Volume I Part 10 (1/2)
I shall perhaps have wearied ree and birth Satirists will not, however, find in the their pen with ridicule Social ranks have always been regarded by h necessary for the proper subordination on which our institutions depend As for oing Conduct unworthy of a decent origin ht cause sorrow to ht cover myself and all my posterity with shame
My name is Carlo I was the sixth child born by ht, or shall I say the shadows of this world I a on the last day of April in the year 1780 I have passed fifty, and not yet reached the age of sixty[103] I shall not put the sacristan to trouble in order to view the register ofquite sure that I was christened, and not having the stupid vanity to pass for a curled dandy That is obvious, and has been always obvious, from the fashi+on of my clothes and the way I dress e of es; and I have seen boys who are adult, while grown-upbetter than peevish and ridiculous children
II
_My Education and Circu the Art of Improvisation, and my Literary Studies_
Our family consisted of eleven children,but what is creditable of my brothers and sisters, had I proposed to write their ht; and they are capable of writing their own, if the whim should take them; for the epidemic of literature was always chronic in our household
A succession of priests with little learning were our doe I say a succession advisedly; each in turn having earned his dis-maids
From early childhood I was always a silent observer of s, by no means insolent, of imperturbable serenity, and extremely attentive to my lessons My brothers used e They accused htinesses of which they had been guilty I did not condescend to excuse myself or to accuse them, but bore my unjust punishments with stoicism I venture to affirm that no boy was ever more supre sent away fro obedience was my only self-defence Enemies may conclude from these traits of character that I was a stupid lout, and friends that I was a philosopher in e is rarer than the eye of equal justice
Yet any one who takes the trouble to inquire of my acquaintances and servants, will learn that my taciturnity, ed with years--that I continue to view the events of this life with a smile, and that only those have nettled me which touched my honour
[Illustration: SCARAMOUCH (1645)
_Illustrating the Italian Co disorder in our family affairs did not at first deprive us boys of a sound education My two elder brothers, Gasparo and Francesco, went to public schools,[104] and were in tiular curriculuant expenditure, however, coeny, soon rendered anything like an adequate course of studies ier children I was intrusted for some years to a learned country-parson, and then to a priest in Venice, of decent acquirements and excellent morality After this I entered the academy of two Genoese priests, who supplied instruction to some youths of noble birth, and to some of no nobility whatever There were about twenty-five pupils in this academy
We pursued the sa to our classes Here I had the opportunity of observing that teachers are very valuable guides to youths who love learning, and es of ineffectual deities to such as hate it For er for information, I imbibed e of fourteen But sloth and vicious habits extirpate the seeds of learning planted by preceptors in the minds of ill-conditioned lads Therefore I saw, and still see, h of baseness Graet drunk in taverns, to carry sacks for hire upon their shoulders, and to cry ”_Baked apples, plums, and chestnuts!_” about the streets, with a basket on their heads and a pair of scales slung round their waists Wretched fate to be a father!
When I became aware that our do long at school, I determined to utilise the little I had already learned, and to carry on my education by myself My elder brother Gasparo's exanition, and ood-will, kept ine any pleasure worth a thought, beyond reading,
Poetry, choice Italian, and correct style were then in vogue The young men of Venice met to discuss these three topics, which have now been utterly forgotten--possibly for the greater advantage and convenience of our citizens I see crowds of young people, hair-brained, conceited, idle, frivolous, presumptuous, and harmful to society Heaven knohat their studies are! Not poetry, not the niceties of the Italian language, not correction of style And then, forsooth, I am to admire a hurly-burly of well-born persons, who clai whatsoever, who cannot write three lines of a letter which shall express their sentira!
I will omit to observe that respect for nobles in a state is necessary; but that the respect shown sined adulation I will refrain fro that a daily correspondence, e variety of persons--people who may not perhaps be scientific, but who understand whether a letter is ritten or ridiculous--ard, or of occasioning a large part of the contempt, bestowed on nobles I nor Mercier's coence, who found it impossible to write a letter of the utmost importance because his secretary ay fro to those scientific tutors of the scions of our aristocracy, who instil derision and disdain for polite literature and the art of elegance in diction into the brains of their pupils, eometricians, ebraical professors, naturalists, a whole deluge of sciences, but who cannot after all their labour express in writing what they have taught or what the cos, and everything which imposture has presented to my senses and impressed upon my mind, must remain unwritten in my pen I have no wish to make ene so blots upon our papers Just so, while I a these s, however out of place and inconvenient
I am almost ashamed to confess the intense assiduity hich I applied myself to those frivolous literary studies of which I have been speaking They brought on a haee from the nostrils, so violent and so frequent, that I was iven up for dead in the manner of Seneca[105] In their anxiety about my health, my friends hid away all my books, and deprived me of paper and inkstand; but I was the cleverest of thieves in searching for the by stealth in the uninhabited attics of ourthis fact aboutto be considered worthy of a panegyric They are quite lass, and assure them that it is rather ood reason for quizzing rily rebukes excessive application to those studies which are universally esteemed as useless
He reserves his praise for folk who ruin their health in pursuits considered beneficial to humanity; and such, I do not doubt, are the studies affected by himself and his admirers
The Abbe Giovan Antonio Verdani, keeper of the select and extensive library of the patrician family Soranzo, was a man of vast literary erudition He felt compassion for my weakness, which coincided with his own, and directedme the rarest books, masterpieces of pure Italian diction in prose and poetry To estihts in verse and prose, would be beyond my powers I tried to imitate the style of all the early Tuscan writers who are most admired assuredly I never approached the perfection of their language; but I aent and attentive perusal of aof a vast variety of subjects, cannot fail to furnish a better head thanjust reflections and probable conjectures, and with the principles of sound morality I a, pursued hts with facility, propriety of colouring, exactitude of phrase and teray, fanified, which we desire to develop and to communicate under their true aspect in prose or poetry
Without attaining to the mastery of style at which I ai roup of persons who know this truth I also earned the wretchedness of being forced to read with insuperable aversion and disgust the works of many modern Italian authors, which are full of false fancies and sophisms, the rhetoric and diction of which never vary however the subject-ibberish, boible vortices, and with preposterous phraseology The sciences, the discoveries, the branches of neledge which are now so loudly vaunted, ought to be accepted as useful, and are worthy of respect For this reason it is wrong to profane them and to render them contemptible by barbarous ireat reat naturalist, confirards the literature of art and wit and fancy, it is obvious that without correction of style this is absolutely worthless and condemned to merited oblivion No one could count the fine and ample sentiments which perish, s Not less nuhts, duly coloured with appropriate terht point of view by a master-hand, which sparkle before the eyes of every reader, be he learned or si about tastes Yet I think it could be easily maintained that our century has lapsed into a shas I have written and printed quite enough upon the subject; without effect, however; and now I see no reason why I should not utter a last funeral laed to possess Thatthe inutilities of existence, has been freely conceded to overned not by intelligence but by ignorant assumption--so that their opinion does not sustainattained rateful even to the blind and deaf, who see and hear what gives thes
My pursuit of culture advanced on the lines I have described, whether for my happiness or my misfortune it is worthless to inquire I read continually, and wasted enormous quantities of ink; paid close attention to ehezzi; walked in the steps of my brother Gasparo; and frequented a literary society which met daily at our house
Fro more, I learned the first rudiments of French; not that I wished to talk French in Italy, an affectation which I loathed; but because it was rammar and dictionary, to study the books, most excellent in part, in part injurious to society, which issue daily from the French press