appreciation of beauty and impassioned contemplation of its ideal forms, was, in fact, his; yet of what worth was it,—what did it mean to either God or man? The Northern idealist, the Puritan, cannot dispense with some serviceableness as essential to any high living. One should not push the point too far, however. Independently of all that has been said, any one who cares to think on counsels of perfection for man's life will find profound and original thought about the ideal elements still at hand in modern days for use, and many wise reflections, sown in this history. It is a rare work, and not carelessly to be read. Some exquisiteness of taste, some delight in scholarship, some knowledge of what is best worth knowing in the historic expressions of man's aspiration, and, above all, that "inward tacitness of mind" the reader must bring to its perusal. What of it? Have we not the highest authority for casting our pearls where Circe's herd cannot come?
IV. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE.
The traditional romance that hangs about Italy has fostered a popular misapprehension of nearly all things Italian. As the mother
