The Contrast Was Very Greatly In Favour Of The
Italians.
One has had the same thought a hundred times in the same
circumstances, but it is worth dwelling upon.
Among these
representative men, young and old, of Catanzaro, the tone of
conversation was incomparably better than that which would rule in a
cluster of English provincials met to enjoy their evening leisure.
They did, in fact, converse - a word rarely applicable to English
talk under such conditions; mere personal gossip was the exception;
they exchanged genuine thoughts, reasoned lucidly on the surface of
abstract subjects. I say on the surface; no remark that I heard
could be called original or striking; but the choice of topics and
the mode of viewing them was distinctly intellectual. Phrases often
occurred such as have no equivalent on the lips of everyday people
in our own country. For instance, a young fellow in no way
distinguished from his companions, fell to talking about a leading
townsman, and praised him for his ingenio simpatico, his bella
intelligenza, with exclamations of approval from those who
listened. No, it is not merely the difference between homely
Anglo-Saxon and a language of classic origin; there is a radical
distinction of thought. These people have an innate respect for
things of the mind, which is wholly lacking to a typical Englishman.
One need not dwell upon the point that their animation was supported
by a tiny cup of coffee or a glass of lemonade; this is a matter of
climate and racial constitution; but I noticed the entire absence of
a certain kind of jocoseness which is so naturally associated with
spirituous liquors; no talk could have been less offensive.
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