to be altogether
transformed and humanised by Rome, when she at the head really of
humanism and art should once more give to the world the thoughts and
life of another people full of joy and temperance--things so hard for
the Christian to understand. And it is really with such a painter as
Giunta Pisano that Christian art pure and simple comes to end. Some
divinity altogether different has touched those who came after: Giotto,
who is enamoured of life which the Christian must deny; Angelico, whose
world is full of a music that is about to become pagan; Botticelli, who
has mingled the tears of Mary with the salt of the sea, and has seen a
new star in heaven, and proclaimed the birth not of the Nazarene, but
the Cyprian.

But it is not such thoughts as these you will find in Livorno, one of
the busiest towns in Italy, full of modern business life; material in
the manner of the Latin people that by reason of some inherent purity of
heart never becomes sordid in our fashion.

"There is absolutely nothing to see in Leghorn," says Mr. Hare. Well,
but that depends on what you seek, does it not? If you would see a
Tuscan city that is absolutely free from the tourist, I think you must
go to Livorno. It is true, works of art are not many there; but the
statue of Grand Duke Ferdinand, with four Moors in bronze chained to his
feet, a work of Piero Jacopo Tacca, made in 1617-1625, is something;
though I confess those chained robbers at the feet of a petty tyrant who
was as great a robber, he and his forebears, as any among them, are in
this age of sentimental liberalism, from which who can escape, a little
disconcerting. Ferdinand has his best monument in the city itself, which
he founded to take the place of Porto Pisano, that in the course of
centuries had silted up. In order to populate the new port, he
proclaimed there a religious liberty he denied to his Duchy at large.
His policy was splendidly successful. Every sort of outcast made Livorno
his home--especially the Jews, for whom Ferdinando had a great respect;
but there were there Greeks also, and _nuovi christiani_, Moors
converted to Christianity. These last, I think, indeed, must have been
worth seeing; for no doubt Ferdinand's politic grant of religious
liberty did not include Moors who had not been "converted to
Christianity."

But the great days of Livorno are over; though who may say if a new
prosperity does not await her in the near future, she is so busy a
place