but the principal of the figures composing the group approaches very near to that of Bernini, and of the artists who have painted martyrs. The consideration of the finest statues in the Vatican by torchlight has a peculiar interest, and peculiar advantages. Night-the surrounding scene-the half-lighted distant figures-these standing out prominently in the full light-works illumined from various sides-present to the eye unknown phenomena, and excite the mind to new feelings. Some gain, others lose by this ordeal. I could not help thinking that it bore the same relation to the broad daylight, as our lamps, scenery, and thetrical economy to the perfect plays, or the plays representing the perfect, acted by the Greeks in the daytime. Niobe and her children would bear the broad daylight on a darker back ground; they would need no æsthetic screen from the sunshine or light. It is not merely a pure love of art, but also a certain piquant refinement that dictates this expedient of torchlight." The population of Rome is now about 153,000 of these there is one ecclesiastic to 29. There are 1824 convents of monks, 612 of nuns. In the space of five years, there were 3840 children exposed, of whom 72 per cent. or 2941, died. Rome abounds in charitable institutions, which increase rather than extinguish poverty. All attempts to place the financial system of the papal states on a proper footing have failed. The army runs away with 20, the public debt with 25, or, as some say, 38 per cent. of the revenue. In 1837, 13,485,000 dollars The revenue was about Expenditure . Leaving, of course, a deficit of 1,245,000 dollars Into this dilemma the Government has brought itself chiefly by its solicitude to maintain the ecclesiastical and monastic system of former times in its fullest extent, and to compensate for all losses sustained during the French occupation. Expensive loans seemingly alleviate the pressure for a moment. The lottery produces the state a revenue of more than a million and a half of dollars per annum. As the author proceeds southward, he justly observes, "Near Terracina commences the new world of southern Italy. Pomegranates, oranges, aloes in flower (he should have added palm trees), fantastically-situated places like Fondi and Itri, all in the moonlight, to which, however, beggary furnishes the moral shade. From the Garigliano to St. Agatha, the richest cultivation of various kinds: arable land, meadows, abundance of trees, the glistening river winding among them, and three-fourths of the circle of vision bounded by smiling and swelling hills, crowned by houses, hamlets, churches and towers. Still further off, the mountains of the Abruzzos rising one above another, in every diversity of lines and masses. At first everything lighted by the sun, then presenting itself in every degree of coloured darkness, till the earth disappeared, and the starbespangled firmament attracted the eye, and changed the train of thought," &c. Campagna di Roma appear to us to The following observations on the be just, and certainly accord with our own impressions on the same subject: "I have had to listen, as I did twentytwo years ago, to panegyrics on the exquisite beauty, comprehending within itself every possible charm, of the Campagna di Roma. This superstition is preserved, like many others, intact in Rome, and a man does not imagine himself to be à la hauteur till he has worked himself up into a belief of it. The Villa Borghese, the Villa Albani, and the like, no more belong to the Campagna than Albano or Tivoli. What now is a wilderness, extending on all sides, a zona deserta, was at first rich woodland, then admirably cultivated arable and meadow land, comprising villages, country-houses, farms, and magnificent gardens. If the present aspect is the most beautiful, and not to be surpassed, the states just described must have been the least attractive,-which, in truth, involves an absurdity. If the negative can in this manner outdo the positive, then is a wo man handsomest when she is no longer handsome. If I am not mistaken, there is a passage in Strabo on the situation of Rome, which agrees much better with my notion than that of these too easily inspired disciples of art. They may reply, that with me predominates the merely financial point of view, which neither knows nor can comprehend anything of beauty. But let us confine ourselves to what is to be seen:-there are neither trees, nor shrubs, neither buildings, nor man, nor water, and consequently it is and must be no more than the negative beauty of the desert. Driven then into a corner, my adversary lays particular stress on the lines of hills beyond, and the individual views within the Campagna. But these hills do not even belong to the Campagna, and the beauty of a background may well bear to be separated from the ugliness of the foreground. Besides, there are many finer and more di Of the