I. THE THRONE 15

imagined that in the laws which were stretching forth the gloomy margins of those fruitless banks, and feeding the bitter grass among their shallows, there was indeed a preparation, and the only preparation possible, for the founding of a city which was to be set like a golden clasp on the girdle of the earth, to write her history on the white scrolls of the sea-surges, and to word it in their thunder, and to gather and give forth, in world-wide pulsation, the glory of the West and of the East, from the burning heart of her Fortitude and Splendour!¹

¹ It is interesting to compare with this finished passage the first idea of it, which occurs in a letter from the author to his father:-

“[VENICE] October 12 [1851].-... I never saw tides-up and down to all manner of heights at all manner of times. The sea cannot be said to ebb and flow. It shakes up and down. However, I shall have an interesting paragraph about the tides in the first chapter of next volume. For it is curious, rather, that the place where Venice was built, was the only place in the world where it could have been built. Had the tide been the least less than it is, had it been 2½. feet instead of three, the run of water through the streets would not have been enough for their healthy drainage, they would have become slow sewers,-and the people would have been compelled to roof them in, and the town would have become pestiferous, like those on the edge of the Pontines. Had the tide been a foot more than it is, had it been four feet instead of three, no access could have been had to the gondolas at low water except down slimy steps; the entire system of boat carriage must thus have been put an end to.

“No woman, no gaily dressed cavalier, could have been sure of being able to step into the gondola without a complete Brighton pier of planks and other machinery;-and the result would have been an extension of the city on higher foundations, and common street carriage, as at any other seaport. But this would have implied also the loss of the aristocratic character in the seamanship, and we should have had land nobles as well as sea nobles, and the whole state would have become like that of Pisa or Genoa.

“When people first discovery the peculiar adaptations of an animal or plant to its position, they are apt to exclaim-What wonderful preparation for the existence of this little creature! Whereas, if they knew more of the Universe, they would begin to understand that everything in existence was put in the place it was fit for, and the mere fact of its existence proved that it was in its right place. And so one might look over Europe and see how each town takes its natural position and becomes prosperous if it happens to understand that position, and take due advantage of it; and one might say generally, Genoa grows up in the place for Genoa, and Rotterdam in that for Rotterdam, and Venice in that for Venice. But I am almost disposed to admit a sort of special providence for Venice. The tide at this end of the Adriatic is a mystery no philosopher has explained. The structure of the mouths of the Brenta and Adige is unexampled in the history of Geology. It seems that just in the centre of Europe, and at the point where the influence of the East and West, of the old and new world, were to meet, preparation was made for a city which was to unite the energy of the one with the splendour of the other; and the Sea, which in other countries is an Enemy as well as a Servant, and must be fought with

[Version 0.04: March 2008]