The Argosy — page 149: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

134 In Sunny Climes. might boldly do and dare anything ; death would keep away. Their bed was certainly not one of rose leaves. They might with truth say that ‘‘ their lines were cast in hard places.” I wondered whether they remained there all night, and if so, how they felt when they woke in the morning. But we did not question them. Let sleeping dogs lie is a proverb that may safely be extended to human kind: and especially to Italian human kind. We gazed upon the quiet waters. The city lay around, its hum and din hushed in the gradual repose of night. The Hours are not all laughing and dancing. There is the darker side, when Sleep reigns ; Sleep, the brother of Death. Before us stretched the heights of S. Miniato, of Fiesole. Lights gleamed about like stars shining out of the darkness. Within a small radius of this very spot were priceless monuments, countless treasures of art. The very air seemed to breathe out much that was famous in past history—beautiful in the world of artistic creation. One felt the influence stealing over one subtly as spreading incense or the perfume of a rose—the flower for which Florence is famous. ‘The Queen of flowers for this Queen of cities: like unto like. Mauleverer was silent and apparently contemplative; a strange thing for him when we were together, for the one loved to talk quite as much as the other loved to listen. In this, perhaps, was the ‘secret sympathy.” ‘The one mind was receptive, the other com- municative ; the one was reflective, the other delighted in giving voice to instant impressions and emotions. ‘The one lived very much in a world of dreams and contemplations, the other was ever in the present moment, the passing scene. The latter temperament un- doubtedly extracts most pleasure from life; most /zves its life; is most full of action. The other case may have its own delights and advantages; deeper and more lasting thoughts and pleasures, possibly ; but there is a danger of wasting time in visions; of forming great plans and magnificent schemes that will prove mere castles in the air ; of passing into a passive condition in which life is reduced to a theory and many sins of omission have to be recorded. Yet it is well to have all phases of life and character to strike an even balance in the world; the round and the square holes must all be filled by their respective tenants. Mauleverer, I have said, was silent and contemplative to-night : and I wondered. ‘Of what are you thinking?” I presently asked, afraid that his temperament was taking a turn and developing into the reflective mood. And that would never have done. Imagine two reflective moods going about the world together as sober and lively as owls at midday: growing tired of each other’s ‘ unuttered thoughts ” and falling into suicidal frames of mind. You may be wise as Solon and witty as King Charles of frivolous memory, but if you keep it all to yourself, you may just as well have been born with a narrower intel- COMIC OOOKS (eo)