PREFACE

GREAT nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts;-the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last. The acts of a nation may be triumphant by its good fortune; and its words mighty by the genius of a few of its children: but its art, only by the general gifts and common sympathies of the race.¹

Again, the policy of a nation may be compelled, and, therefore, not indicative of its true character. Its words may be false, while yet the race remain unconscious of their falsehood; and no historian can assuredly detect the hypocrisy. But art is always instinctive; and the honesty or pretence of it is therefore open to the day. The Delphic oracle may or may not have been spoken by an honest priestess,-we cannot tell by the words of it; a liar may rationally believe them a lie, such as he would himself have spoken; and a true man, with equal reason, may believe them spoken in truth. But there is no question possible in art: at a glance (when we have learned to read) we know the religion of Angelico to be sincere, and of Titian, assumed.

The evidence, therefore, of the third book is the most vital to our knowledge of any nation’s life; and the history of Venice is chiefly written in such manuscript. It once

¹ [Compare Laws of Fésole, ch. i. § 6 (Vol. XV. p. 353), and Vol. XIX. p. 250.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]