Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . ng the tree of libertybloomed anew, and the purple mantle of the bigot king fell from his shoulders like abeggars rags. The hymn of freedom sounded over the stormy straits to the mainland,and freedom herself leaped across them. A new life burgeoned from the ruins, and theisland sowed the seed of hope upon her fields and plains. She lives now upon this germinating hope. Will the blossom unfold itself at last inall its old glory and fullness ? That lies still in the councils of the gods! So the population of to-day is the child of a changeful story. But antiqu
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . ng the tree of libertybloomed anew, and the purple mantle of the bigot king fell from his shoulders like abeggars rags. The hymn of freedom sounded over the stormy straits to the mainland,and freedom herself leaped across them. A new life burgeoned from the ruins, and theisland sowed the seed of hope upon her fields and plains. She lives now upon this germinating hope. Will the blossom unfold itself at last inall its old glory and fullness ? That lies still in the councils of the gods! So the population of to-day is the child of a changeful story. But antique blood nolonger flows in its veins. Two races divide the possession of the island; all the othershaving been sifted out: these two are the Italian race in the north and east, and theAfrican Saracenic in the south ; but even these two have not remained quite pure andunmixed. In both races both faults and virtues are more strongly and sharply markedthan in the Italians of the continent. A fiery passionateness is the essence of their. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS A VOYAGE ROUND THE ISLAND. 453 character. Love is a fierce passion with them : hatred, mockery, song, dance, patriotism,all spring from a never-resting volcanic force in them which too frequently shoots out farbeyond the limits of beauty and order. The Sicilian is a true son of his native land ; andas the latter can boast that it never knows a day entirely without sunshine, so yourgenuine Sicilian is never utterly depressed and cast down to earth even in the season ofhis deepest sorrows. Poetry comes to his aid and helps him to endure, even as she helpshis much more unhappy and gloomy neighbour, the Calabrian, over yonder. To nocountry on earth can the poets words be better applied, when he says : Amid the ruins sprouts a tender green,And the cicala shrills his clearest , in the midst of ruin oft resoundsThe cheeriest shout of joy ! A VOYAGE ROUND THE ISLAND. Tenderest fleecy clouds float oer the snowfields of
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
