Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

Ch. IX.

THROUGH ITALY.

337
and corresponding· fame, rose in succession, and
gave Florence, while free, the reputation which
she scarcely forfeited when enslaved, of being
the seat of the sciences, and the mother and nurse
of the Tuscan muse. The struggles which raged
in the meantime in her bosom, and the wars
which she carried on abroad, seem also like the
wars and quarrels of ancient Greece, to have been
no obstacle to her prosperity; and as Athens and
Lacedaemon were never so rich and so populous
as when engaged in mutual debates ; so Florence,
Pisa, and Sienna never contained more inhabit-
ants or displayed greater resources than when
warring upon each other, and marching hostile
legions to each other’s gates. This remark, ap-
plicable to the other Italian republics of the same
period, and indeed to those of both ancient
Greece and Italy, proves that the agitations of a
commonwealth are neither so dangerous to pub-
lic happiness nor so destructive of private felicity,
as the advocates of monarchy wish to persuade
the world. The truth is, that tide of prosperity
which has left so many traces behind, not only
in the cities which I have just mentioned, but in
almost every town in the northern parts of Italy,
such as Mantua, Cremona, Vicentia, and Verona,
was the effect of republican industry ; and most
of the stately edifices which still adorn these
cities, whether public or private, sacred or pro-
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