smiled on other nations. How Venice dragged onward from the end of her
commercial greatness, and tottered with a delusive splendor to her
political death, is surely one of the saddest of stories if not the
sternest of lessons.



CHAPTER XVII.

VENETIAN HOLIDAYS.


The national character of the Venetians was so largely influenced by the
display and dissipation of the frequent festivals of the Republic, that it
cannot be fairly estimated without taking them into consideration, nor can
the disuse of these holidays (of which I have heretofore spoken) be
appreciated in all its import, without particular allusion to their number
and nature. They formed part of the aristocratic polity of the old
commonwealth, which substituted popular indulgence for popular liberty,
and gave the people costly pleasures in return for the priceless rights of
which they had been robbed, set up national pride in the place of
patriotism, and was as well satisfied with a drunken joy in its subjects
as if they had possessed a true content.

Full notice of these holidays would be history [Footnote: "Siccome," says
the editor of Giustina Renier-Michiel's _Origine delle Feste
Veneziane_,--"Siccome l'illustre Autrice ha voluto applicare al suo
lavoro il modesto titolo di _Origins delle Feste Veneziane_, e
siccome questo potrebbe porgere un' idea assai diversa dell' opera a chi
non ne ha alcuna cognizione, da quello che e sostanzialmente, si espone