in its subsequent operation, of the
Fall of Venice; or (secondly) whether the establishment of the
oligarchy itself be not the sign and evidence rather than the cause, of
national enervation; or (lastly) whether, as I rather think, the history
of Venice might not be written almost without reference to the
construction of her senate or the prerogatives of her Doge. It is the
history of a people eminently at unity in itself, descendants of Roman
race, long disciplined by adversity, and compelled by its position
either to live nobly or to perish:--for a thousand years they fought for
life; for three hundred they invited death; their battle was rewarded,
and their call was heard.

"Throughout her career, the victories of Venice, and, at many periods of
it, her safety, were purchased by individual heroism; and the man who
exalted or saved her was sometimes (oftenest) her king, sometimes a
noble, sometimes a citizen. To him no matter, nor to her: the real
question is, not so much what names they bore, or with what powers they
were intrusted, as how they were trained, how they were made masters of
themselves, servants of their country, patient of distress, impatient of
dishonor; and what was the true reason of the change from the time when
she could find saviours among those whom she had cast into prison, to
that when the voices of her own children commanded her to sign covenant
with Death.

"The evidence which I shall be able to deduce from the arts of Venice
will be both frequent and irrefragable, that the decline of political
prosperity was exactly coincident with that of domestic and individual
religion. I say domestic and individual; for--and this is the second
point which I wish the reader to keep in mind--the most curious
phenomenon in all Venetian history is the vitality of religion in
private life, and its deadness in public policy. Amidst the enthusiasm,
chivalry, or fanaticism of the other states of Europe, Venice stands,
from first to last, like a masked statue; her coldness impenetrable, her
exertion only aroused by the touch of a secret spring. That spring was
her commercial interest,--this the one motive of all her important
political acts, or enduring national animosities. She could forgive
insults to her honor, but never rivalship in her commerce; she
calculated the glory of her conquests by their value, and estimated
their justice by their faculty. The fame of success remains, when the
motives of attempt ar