r great anxiety
was to eclipse ourselves as much as possible; and I assure you that
under this system we never fancied ourselves the central points of
importance round which all the rest of the world was to revolve,--an
idea which, thanks to absurd indulgence and flattery, is often forcibly
thrust, I may say, into poor little brains, which if left to themselves
would never have lost their natural simplicity.

The lessons of 'Galateo' were not enforced at dinner only. Even at other
times we were forbidden to raise our voices or interrupt the
conversation of our elders, still more to quarrel with each other. If
sometimes as we went to dinner I rushed forward before Matilde, my
father would take me by the arm and make me come last, saying, "There is
no need to be uncivil because she is your sister." The old generation in
many parts of Italy have the habit of shouting and raising their voices
as if their interlocutor were deaf, interrupting him as if he had no
right to speak, and poking him in the ribs and otherwise, as if he could
only be convinced by sensations of bodily pain. The regulations observed
in my family were therefore by no means superfluous; and would to
Heaven they were universally adopted as the law of the land!

On another occasion my excellent mother gave me a lesson of humility,
which I shall never forget any more than the place where I received it.

In the open part of the Cascine, which was once used as a race-course,
to the right of the space where the carriages stand, there is a walk
alongside the wood. I was walking there one day with my mother, followed
by an old servant, a countryman of Pylades; less heroic than the latter,
but a very good fellow too. I forget why, but I raised a little cane I
had in my hand, and I am afraid I struck him. My mother, before all the
passers-by, obliged me to kneel down and beg his pardon. I can still see
poor Giacolin taking off his hat with a face of utter bewilderment,
quite unable to comprehend how it was that the Chevalier Massimo
Taparelli d'Azeglio came to be at his feet.

An indifference to bodily pain was another of the precepts most
carefully instilled by our father; and as usual, the lesson was made
more impressive by example whenever an opportunity presented itself. If,
for instance, we complained of any slight pain or accident, our father
used to say, half in fun, half in earnest, "When a Piedmontese has both
his arms and legs broken, and has received