* * * * *

"This tale doth teach," notes the learned Flaxius, "as regards the
folklore of the black dog, that in this life most things are good or bad,
as we take them. For the black dog, Monsieur, of Cornelius Agrippa (like
that in Faust) was a demon, albeit his pupil, Wierus, records that he
himself knew the animal well, but never supposed there was aught of the
goblin in it. And this same Wierus has mentioned (_loc. cit._, p. m.
325), that one of the things which most terrify the devil and all his
gang is the blood of a black dog splashed on the wall. So in ancient
symbolism death meant life, the two being correlative, and in witchcraft
the spell of the frog and many more are meant to do deadly harm, or great
good, according to the way in which they are worked. Wherein lies an
immense moral lesson for ye all. Remember, children--

"'There is no passion, vice, or crime,
Which truly, closely understood,
Does not, in the full course of time,
Do far less harm than good.'"

IL PALAZZO FERONI
SHOWING HOW IT GOT ITS NAME FROM A FAIRY

"Ah me! what perils do environ
The man who meddles with cold iron!
Thus sang great Butler long ago,
In Hudibras, as all men know;
But in this story you will see
How Iron was sold by irony."

One of the most picturesque mediaeval palaces in Florence is that of the
Feroni, and its architectural beauty is greatly enhanced by its fine
situation at the head of the Tornabuoni on the Piazza della Trinita, with
the magnificent column of the Medicis just before its gate. According to
Italian authority, "this palace may be called, after those of the
Praetorio (_i.e._, Bargello) and the Signoria, the most characteristic
building of its epoch in Florence. It is said to have been built by
Arnolfo di Cambio. It once belonged to the Spini, from whom it passed to
the Feroni." When I was in Florence in 1846-47, this palace was the best
hotel in Florence, and the one in which I lived. There have been great
"restorations" in the city since that time, but very few which have not
been most discreditably and foolishly conducted, even to the utter
destruction of all that was truly interesting in them; as, for instance,
"the house of Dante, torn down within a few years to be rebuilt, so that
now not one stone rests upon another of the original;" and "Santa Maria
Novella, where the usual monkish hatred of everything not _rococo_ and
trash