The first line grasps in one handful all the mighty, fair, wealthy Cities of Italy—the second all the rock-cresting Forts of Italy—from the Alpine head to the sea-washed foot of the Peninsula. The collective One Thought of the Human Might and Glory of Italy—as it appears on the countenance of the Land—or visible in its utmost concentration in the girdled Towns and Cities of Men.
BULLER.
"Adde" then is right, Seward. On that North and you are at one.
NORTH.
Yes, it is right, and any other word would be wrong. Adde! Note the sharpness, Buller, of the significance—the vivacity of the short open sound. Fling it out—ring it out—sing it out. Look at the very repetition of the powerful "TOT"—"tot egregias"—"tot congesta"—witnessing by one of the first and commonest rules in the grammar of rhetoric—whether Virgil speaks in prose or in fire.
BULLER.
In fire.
NORTH.
Mr Alison then goes on to say, "that the effect of the following nervous and beautiful lines, in the conclusion of the same Book, is nearly destroyed by a similar defect. After these lines,
"Hanc olim veteres vitam coluêre Sabini,
Hanc Remus et Frater; sic fortis Etruria crevit,
Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma;"