of simplicity and nature;-and the charm of these statues is, that while they emulate, they have not borrowed any thing from the works of the ancients. A bust of Lord Byron-a good likeness. 11th. Removed from the Via degli otto Cantoni to the Piazza Mignanelli. The fatigue of mounting 104 steps after a morning's excursion was intolerable;-to say nothing of the fish-stalls, and the other noises of the Corso; amongst which, I was not a little surprised by a daily morning serenade from the odious squeaking bag-pipe. Who could have expected to meet this instrument so far from Scotland?-and yet it is indigenous in this land of music, that is, in the more southern part of it-in Calabria. Walked on the Pincian Hill; where the French constructed an excellent promenade. Here all the beauty and fashion of Rome resort, when the weather is fine, to parade, either in their equipages, or on foot, and discuss the gossip and tittle-tattle of the town. The day was beautiful, and the elastic purity of the air has given me an agreeable foretaste of the charms of an Italian spring. Pauline, the Princess Borghese, was on the walk, with a bevy of admirers ;—as smart and pretty a little bantam figure as can be imagined. She bears a strong resemblance to her brother Napoleon; and her genius seems also to partake of the same character, and to scorn the restrictions of ordinary rules. The symmetry of her figure is very striking, and she once sat, if that be the phrase, to Canova; who modelled her statue as a Venus victrix lying on a couch. This statue is now at the Borghese palace, but it is kept under lock and key, and cannot be seen without a special order from Pauline herself. 12th. Sudden change in the weather.-Excessive cold.-Thermometer in the shade at 29. -Passed the morning in the Vatican, of which I have as yet said nothing, for the subject is almost inexhaustible. The extent of this vast palace may be collected from the number of rooms contained in it, which are said to amount to eleven thousand. The library is one of the largest in the world; but a stranger has no time to examine its treasures. Amongst the curiosities they show is the famous treatise on the seven sacraments, in the handwriting of Henry VIII., which that orthodox prince sent to the Pope, with this distich ; Anglorum Rex Henricus, Leo Decime, mittit Here also you see many curious relics of Roman furniture, with a sample of their household gods, which are the queerest little things in the world; and if Æneas's were not on a larger scale, he might have carried away a hundred of them-in his pocket, The galleries of Raphael are so called from the famous fresco ceilings, which were painted by him and his scholars. The whole history of the Bible is depicted on the ceilings of these galleries, beginning with the creation of the world. Such a subject must fail in any hands-for what pencil can delineate the great Spirit? Raphael has done as much as painter could do, but it is impossible for a finite mind to imagine infinity, or give a suitable form to that Being who has neither beginning nor end. It is Montaigne, I believe, who says that every animal were to draw a picture of the Divinity, each would clothe him in its own figure; and a negro painter would, I presume, certainly give him a black complexion. Such personifications and representations would at once appear to us in the highest degree ridiculous; but perhaps it is only one degree less so, to see him under the figure of an old man, with a long beard, as Raphael has done it, with all his limbs at work, separating if the elements with bodily energy. Eustace finds fault with the figure, and points out the inferiority of this corporeal exertion, to the sublime description of Moses. No one will deny that the description of the Almighty fiat;—" Let there be light, and there was light"-conveys a more sublime idea to the mind, than the picture of the painter;-but this is not the painter's fault; he cannot speak to the mind by the alphabet. His language is in his brush, and he must represent, and not describe; and I know not how he could represent the action of the creation otherwise than by making the Creator corporeally at work. It would not do to place him in tranquil majesty, with a scroll appended to his mouth, as we see in some old pictures, inscribed with—yeveσow $ws, xai EYEVETO—"Let there be light, and light was." The only fault then is the choice of the subject; and for this Raphael is not answerable. He was ordered to represent the whole scripture history, and the creation was too important a part to be comitted. But let future painters profit by Raphael's failure-and let no one hereafter venture to personify that great first Cause, which "passeth all understanding." The Chambers of Raphael are those which were painted by him in fresco; but these works are sharing the fate of all other frescos; it is grievous to witness the progress of decay-for the School of Athens deserves to be immortal. There is now a small collection of oil paintings in the Vatican, composed of those which have been brought back from France: but which have not been restored to the places from whence they were taken. Amongst these are the St. Jerome of Domenichino, and the famous Transfiguration of Raphael. Of this picture so much has been said, that it is almost impossible to say more. But I suspect this is a memorable instance of the disposition of mankind to follow the leader, and echo the praise which they do not understand, Painters have expressed more admiration than they felt, and the multitude have followed them without feeling any admiration at all. The want of unity in the action is a fault that must strike every body, and Smollett is for getting rid of this by cutting the painting asunder, and thus making two pictures of it. The composition of the picture-by which I suppose is meant the conception of the subject and the arrangement of the figures-is pointed |