Odo himself was already conscious of living
in a many-windowed house, with outlooks diverse enough to justify more
than one view of the universe; but he had no conception of that
concentration of purpose that may make the mind's flight to its goal as
direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird. The talk turning on
Gamba, Crescenti spoke of the help which the hunchback gave him in his
work among the poor.
"His early hardships," said he, "have given him an insight into
character that my happier circumstances have denied me; and he has more
than once been the means of reclaiming some wretch that I despaired of.
Unhappily, his parts and learning are beyond his station, and will not
let him rest in the performance of his duties. His mind, I often tell
him, is like one of those inn parlours hung with elaborate maps of the
three Heretical Cities; whereas the only topography with which the
virtuous traveller need be acquainted is that of the Heavenly City to
which all our journeyings should tend. The soundness of his heart
reassures me as to this distemper of the reason; but others are less
familiar with his good qualities and I tremble for the risks to which
his rashness may expose him."
The librarian went on to say that Gamba had a pretty poetical gift which
he was suspected of employing in the composition of anonymous satires on
the court, the government and the Church. At that period every Italian
town was as full of lampoons as a marsh of mosquitoes, and it was as
difficult in the one case as the other for the sufferer to detect the
specific cause of his sting.
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