of course, continued and accelerated by foreign invasions, by the absence of a national literature, by centuries of popular ignorance and want of political existence, and by loose grammar; causes which even in our day would all lead to the same result.

We see then by this review of the principal features of the long and laborious intellectual revolution which took place in Italy between the Roman decline and the Italian revival, that the first and most important fact which transforms civilization, is the intro

duction of Christianity into Rome, the great centre of the ancient Pagan world.

A second and also important event is that of foreign invasions, which more or less contribute to quicken a revival of art, science, and literature, and the influence of which originates in the courts, whence they spread to the nation.

A third and equally important fact is that of the political, artistic and literary traditions of Rome, which are still retained by the bulk of the nation, and like a smouldering fire, only wait the opportunity to break out; and they do in fact revive in the Italian Republics, and create the most splendid period of Italian history, which is also the golden era of Italian literature and art.

These three facts, influencing in different degrees, Italian art and literature before Giotto, and Dante, bring us naturally to the division of the three following Lectures, to which the present is but an introduction. That is to say, art, and literature in relation

1st, To Religious Life;
2nd, To Court Life ;
3rd, To National Life.

EDOARDO Fusco.