It Was
His Pet Theory, Supported By A Wealth Of Aptly Cited Lines, That Horace
Was A "Typical Italian Countryman," And Great Was His Delight On
Discovering That I Shared His View And Could Even Add Another - Somewhat
Improper - Utterance Of The Poet's To His Store Of Illustrative Quotations.
They belonged to the old school, these sable philosophers; to the days
when the priest was arbiter of life
And death, and his mere word
sufficient to send a man to the galleys; when the cleverest boys of
wealthy and influential families were chosen for the secular career and
carefully, one might say liberally, trained to fulfil those responsible
functions. The type is becoming extinct, the responsibility is gone, the
profession has lost its glamour; and only the clever sons of pauper
families, or the dull ones of the rich, are now tempted to forsake the
worldly path.
Regarding the origin of this festival, I learned that it was
"tradition." It had been suggested to me that the Virgin had appeared to
a shepherd in some cave near at hand - the usual Virgin, in the usual
cave; a cave which, in the present instance, no one was able to point
out to me. Est traditio, ne quaeras amplius.
My hosts answered questions on this subject with benignant ambiguity,
and did not trouble to defend the divine apparition on the sophistical
lines laid down in Riccardi's "Santuari." The truth, I imagine, is that
they have very sensibly not concerned themselves with inventing an
original legend.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 229 of 488
Words from 61337 to 61589
of 131203
