Page:Fors Clavigera, Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain.djvu/64

56 56 Fors Clavigera. the minds of men : and of the sources of Assyrian power, and causes of the Assyrian ruin in Birs Nemroud, out of which you have had those hunting-pieces brought to the narrow passage in the British Museum. For further subject of thought, this month, read of Carey's Dante, the 31st canto of the * Inferno,' with extreme care ; and for your current writing lesson, copy these lines of Italics, which I have printed in as close resemblance as I can to the Italics of the Aldine edition of 1502. P cro che come in su la cerchia tonda Monte reggion di torri si corona^ Cosi la proda cbe*l pozzo circonda T orregiavan di mezza la persona Gli orribili giganti; cui minaccia Gtove del cielo anchora, quando tona. The putting of the capital letters that begin the stanza, outside, is a remaining habit of the scribes who wrote for the illuminator, and hidicated the letter to be enlarged with ornament at the side of the text. Of these larger capitals, the A given in last Fors is of a Byzantine Greek school, in which, though there is much quiet grace, there is no elasticity or force in the lines. They are always languid, and without spring or evidence of nervous force in the hand. They are not, therefore, perfect models for !finglish writers, though they are useful as exercises in tranquillity of