. Earthwork out of Tuscany : being impressions and translations of Maurice Hewlett. r the train clattering over thesleepers and points, and to see—oh, human, brotherlysight!—the broad level light of morning stream outof the east. We were stealing into a city flat houses rose in the chill mist to our left andstared blankly down upon us with close-barred greeneyelids. Gas-lamps in swept streets flickered dirtyyellow in the garish light. A great purple domelay ahead, flanked by the ruddy roofs and gables ofa long church. My heart leapt for ! And then, at Prato, a nut-
. Earthwork out of Tuscany : being impressions and translations of Maurice Hewlett. r the train clattering over thesleepers and points, and to see—oh, human, brotherlysight!—the broad level light of morning stream outof the east. We were stealing into a city flat houses rose in the chill mist to our left andstared blankly down upon us with close-barred greeneyelids. Gas-lamps in swept streets flickered dirtyyellow in the garish light. A great purple domelay ahead, flanked by the ruddy roofs and gables ofa long church. My heart leapt for ! And then, at Prato, a nut-brown old woman Eye of Italy 13 with a placid face got into our carriage with abasket of green figs and some bottles of milk forthe Florentine market. So we were nearing. Andsoon we ran in between lines of white and pinkvillas edged with rows of planes drenched still withdews and the night mists, among bullock-carts andqueer shabby little vetture, everything looking lightand elfin in the brisk sunshine and autumn bite—intothe barrel-like station, and I into the arms, say J. rather the arm-chair, of Signora Vedova Paolini,chattiest and most motherly of landladies. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Florence, form thefive elements of our planet according to the testi-mony of Boniface VIII. of clamant and not veryCatholic memory. That is true if you take it thisway. You cannot resolve an element; but youcannot resolve Florence ; therefore Florence is anelement. Ecco ! She is like nothing else in Nature,or (which is much the same thing) Art. You canhave olives elsewhere, and Gothic elsewhere; you 14 EarthuDork out ofTiiscany can have both at Aries, for instance. You can haveCampanili printed white (but not rose-and-white,not rose-and-gold-and-white) on blue anywherealong the Mediterranean from Tripoli to Tangier:you will find Giotto at Padua, and statues growingin the open air at Naples. But for the silvery magicof olives and blue; for a Gothic which has thesupernatural and always rest
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