Washington, U.S.A., by The Macmillan Company

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The germ of this book may be found in three essays under the same title published in “Harper’s Magazine” in 1903 and 1904, which had the inestimable advantage of being illustrated by the late Louis Loeb, “the joyous comrade” to whose dear memory this imperfect half of what was planned as a joint labour of love must now be dedicated.

I. Z.

All roads lead from Rome

CONTENTS

PAGE
Of Beauty, Faith, and Death: A Rhapsody by way of Prelude[1]
Fantasia Napolitana: Being a Reverie of Aquariums, Museums, and Dead Christs[17]
The Carpenter’s Wife: a Capriccio[43]
The Earth the Centre of the Universe: or the Absurdity of Astronomy[77]
Of Autocosms without Facts: or the Emptiness of Religions[84]
Of Facts without Autocosms: or the Irrelevancy of Science[104]
Of Facts with Alien Autocosms: or the Futility of Culture[120]
St. Francis: or the Irony of Institutions[137]
The Gay Doges: or the Failure of Society and the Impossibility of Socialism[159]
The Superman of Letters: or the Hypocrisy of Politics[172]
Lucrezia Borgia: or the Myth of History[186]
Sicily and the Albergo Samuele Butler: or the Fiction of Chronology[195]
Intermezzo[205]
Lachrymæ Rerum at Mantua: with a Denunciation of D’Annunzio[214]
Of Dead Sublimities, Serene Magnificences, and Gagged Poets[227]
Variations on a Theme[241]
High Art and Low[249]
An Excursion into the Grotesque: with a Glance at old Maps and Modern Fallacies[259]
An Excursion into Heaven and Hell: with a Depreciation of Dante[280]
St. Giulia and Female Suffrage[298]
Icy Italy: with Venice Rising from the Sea[307]
The Dying Carnival[315]
Napoleon and Byron in Italy: or Letters and Action[320]
The Consolations of Phlebotomy: A Paradox at Pavia[331]
Risorgimento: with some Remarks on San Marino and the Millennium[337]