"And yet there is less of it here than in some other countries; in England, for instance."
"We are too busy for such vanities. Besides, we are just now in an unlucky position. A wilderness is one thing; savageness and solitude have a character of their own; and so has a polished landscape with associations of art, poetry, legend, and history."
"And we have destroyed the one, and have not yet found the other."
"And so, between two stools we fall to the ground."
"If you have a liking for a wilderness and primitive scenery, I don't think that you have much reason to complain; for you, at least, have contrived to see something of them."
"And you of the other sort; art and history wedded to nature; at Tivoli, for example,—at the Lake of Albano; where else shall I say?"
"Say, at Giardini, in Sicily."
"Why at Giardini? I never heard of it before."
"Not that the view there is finer than in some other places, though towards evening it is very beautiful. You see the ocean on one side, and the mountains on the other, covered to the top with orange, lemon, and olive trees, and Mount Etna rising above them all, with a spire of white smoke curling out of its crater, tinted with red, yellow, and purple, where the sunset strikes it. On the mountain above you there is an ancient theatre, where a Greek audience once sat on the stone benches, and after them, in their turn, a Roman. On the peak of the mountain over it is a Saracen castle, and, not far off, a Norman tower."
"So that the whole is an embodiment of poetry and history from the days of the Odyssey downwards."