"The Sunday meetings may have continued four or five years. These Sabbaths of studious Christians, this exchange of subjects, this interchange of thought between the proposers, the day, the pure elevation of mind they brought as it were with them, the situation, the beauty of the country, the transparent skies of a southern climate, the low murmurs of the bay, would all be favourable to the purpose of Valdés."[14]
[14] Introduction to Wiffen's translation of the "Alfabeto Christiano."
The extreme beauty of this extract will preclude the need of apology for its length, especially as the general reader could not otherwise have access to it; for I believe only a hundred copies for private circulation have been printed of the work to which Mr. Wiffen has affixed his delightful introduction.
"O, evenings worthy of the gods!" exclaimed
The Sabine bard. "O, evenings," I reply,
"More to be prized and coveted than yours,
As more illumined, and with nobler truths."
Cowper, "The Task," book iv.
Verini has described the charms of Lorenzo's farm at Poggio Cajano, and Politian has left us a delightful description of his summer evenings at Fiesole.