Neapolitans, it is observed,— "An ancient proverb says, 'that Naples and the environs are a Paradise, inhabited by devils.' The truth of the first part of this adage is generally admittedat least, more generally than that paradise exists in the Campagna di Roma; the latter half, on the other hand, is disputed by the Neapolitans. Were I to sit in judgment, I should be obliged to censure, nay, to condemn much; but as the devil's advocate I would strive to prove that the Neapolitans were created before the invention of the fuss about the four cardinal virtues. These, then, we ought not to require of them, but to measure them by a totally different standard, which at last may be as correct, and bring them quite as far as the pedantically moral, to the versified lines of hills, as those near the Garigliano, and Velino, near Naples, and Taormini, near Salzburg and Gemünd, in South Wales, in the Pyrenees, &c. Lastly, as to the views: they have their picturesqueness, and, (like all recollections,) their attraction. People, however, have carried their admiration to the length of a morbid refinement, according to which things swept away, stricken and deformed by age and sin, calamity and misery, are to be preferred to that which still flourishes in vigorous health. That the artist can select particular points from the Campagna, and frame and hold them forth to deserved admiration, I pretend not to deny; but, besides these framed scenes, the greater space remains dreary and desolate. Whoever disputes this, may fix his abode between Rome and Civita Vecchia, and secure for life the enjoyment of the charms of nature." authority of which, everywhere out of Paradise, people have bowed. A Neapolitan yesterday picked my pocket of my handkerchief. I caught him, however, in the fact, and was content-not caring to punish him myself, any more than to call in the aid of the police-with giving him an eloquent lecture relative to these cardinal virtues. As a proof, however, that such sophistries cannot invalidate an original Neapolitan right, or induce any free inhabitant of Paradise to submit to a silly legislation of more recent date, the same fellow actually stole the same handkerchief five minutes afterwards, and made off with it so precipitately, that I was not able to enforce the usual doctrine concerning property." Speaking of Calabria, the author says,— "A Calabrese of distinction, with whom I was conversing yesterday about the people of his country, was also totally at a loss how to mix them with other tribes. 'Calabria,' said he, 'is a country absolutely unique in its kind, incomprehensible. Inclosed by two seas, having in the middle a lofty range of mountains, covered, for several months in the year, with deep snow; no roads or communications between the two divisions; all the trees and productions of the North and of the South, ice and tropical heat, at the distance of a few leagues. For hundreds, nay, for thousands of years, a culture of a higher, nay, even of a profoundly philosophical kind, which in certain circles subsists undiminished in the present day, and at the same time a population rude in the extreme.' 'If this rudeness,' I remarked, 'consists only in this, that the people have not learned to read or write, they have probably received other estimable qualities from an originally bountiful nature.' He replied, It is not only the rudeness and ignorance, but likewise ferocity of character, which, for instance, perpetuates a bloodthirsty enmity in full force from generation to generation, and regards revenge as a right and duty.' This worse than heathen disposition,' I rejoined, must be, if not extirpated, at least softened by education, and by the influence of the nobility and persons of note, who are probably absentees.' 'In Calabria it is much more common (he continued) for people of note and wealth to reside upon their estates than in any other part of Italy; but they live wholly and have no influ- apart from the people, that is not to be found in a like degree in Europe; and again, when I reside a considerable time in Calabria, kindred tones vibrate in my own bosom, and strengthen alike the charge and the excuse.'" We are obliged to omit our author's observations on Sicily, but which will repay the attention of the reader. M. von Raumer does not repeat other people's observations or opinions, but thinks and reasons on his own judgment and information. We shall now add a word or two on the subject of religion. "Besides the true, genuine, I might say, ideal Catholic, two shoots or excrescences have sprung up in Italy on different sides. The multitude, especially in the South of Italy, cherishes many a superstition, which only, under different names and forms, leads back to downright Paganism, and translates the position, ' God is a Spirit!' into the axiom, God is a body. Neither clergy nor governments take any pains to establish a higher