What is most mystical and peculiarly classic Italian is the belief that the earth on which a human being has trod can be used wherewith to conjure him. This subject is treated elsewhere in my “Etruscan Roman Traditions.” The great stone at the base of the column was a kind of palladium of the city of Florence. There are brief notices of it in many works. It would be curious if it still exists somewhere and can be identified. “A great palladium, whose virtues lie In undefined remote antiquity; A god unformed, who sleeps within a stone, Which sculptor’s hand as yet has never known; Brought in past ages from some unknown shore; Our fathers worshipped it—we know no more.” LEGENDS OF OR’ SAN MICHELE “The spirit of Antiquity, enshrined In sumptuous buildings, vocal in sweet song, In pictures speaking with heroic tongue, And with devout solemnities entwined.” —WORDSWORTH, “_Bruges_.” Or’ San Michele is a very beautiful church in the Italian Gothic style in the Via Calzaioli. It was originally a market or stable below and a barn or granary above, whence some derive its name from _Horreum Sancti Michaelis_, and others from the Italian _Orto_, a garden, a term also applied to a church-congregation. “The statues and decorations on the exterior are among the best productions of the Florentine school of sculpture.” As that of Saint Eloy or San Eligio, the blacksmith, with great pincers at an anvil, in a sculpture representing a horse being shod, is the most conspicuous on the façade, the people have naturally concluded that the church was originally a stable or smithy. The legend of the place is as follows: LA CHIESA OR’ SAN MICHELE. “This was originally a stable and coach-house (_rimessa_), and there was a hayloft above. Every night the horses were heard to neigh, and in the morning they were found all curried and well managed, and no one knew who did it; but none of the grooms ever shed any tears over it that ever I heard of. “Now, the master of the place had a son, a priest named Michele, who was so holy that he worked many miracles, so that all began to call him a saint. And after he died he appeared to his parents in a dream, and told them that the stable and barn should be transformed into a church, and that he would read mass therein thrice a day. “But his parents wished to have him buried under the altar of a church which was on their estate in the country, but the saint did not wish to be buried there.