Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/21

Rh everywhere a beauty beyond description!—May the state of Piedmont be as good as it is beautiful and affluent, and—then it will be the pearl of all the kingdoms of the earth. But the government and the people have a great deal to do to attain to this great requirement. Those begging children which swarm upon this road cry aloud for the means of education and food. The large island of Sardinia, formerly under the Roman sway—well cultivated and richly populated, is at this moment a wilderness, pleasant only to hunters, and artists, who love the picturesque in costume and nature; and Savoy has a poor, half-savage, population! But Piedmont is a young state in an old, long-neglected, country. It is a youthful knight, well equipped by our Lord to enter the arena of the time, to encounter the old dragon, and liberate the people, fettered by its power. The people regard the young warrior hopefully, and cry, “Success to thee! young champion!” And so do I, even now!

, November 7th.—Pisa is celebrated for its leaning tower, and for its mild winter air. Travelers come hither for the sake of seeing the tower, and to spend the winter in the city for the benefit of the mild, salubrious, winter air. But for all the world's towers and all the world's health, I would not reside in Pisa. Because, Pisa strikes me as a hospital where nothing flourishes excepting—misery. The sky is gray; the earth is gray; the city is gray; the Arno is gray; and the quays along the river are crowded with beggars, young and old, children, old men, old women, people with one leg, and people without legs, or without arms, the blind, halt and lame, who all surround,