n, that Prior of San Marco," thinks our Spirit;
"somewhat arrogant and extreme, perhaps, especially in his denunciations
of speedy vengeance. Ah, _Iddio non paga il Sabatol_ [`God does not pay
on a Saturday']--the wages of men's sins often linger in their payment,
and I myself saw much established wickedness of long-standing
prosperity. But a Frate Predicatore who wanted to move the people--how
could he be moderate? He might have been a little less defiant and
curt, though, to Lorenzo de' Medici, whose family had been the very
makers of San Marco: was that quarrel ever made up? And our Lorenzo
himself, with the dim outward eyes and the subtle inward vision, did he
get over that illness at Careggi? It was but a sad, uneasy-looking face
that he would carry out of the world which had given him so much, and
there were strong suspicions that his handsome son would play the part
of Rehoboam. How has it all turned out? Which party is likely to be
banished and have its houses sacked just now? Is there any successor of
the incomparable Lorenzo, to whom the great Turk is so gracious as to
send over presents of rare animals, rare relics, rare manuscripts, or
fugitive enemies, suited to the tastes of a Christian Magnifico who is
at once lettered and devout--and also slightly vindictive? And what
famous scholar is dictating the Latin letters of the Republic--what
fiery philosopher is lecturing on Dante in the Duomo, and going home to
write bitter invectives against the father and mother of the bad critic
who may have found fault with his classical spelling? Are our wiser
heads leaning towards alliance with the Pope and the Regno [The name
given to Naples by way of distinction among the Italian States], or are
they rather inclining their ears to the orators of France and of Milan?

"There is knowledge of these things to be had in the streets below, on
the beloved _marmi_ in front of the churches, and under the sheltering
Loggie, where surely our citizens have still their gossip and debates,
their bitter and merry jests as of old. For are not the well-remembered
buildings all there? The changes have not been so great in those
uncounted years. I will go down and hear--I will tread the familiar
pavement, and hear once again the speech of Florentines."

Go not down, good Spirit! for the changes are great and the speech of
Florentines would sound as a riddle in your ears. Or, if you go, mingle
with no politicians on the _mar