are critics who will tell you that the
Boor of Teniers is more true to Nature than the Porter of Guido! The
commonplace public scarcely understand the idealising principle, even in
art; for high art is an acquired taste.

But to come to my comparison. Still less is the kindred principle
comprehended in conduct. And the advice of worldly prudence would as
often deter from the risks of virtue as from the punishments of vice;
yet in conduct, as in art, there is an idea of the great and beautiful,
by which men should exalt the hackneyed and the trite of life. Now
Glyndon felt the sober prudence of Mervale's reasonings; he recoiled
from the probable picture placed before him, in his devotion to the one
master-talent he possessed, and the one master-passion that, rightly
directed, might purify his whole being as a strong wind purifies the
air.

But though he could not bring himself to decide in the teeth of so
rational a judgment, neither could he resolve at once to abandon the
pursuit of Viola. Fearful of being influenced by Zanoni's counsels and
his own heart, he had for the last two days shunned an interview with
the young actress. But after a night following his last conversation
with Zanoni, and that we have just recorded with Mervale,--a night
coloured by dreams so distinct as to seem prophetic, dreams that
appeared so to shape his future according to the hints of Zanoni that he
could have fancied Zanoni himself had sent them from the house of sleep
to haunt his pillow,--he resolved once more to seek Viola; and though
without a definite or distinct object, he yielded himself up to the
impulse of his heart.

CHAPTER 2.X.

O sollecito dubbio e fredda tema
Che pensando l'accresci.
Tasso, Canzone vi.

(O anxious doubt and chilling fear that grows by thinking.)

She was seated outside her door,--the young actress! The sea before her
in that heavenly bay seemed literally to sleep in the arms of the shore;
while, to the right, not far off, rose the dark and tangled crags to
which the traveller of to-day is duly brought to gaze on the tomb of
Virgil, or compare with the cavern of Posilipo the archway of Highgate
Hill. There were a few fisherman loitering by the cliffs, on which their
nets were hung to dry; and at a distance the sound of some rustic pipe
(more common at that day than at this), mingled now and then with the
bells of the lazy mules, broke the voluptuous silence,--the silence of
dec