l
as facts, but still more powerful as ideas. Yet neither of them controls
the evolution of Italy in the same sense as France was controlled by the
monarchical, and Germany by the federative, principle. The forces of the
nation, divided and swayed from side to side by this commanding dualism,
escaped both influences in so far as either Pope or Emperor strove to
mold them into unity. Meanwhile the domination of Byzantine Greeks in
the southern provinces, the kingdom of the Goths at Ravenna, the kingdom
of the Lombards and Franks at Pavia, the incursions of Huns and
Saracens, the kingdom of the Normans at Palermo, formed but accidents
and moments in a national development which owed important modifications
to each successive episode, but was not finally determined by any of
them. When the Communes emerge into prominence, shaking off the
supremacy of the Greeks in the South, vindicating their liberties
against the Empire in the North, jealously guarding their independence
from Papal encroachment in the center, they have already assumed shapes
of marked distinctness and bewildering diversity. Venice, Milan, Genoa,
Florence, Bologna, Siena, Perugia, Amalfi, Lucca, Pisa, to mention only
a few of the more notable, are indiscriminately called Republics. Yet
they differ in their internal type no less than in external conditions.
Each wears from the first and preserves a physiognomy that justifies our
thinking and speaking of the town as an incarnate entity. The cities of
Italy, down to the very smallest, bear the attributes of individuals.
The mutual attractions and repulsions that presided over their growth
have given them specific qualities which they will never lose, which
will be reflected in their architecture, in their customs, in their
language, in their policy, as well as in the institutions of their
government. We think of them involuntarily as persons, and reserve for
them epithets that mark the permanence of their distinctive characters.
To treat of them collectively is almost impossible. Each has its own
biography, and plays a part of consequence in the great drama of the
nation. Accordingly the study of Italian politics, Italian literature,
Italian art, is really not the study of one national genius, but of a
whole family of cognate geniuses, grouped together, conscious of
affinity, obeying the same general conditions, but issuing in markedly
divergent characteristics. Democracies, oligarchies, aristocracies
spring i