I need not ask thee if that hand, when armed, Has any Roman soldier mauled and knuckled, For thou wert dead, and buried, and embalmed, Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled : Antiquity appears to have begun Long after thy primeval race was run. Thou couldst develop, if that withered tongue Might tell us what those sightless orbs have seen, How the world looked when it was fresh and young, And the great deluge still had left its green; Or was it then so old that History's pages Contained no record of its early ages? Still silent, incommunicative elf! Art sworn to secrecy? then keep thy vows; But prythee tell us something of thyselfReveal the secrets of thy prison-house; Since in the world of spirits thou hast slumbered, What hast thou seen, what strange adventures num bered? Since first thy form was in this box extended, We have, above-ground, seen some strange mutations. The Roman Empire has begun and ended; New worlds have risen; we have lost old nations; And countless kings have into dust been humbled, While not a fragment of thy flesh has crumbled. Didst thou not hear the pother o'er thy head, O'erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis, And shook the pyramids with fear and wonder If the tomb's secrets may not be confessed, The nature of thy private life unfold. A heart has throbbed beneath that leathern breast, And tears adown that dusty cheek have rolled. Have children climbed those knees and kissed that face? What was thy name and station, age and race? Statue of flesh-Immortal of the dead! Posthumous man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed, Why should this worthless tegument endure, In living virtue, that when both must sever, Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively and vigorously productive as those fabulous dragons' teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.-Milton. 66. SER FRANCESCO. It being now the Lord's day, Messer Francesco thought it meet that he should rise early in the morning, and bestir himself to hear mass in the parish church at Certaldo. Whereupon he went on tiptoe—if so weighty a man could indeed go in such a fashion and lifted softly the latch of Ser Giovanni's chamber door, that he might salute him ere he departed, and occasion no wonder at the step he was about to take. He found Ser Giovanni fast asleep, with the missal wide open across his nose, and a pleasant smile on his genial, joyous mouth. Ser Francesco leaned over the couch, closed his hands. together, and, looking with even more than his usual benignity, said in a low voice,— "God bless thee, gentle soul! the mother of purity and innocence protect thee!" He then went into the kitchen, where he found the girl Assunta, and mentioned his resolution. She informed him that the horse had eaten his beans, and was as strong as a lion and as ready as a lover. Ser Francesco patted her on the cheek, and called her semplicetta! She was overjoyed at this honour from so great a man, the bosom friend of her good master, whom she had always thought the greatest man in the world, not excepting Monsignore, until he told her he was only a dog confronted with Ser Francesco. She tripped alertly across the paved court into the stable, and took down the saddle and bridle from the farther end of the rack. But Ser Francesco, with his (1,183) 20 natural politeness, would not allow her to equip his palfrey. "This is not work for maidens," said he; "return to the house, good girl." She lingered a moment, then went away; but mistrusting the dexterity of Ser Francesco, she stopped and turned back again, and peeped through the halfclosed door, and heard sundry sobs and wheezes round the girth. Ser Francesco's wind ill seconded his intention; and although he had thrown the saddle. valiantly and stoutly in its station, yet the girths brought him into extremity. dissembling the reason, asked him whether he would not take a small beaker of the sweet white wine before he set out; and offered to girth the horse while his reverence bitted and bridled him. She entered again, and, Before any answer could be returned she had begun; and having now satisfactorily executed her undertaking, she felt irrepressible delight and glee at being able to do what Ser Francesco had failed in. He was scarcely more successful with his allotment of the labour; found unlooked-for intricacies and complications in the machinery, wondered that human wit could not simplify it, and declared that the animal had never exhibited such restlessness before. In fact, he never had experienced the same grooming. this conjuncture a green cap made its appearance, bound with straw-coloured ribbon, and surmounted with two bushy sprigs of hawthorn, of which the globular buds were swelling, and some bursting, but none yet open. It was young Simplizio Nardi, who At sometimes came on the Sunday morning to sweep the courtyard for Assunta. "Oh, this time you are come just when you are wanted!" said the girl. "Bridle, directly, Ser Francesco's horse, and then go away about your business." The youth blushed, and kissed Ser Francesco's hand, begging his permission. It was soon done. He then held the stirrup; and Ser Francesco, with scarcely three efforts, was seated and erect on the saddle. The horse, however, had somewhat more inclination for the stable than for the expedition; and as Assunta was handing to the rider his long ebony staff bearing an ivory caduceus, the quadruped turned suddenly round. Simplizio called him bestiaccia! and then softening it, poco garbato! and proposed to Ser Francesco that he should leave the bastone behind, and take the crab-switch he presented to him, giving, at the same time, a sample of its efficacy, which covered the long grizzled hair of the worthy quadruped with a profusion of pink blossoms, like embroidery. The offer was declined; but Assunta told Simplizio to carry it himself, and to walk by the side of Ser Canonico quite up to the church porch, having seen what a sad, dangerous beast his reverence had under him. With perfectly good will, partly in the pride of obedience to Assunta, and partly to enjoy the renown of accompanying a canon of Holy Church, Simplizio did as she enjoined. And now the sound of village bells, in many hamlets and convents and churches out of sight, was |