Sir Ignazio Gavino Bona Vita

Abstract

THE life of every human being has been compared by a philosopher to the adventure of a traveller who strives to ford a broad, swiftly flowing stream, full of slippery rocks, hidden currents and treacherous quicksands... Sooner or later the pilgrim is swept away and submerged. Finally he sinks, leaving behind him perhaps no trace, perhaps a bubble on the surface, quickly dissolved and forgotten, or perchance a fragment of flotsam to be picked up by a later traveller." 1) No more than a fragment, which is the mark of insufficiency; and, this second traveller's task is indeed no easy one. He may endeavour to decipher the story which the fragmentary flotsam is able to relate; but a second cycle of obstacles comes his way and he will feel extremely happy, if he succeeds in giving same sort of realistic shape to the bubble or flotsam that he surveys.