spiritualism, partly because they are strangers to it themselves, partly because it is not suited to the people, and superstition itself is a medium of governing with the greater ease. A second party, developing itself chiefly in the higher classes, seem to adopt all the doctrines and practices of the Church, to follow them without opposition, from interested motives, while in reality the profounder doctrines of the Christian faith are incomprehensible or indifferent to it. It agrees for the sake of outward peace with the Church, but, transplanted to the palace of truth, would rather vote for canonizing Voltaire than Thomas Aquinas." Passing from religious creeds to political institutions, the author asks, are there component parts now in existence out of which forms of constitution might be constructed? His examination of this subject is not satisfactory. "In the first place, there is scarcely any where an independent peasantry, possessing property. Too free above-too oppressed below-hence proceeds stuff for revolution, not for quiet development. Elected representatives of poor peasants, such as sit in the Diet of Prussia, are impossible in Italy; nay, means are wanting to prevent the ruin of the class of peasants, which is possible enough according to the laws. In the class of burghers we find mere individuals: as though freedom of trade, and the suppression of the old abuses of corporations, were incompatible with all community and efficient communal regulations. The nobility is still further, perhaps, from answering its idea. Excessively wealthy, or decayed, almost invariably inactive. The simplest, noblest, and most natural occupation, agriculture, which in England and Germany preserves and raises the nobility, is despised in Italy. As rarely are the great disposed to enter into the service of the state; and art and science are not every one's forte. But too many Italians seek liberty externally, whereas it ought to be found from within. It proceeds from exertion and self-denial, not from inactivity and indulgence; and in this respect the Italian people are superior to most of the members of the aristocracy of the country. GENT. MAG. VOL. XIV. The German nobles, to whom it was impossible to lead an active country life, mostly chose, according to ancient custom, the military profession; an outlet which is more rarely offered to the Italian nobles, and much oftener rejected. Without dwelling on the well-known evils of an immoderate military tendency, I may remark, that military discipline imparts a firmness and a law which a life of idleness has not, and which an individual seldom imposes on himself. Then, too, the peaceful years of indulgence were succeeded by the graver scenes of war, which put aside the spirit of frivolity, and furnished occasion for the exercise of genuine virtue. One may well doubt whether it was and is better for the individual, and for all, for personal development, and for the stamina and vital energy of the whole nation, that the younger branches of the Italian nobility should voluntarily enter, or be sent to the convent. Among a people thoroughly brave and fond of war, (for instance, the French,) the practice of substitutes in the army will not be detrimental to the military spirit: but in Italy, especially in the South, an education in this way, needful for all, and which in Prussia has essentially raised military courage and military talent, is wanting." 3 N NOTES ON FORBES'S LIFE OF BEATTIE. BY MRS. H. L. PIOZZI. [From her copy of the work now in the possession of Bolton Corney, Esq.] VOL. I. p. 25. "The wish that our bones should be laid in the sepulchre with our fathers' has been so prevalent in all ages, that it seems to be a sentiment inherent in our nature."-" So it does, but we outlive our natural sentiments. Johnson and Nelson wished a grave in Westminster Abbey, and even the modest Doctor Beattie, when he hopes his friends will permit him to lie by his dear sons in death, seems to have some notion they would place him in a more splendid burial-ground." P. P. 37. "What an amiable character is this of Beattie from beginning to end!" P. 41. "Dr. John Gregory."-" It was his daughter Dorothea Gregory who lived companion with Mrs. Montagu during the few years I was acquainted in Portman Square, and I always thought Miss Gregory particularly pleasing. I know not, however, what became of her-or whether she now lives or dies, or has been dead years before." H. L. P.-Subsequently Mrs. Piozzi discovers (vol. ii. 212) that she was alive, and the wife of the Rev. Mr. Alison. P. 48. "Richardson's Clarissa. When a stop is put to the progress of the story," &c.