the nobles and richer ecclesiastics, I find nowhere due notice, nor
does any historian seriously examine their manner of life. Liable to
every form of robbery and oppression, I yet regard their state as not
only morally but physically happier than that of riotous soldiery, or
the lower class of artizans, and as the safeguard of every civilized
nation, through all its worst vicissitudes of folly and crime. Nature
has mercifully appointed that seed must be sown, and sheep folded,
whatever lances break, or religions fail; and at this hour, while the
streets of Florence and Verona are full of idle politicians, loud of
tongue, useless of hand and treacherous of heart, there still may be
seen in their market-places, standing, each by his heap of pulse or
maize, the grey-haired labourers, silent, serviceable, honourable,
keeping faith, untouched by change, to their country and to Heaven. [1]

[Footnote 1: Compare "Sesame and Lilies," sec. 38, p. 58. (P. 86 of the
small edition of 1882.)

82. It is extremely difficult to determine in what degree the feelings
or intelligence of this class influenced the architectural design of
the thirteenth century;--how far afield the cathedral tower was
intended to give delight, and to what simplicity of rustic conception
Quercia or Ghiberti appealed by the fascination of their Scripture
history. You may at least conceive, at this date, a healthy animation
in all men's minds, and the children of the vineyard and sheepcote
crowding the city on its festa days, and receiving impulse to busier,
if not nobler, education, in its splendour. [1]

[Footnote 1: Of detached abbeys, see note on Education of Joan of Arc,
"Sesame and Lilies," sec. 82, p. 106. (P. 158 of the small edition of
1882.)]