This they have never omitted during
their lives. I have taught them from their birth to obey God and to
honour their parents. These two principles have made them a religious
and moral family. They have kept us united, and sustained us under
severe trials.'
'Yet such talents as you all possess,' said Sidonia, 'should have
exempted you from any very hard struggle, especially when united, as
apparently in your case, with well-ordered conduct.'
'It would seem that they should,' said Baroni, 'but less talents than we
possess would, probably, obtain as high a reward. The audiences that we
address have little feeling for art, and all these performances, which
you so much applauded last night, would not, perhaps, secure even the
feeble patronage we experience, if they were not preceded by some feats
of agility or strength.'
'You have never appealed to a higher class of audience?'
'No; my father was a posture-master, as his father was before him. These
arts are traditionary in our family, and I care not to say for what
length of time and from what distant countries we believe them to have
been received by us. My father died by a fall from a tight rope in the
midst of a grand illumination at Florence, and left me a youth. I count
now only sixty-and-thirty summers.
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