—" There is no story: a man gets a girl from her parents, violates her free will, and she dies of a broken heart. That is all the story! But the book's merit is in so filling up this inelegant outline, as to make it the 'wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best' of all possible novels, a picture replete with character, and luminous with well contrasted chiar oscúro, grace in each page, expression in each line." P. 55. "Richardson, I think, merits commendation for his carefully avoiding to hint the least anticipation of the catastrophe," &c.-" This may be meritorious in writers of fiction, but to great writers it is not necessary. Homer tells you his whole fable and his catastrophe, not once, but often, in the course of the Iliad, and Southern's Fatal Marriage leaves you none of the pleasures arising from entanglement after the first act; yet what can be more interesting, after all?" "His (Beattie's) criticisms on Clarissa are the very best extant." P. 74. "Ossian seems really to have very little knowledge of the human heart. His chief talent lies in describing inanimate objects, and therefore he belongs, according to my principles, not to the highest, but to an inferior order of poets."-" Oh! well and wisely said! he who does not describe man to man, will be laid aside as one we have no reason to care about, Ossian. "He who describes nothing else, is the poet of the street,-Martial." P. 87. From his (Churchill's) possessing no inconsiderable strength of thought, with a vigorous though slovenly energy of expression," &c."That is well expressed by Sir W. Forbes-very well indeed!" P. 121. "This acquaintance (with nature in the material and immaterial system), if it is any thing more than superficial, will do a poet rather harm than good; and will give his mind that turn for minute observation, which enfeebles the fancy by restraining it, and counteracts the native energy of judgment by rendering it fearful and suspicious."-"True, true: so said Imlac the Poet in Johnson's Rasselas." P. 125. By the by, the songs in the opera Artaserse,' as it is now adapted to the English stage, seem to be very ill translated."-" By Doctor Arne! The wonder was, he did them no worse, I think." P. 135. "I do not remember any man of the least pretensions to genius in Britain, who ever thought of subverting every principle of natural religion, till of late."-" Oh! yes sure! Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and a too long et cætera." P. 147. "And long pursues, with fruitless yell, The father of the powerful spell." "This good use of the verb to 'yell' has made the word, in my mind, ridiculously modish, and now we all yell, à qui mieux mieux.” P. 164. On Beattie's translation of the well known passage in Metastasio's Artaserse, act iii. sc. 1 : "L'onda dal mar divisa," &c. "Cold as the water's self is this translation-I dare not say insipid: but Beattie managed his own thoughts better than he did those of his neighbours." P. 178. Letter XXX. to Sir W. Forbes, April 19, 1769. "This is an exquisite letter, from the heart to the heart. Wise, true, and unassuming a beautiful letter." P. 231. "Mrs. Inglis, daughter of Colonel Gardiner,"-" meaning Colonel Gardiner, I suppose, whose singular conversion makes him a character of concern, and that exceedingly important, to all mankind." P. 238. On a passage in which Dr. Beattie urges the advantages of public education on the character of boys, Mrs. P. writes,-“ Oh ! how true and how wise all this is! Who says Dr. Beattie knew nothing of the world? He knew, I believe, very little of London streets; but his mind shows itself here as a ripe and a racy fruit, grown from a standard tree, though the soil was a cold one." P. 257. In Gray's criticism on Beattie's Minstrel, he says, st. 18,"Perhaps And some believed him mad,' falls a little too flat, and rather below simplicity."-"The worst of the stanza is, that it is imitated from Thomson, who says that,→ "Moping there did Hypochondria sit; While some her frantic deem'd, and others deem'd a wit." Mrs. Piozzi did not relish Gray's criticism. She says," Gray is a merciless critic;" again,-"I am tired of all this, and begin to think of Molière's Trissotin, or its imitation in the Tatler, of Ned Softly's sonnet, No. 163. I fancy, when your song you sing, You sing your song with so much art,' &c." P. 267. "I never expected that it [the Minstrel] would be a popular poem."-"I don't think it was ever a popular poem. It was exorbitantly praised by a dozen people of excellent taste; but I call Pomfret's Choice, ay, and Young's Night Thoughts, by the appellation of popular poems. The people could not understand Beattie's Minstrel; and if they had understood, it would have wearied them." P. 277. The next best thing, (says Mason, in a letter,) after instructing the world profitably, is to amuse it innocently."-"That is prettily said." P. 279. "The works of Swift and Shenstone are a melancholy example of the indiscretion of friends, in regard to posthumous publications." "Why, we readers are so fastidious, there's no pleasing us. Some wish to go behind the poet's desk, and see what dust and cobwebs can be |