thing but me. My spirits are as dark as November;-but levius fit patientia! Went to the Borghese Palace, to see and admire again Domenichino's Sibyl.-His Chase of Diana too is a superb picture.-Raphael's Deposition from the Cross has too much of his first manner in the execution;--though it is a noble work in conception and design. Here is a fine collection of Titians ;-but, with all their glowing beauties, I doubt whether the Venetian painters ever give us more than the bodies-either of women, or of men.

7th and 8th. Very unwell;-but Democritus was a wiser man than Heraclitus. Those are the wisest, and the happiest, who can pass through life as a play; who-without making a farce of it, and turning every thing into ridicule—or running into the opposite extreme of tragedy-consider the whole period, from the cradle to the coffin, as a well-bred comedy;—and maintain a cheerful smile to the very last scene. For what is happiness, but a Will-o-the-whisp, a delusion;-a terra incognita-in pursuit of which thousands are tempted out of the harbour of tranquillity, to be tossed about, the sport of the winds of passion, and the waves of disappointment, to be wrecked perhaps at last on the rocks of despair;—unless

they be provided with the sheet-anchor of religion -the only anchor that will hold in all weathers. This is a very stupid allegory, but it was preached to me this morning by a beautiful piece of sculpture, in the studio of Maximilian Laboureur. A female figure of Hope has laid aside her anchor, and is feeding a monstrous chimæra. The care and solicitude of Hope, in tending this frightful creature, are most happily expressed; and the general effect is so touching, that it illustrates Shakspeare's phrase of Sermons in stones, with great felicity.

CHAPTER VII.

Journey to Naples-Pontine Marshes-System of Robbery

-Capua-Naples-Climate-People-Pompeii-Museo Borbonico-Italian Dinners — Evening Parties — Italian Honesty-Neapolitan Army.

9th. WHEN the mind is full of fret and fever, the best remedy is to put the body in motion, which, by establishing an equilibrium between the two, may perhaps restore something like tranquillity to the whole system. It was with this hope that I left Rome, before day-break, on my way to Naples-as fast as four wheels and sixteen legs could carry me;-and there is nothing like the rattling of wheels to scare away blue devils. The road is excellent; and the posting, however defective it may be in the appearance and appointments of the horses, is in point of celerity equal to that on the best regulated road in England.

The Pontine Marshes, of which one has heard such dreadful accounts, appeared to me to differ but little from many parts of Cambridgeshire; though the livid aspect of the miserable inhabitants of this region is a shocking proof of its un

wholesomeness.-The short, but pathetic reply made to an inquiring traveller, is well known"How do you manage to live here?" said he, to a group of these animated spectres-" We die!" -The excellent road which runs through these marshes for twenty-five miles, in a direct line, as straight as an arrow, was the work of the late Pope Pius VI., for which he will receive the thanks of every traveller; but this, like most of his other undertakings, exposed him to the satire of his contemporaries, and it became a proverb, when talking of sums expended in extravagance, to say, -sono andate alle paludi Pontine."

Early in the evening, we reached Terracinathe ancient Anxur of the Romans. Its situation is strikingly beautiful, at the foot of the Apennines, and on the shore of the Mediterranean; and it is backed, as Horace has accurately described, "saxis latè candentibus." We were induced to halt here, by the representations that were made to us of the dangers of travelling after dark. It seems, we are now in the strong hold of the robbers, where they commit the most barefaced outrages.

The man who had no money in his pocket, might formerly dismiss all fear of robbers;-but

in these days, an empty purse is no longer a security. These modern desperadoes carry men away even from their homes, for the sake of the ransom which they think they may extort for their liberation. We are told that two men were lately kidnapped from this neighbourhood, and taken up into the mountains. The friends of the one sent up nearly the sum that was demanded ;—the other had no friends to redeem him. The robbers settled the affair, in the true spirit of that cold-blooded savage disposition, that has leisure to be sportive in its cruelty. They sent the first man back without his ears; detaining these, as a set-off against the deficiency in the ransom;-and the other poor fellow was returned in eight pieces!—So much for Italian government. An edict has been lately issued against ransoms, as operating to encourage kidnapping. This may be an excellent law for the public; but it would require the patriotism of Regulus, in an individual falling into the hands of these marauders, to consider the public interest in preference to his own.

10th. Soon after quitting Terracina, we entered the Neapolitan territory, where the road begins to wind among the Apennines; and, for many miles, it is one continued pass through a wild and rugged