The indifference with which even the crime of murder is regarded among
the lower classes of the Italians, is remarkably illustrated by the
following anecdote: A gentleman of Naples, in passing occasionally
before the king’s palace, had frequently noticed a man of singular
appearance at work. He was chained to some others, and assisted in
removing rubbish, and bringing stones for a new building, the foundation
of which had been just laid. The man, by having often seen him pass,
recollected his person, and always took off his hat as he found an
opportunity. The gentleman not knowing how to account for his attention,
was induced one day, to inquire the cause of his civility and of his
chains. To the first part of the query he answered, in the Neapolitan
style, that it was “il suo dovere, his duty;” and to the second he said,
that he was in that predicament for “una minchioneriæ, a trifle. Ho
ammazanta solamente una donna,” said he “I have only killed a woman.”
Necessity is the prompter and guide of mankind in their inventions.
There is however, such inequality in some parts of their progress and
some nations get so far the start of others in circumstances nearly
similar, that we must ascribe this to some events in their history, or
to some peculiarities in their situation, with which we are
unacquainted. The people in the Island of Otaheite, in the southern
Pacific Ocean, far excel most of the Americans in the knowledge and
practice of the arts of ingenuity; and yet, when they were first
discovered by captain Wallis, it appeared, that they had not invented
any method of boiling water; and having no vessel that would bear the
fire, they had no more idea that water could be made hot, than that it
could be made solid.
[[Source:
Original: _A Comparative Sketch of England and Italy, with
Disquisitions on National Advantages_ (London, 1793), ii, 37-39.
This passage is also quoted in _The Analytical Review_, September
1793.]]
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