It was not, however, till after a long and profound sleep throughout the dreams and visions of the middle ages, that the human mind was at last effectually roused to action; and in none of the countries throughout Europe more decidedly than in Italy and England. But still, for some great moral purpose, worthy of infinite wisdom, and to be afterwards disclosed, that mind, throughout all these western kingdoms, was first to be permitted to discover what was the utmost vigour of its native strength.
First came the age of the chisel, and the painter's pencil, and the pen, not to say of the music of the human voice. Those stupendous fabrics, which began to be erected from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, in which the massive dullness of the Lombards, was giving way to the influence of the Saracens of Spain, still stand out in proof, that many hands were already busy, under the guidance of some presiding ingenious mind. Literature and the fine arts, more especially classical learning, painting, and sculpture, were then to enjoy that triumph, the spoils of which now adorn the walls of every palace, as well as the cabinets and libraries, the galleries and public rooms of every city in Europe. This triumph, too, must take place in ITALY, or in the very seat of that extraordinary power which had ruled for ages, with unmeasured sway, over all the west; for, throughout the long preceding night, it could never be said that Rome herself had been either asleep or inactive. The Eternal City, as it was styled, the Lady of Kingdoms, like the Assyrian of old, having "found out as a nest the riches of the people; as one gathereth eggs that are left, so had she gathered all the earth;" and, generally speaking, it was only here and there that some solitary individual "moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped."
There was, however, one singular peculiarity belonging to this power. Ruling over the mind, its vigour seemed to increase with its remoteness from the seat of government; and the thunders of the Vatican, unlike those of nature, often struck terror in proportion to the distance at which they were heard. This much at least is certain, that though Great Britain and Ireland formed the utmost confines of that power on the west, there was no country between these islands and Italy where the Roman Pontiff felt such confidence of his strength, nor one which was more harassed and oppressed by his pecuniary exactions. The western states of Europe, even the most remote, had, indeed, all couched down under their burdens, and that for ages, before the full claims of the Rota, or pontifical conclave, were admitted upon Italian ground. Nor is this mystery inexplicable. Kings, however despotic, had by degrees been moulded to subjection; but the stern Republics of Italy, composed of a metal