In the days to come, as through all time that is
past, man will lord it over his fellow, and earth will be stained
red from veins of young and old.
That sweet and sounding name of
patria becomes an illusion and a curse; linked with the
pretentious modernism, civilization, it serves as plea to the
latter-day barbarian, ravening and reckless under his civil garb.
How can one greatly wish for the consolidation and prosperity of
Italy, knowing that national vigour tends more and more to
international fear and hatred? They who perished that Italy might be
born again, dreamt of other things than old savagery clanging in new
weapons. In our day there is but one Italian patriot; he who tills
the soil, and sows, and reaps, ignorant or careless of all beyond
his furrowed field.
Whilst I was still thinking of that memorial tablet, I found myself
in front of the Cathedral. As a structure it makes small appeal,
dating only from the seventeenth century, and heavily restored in
times more recent; but the first sight of the facade is strangely
stirring. For across the whole front, in great letters which one who
runs may read, is carved a line from the Acts of the Apostles: -
"Circumlegentes devenimus Rhegium."
Save only those sonorous words which circle the dome of S. Peter's,
I have seen no inscription on Christian temple which seemed to me so
impressive. "We fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium." Paul was on
his voyage from Caesarea to Rome, and here his ship touched, here at
the haven beneath Aspromonte. The fact is familiar enough, but,
occupied as I was with other thoughts, it had not yet occurred to
me; the most pious pilgrim of an earlier day could not have felt
himself more strongly arrested than I when I caught sight of these
words. Were I to inhabit Reggio, I should never pass the Cathedral
without stopping to read and think; the carving would never lose its
power over my imagination. It unites for me two elements of moving
interest: a vivid fact from the ancient world, recorded in the music
of the ancient tongue. All day the words rang in my head, even as at
Rome I have gone about murmuring to myself: "Aedificabo ecclesiam
meam." What a noble solemnity in this Latin speech! And how vast
the historic significance of such monumental words! Moralize who
will; enough for me to hear with delight that deep-toned harmony,
and to thrill with the strangeness of old things made new.
It was Sunday, which at Reggio is a day or market. Crowds of
country-folk had come into the town with the produce of field and
garden; all the open spaces were occupied with temporary stalls; at
hand stood innumerable donkeys, tethered till business should be
over. The produce exhibited was of very fine quality, especially the
vegetables; I noticed cauliflowers measuring more than a foot across
the white.
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