Yet this" (again added De Montaigne after a pause)--"this melancholy malady in my brother-in-law would cure itself, perhaps, if he were not Italian.

In your animated and bustling country, after sufficient disappointment as a poet, he would glide into some other calling, and his vanity and craving for effect would find a rational and manly outlet.

But in Italy, what can a clever man do, if he is not a poet or a robber?
If he love his country, that crime is enough to unfit him for civil employment, and his mind cannot stir a step in the bold channels of speculation without falling foul of the Austrian or the Pope.

No; the best I can hope for Castruccio is, that he will end in an antiquary, and dispute about ruins with the Romans.

Better that than mediocre poetry." Maltravers was silent and thoughtful.