forgotten, to guide the explorer in his reconstruction of a buried past.
While one town appears to respect the feudal lordship of great families,
another pronounces nobility to be a crime, and forces on its citizens
the reality or the pretense of labor. Some recognize the supremacy of
ecclesiastics. Others, like Venice, resist the least encroachment of the
Church, and stand aloof from Roman Christianity in jealous isolation.
The interests of one class are maritime, of another military, of a third
industrial, of a fourth financial, of a fifth educational. Amalfi, Pisa,
Genoa, and Venice depend for power upon their fleets and colonies; the
little cities of Romagna and the March supply the Captains of adventure
with recruits; Florence and Lucca live by manufacture; Milan by banking;
Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, owe their wealth to students attracted by their
universities. Foreign alliances or geographical affinities connect one
center with the Empire of the East, a second with France, a third with
Spain. The North is overshadowed by Germany; the South is disquieted by
Islam. The types thus formed and thus discriminated are vital, and
persist for centuries with the tenacity of physical growths. Each
differentiation owes its origin to causes deeply rooted in the locality.
The freedom and apparent waywardness of nature, when she sets about to
form crystals of varying shapes and colors, that shall last and bear her
stamp for ever, have governed their uprising and their progress to
maturity. At the same time they exhibit the keen jealousies and mutual
hatreds of rival families in the animal kingdom. Pisa destroys Amalfi;
Genoa, Pisa; Venice, Genoa; with ruthless and remorseless egotism in the
conflict of commercial interests. Florence enslaves Pisa because she
needs a way to the sea. Siena and Perugia, upon their inland altitudes,
consume themselves in brilliant but unavailing efforts to expand. Milan
engulfs the lesser towns of Lombardy. Verona absorbs Padua and Treviso.
Venice extends dominion over the Friuli and the Veronese conquests.
Strife and covetousness reign from the Alps to the Ionian Sea. But it is