[22] A living poet of Italy, who will be placed by his prose among the great names of his country's literature, in a remarkable ode which he has thrown on the urn of Napoleon invites posterity to judge whether his career of battle was True Glory. "Fu vera gloria? Ai posteri L'ardua sentenza."--MANZONI, _Il Cinque Maggio_. When men learn to appreciate moral grandeur, the easy sentence will be rendered. [23] Napier, Book XII. ch. 7, Vol. III. p. 543. [24] Alison, Ch. 64, Vol. VIII. p. 589. [25] Ibid., Ch. 67, Vol. VIII. p. 871. [26] Ibid., Ch. 68, Vol. VIII. p. 930. Ségur, Hist. de Napoléon, Liv. IX. ch. 7, Tom. II. p. 153. Labaume, Rel. de la Campagne de Russie, Liv. VII. [27] Alison, Ch. 72, Vol. IX. pp. 469, 553. * * * * * Here I might close this scene of blood. But there is one other picture of the atrocious, though natural, consequences of war, occurring almost within our own day, that I would not omit. Let me bring to your mind Genoa, called the Superb, City of Palaces, dear to the memory of American childhood as the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, and one of the spots first enlightened by the morning beams of civilization, whose merchants were princes, and whose rich argosies, in those early days, introduced to Europe the choicest products of the East, the linen of Egypt, the spices of Arabia, and the silks of Samarcand. She still sits in queenly pride, as she sat then,--her mural crown studded with towers,--her churches rich with marble floors and rarest pictures,--her palaces of ancient doges and admirals yet spared by the hand of Time,--her close streets thronged by a hundred thousand inhabitants,--at the foot of the Apennines, as they approach the blue and tideless waters of the Mediterranean Sea,--leaning her back against their strong mountain-sides, overshadowed by the foliage of the fig-tree and the olive, while the orange and the lemon with pleasant perfume scent the air where reigns perpetual spring. Who can contemplate such a city without delight? Who can listen to the story of her sorrows without a pang?