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.
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