11 MAY 1912, Page 15

ITALY IN THE IEGEAlsr.

[To TUR EDITOR OF Till " SPRCTATOR."] Sia,—Italy, more than tired of her North African war, now, these seven months, dragging its slow length along to the tune of 2,000,000 fr. (nosoo) a day, is trying, by naval manoeuvres in the .Egean, to force the non-belligerent Powers, thus incommoded, to intervene in her behalf. The wisdom of this coup is doubtful, and not a few of her well-wishers at home and abroad would fain remind her of the warning sounded in parallel circumstances by her well-inspired son (Horace, Od. I. l4, vv. 16-20) :— "Nuper sollicitum qua° mihi taodium, Nuno desiderbun, ouraque non levis, Interfuse, nitontes

Vitas aequora Cyclades."

The stanza is admirably rendered by Conington :— " Your trouble late made sick this heart of mine,

And still I love you, still am ill at ease, 0 shun the sea, where shine The thick-sown Cyclades."

Florence.