to his Sardinian majesty Charles Emanuel, who, after the incomparable Frederick, held the second rank (proximus longo tamen intervallo) among the kings of Europe. The size and populousness of Milan could not surprise an inhabitant of London; but the fancy is amused by a visit to the Boromean Islands, an enchanted palace, a work of the fairies in the midst of a lake encompassed with mountains, and far removed from the haunts of men. I was less amused by the marble palaces of Genoa than by the recent

which he is the master; and like him, he knows how to inspire his troops with a religious fanaticism, which renders them invincible. The curés of the island are very useful instruments to him; and his address in this respect is the more singular, as religion has neither been the motive nor the pretext for the revolt. The most considerate part of the Genoese senate is weary of a war which has cost great sacrifices and degradation. It preserves only the maritime places, the territory of which is often bounded by their lines of fortification; and it would abandon with pleasure the Corsicans to themselves, if it did not fear the King of Sardinia. It is certain that the Court of Vienna has manifested a desire to acquire the island for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and possibly, but for the jealousy of France, might have obtained it.

June 3.I have passed the whole morning at home. Happy moments of repose, of which we feel not the value until we have lived in a crowd! I have purchased the History of the Revolutions of Genoa. The style is not bad, without being that of Vertot; and the order is clear, without being able. There are very few abbreviators to whom Velleius Paterculus has bequeathed his secret of exhibiting his subject in grand masses. But in a political history I ought to be anxious for the most accurate ideas of the constitution of Genoa, of its laws, and its manners.

We dined with Celesia, who is always ill. At eight o'clock in the evening his father-in-law presented us to the doge, Brignoletti. He is an old man, very fat, with not the most intellectual air in the world. He knows a little French, but he spoke to us chiefly in Italian. He received us politely, but with a mixture of dignity which was in tolerable accordance with his serenity. His serenityship receives five thousand livres, and expends at least twenty-five thousand, for the pleasure of residing in a wretched house, out of which he cannot move without the permission of the senate, of being clothed with scarlet from head to foot, and of being waited upon by twelve pages of sixty years of age, habited in Spanishy liveries.

memorials of her deliverance (in December, 1746) from the Austrian tyranny; and I took a military survey of every scene of action within the enclosure of her double walls. My steps were detained at Parına and Modena by the precious relics of the Farnese and Este collections: but, alas! the far greater part had been already transported, by inheritance or purchase, to Naples and Dresden. By the road of Bologna and the Apennine, I at last reached Florence, where I reposed from June to September, during the heat of the summer months.* In the gallery, and

* FLORENCE, June 29, 1764. This day was celebrated the festival of St. John, the protector of Florence. At seven in the morning we repaired to the Square of the Grand Duke, in order to witness the ceremony of the presentation of the homages, etc. At last the tower of St. John advanced, more lofty and decorated than the others. The saint himself crowned the pinnacle. The niches at the sides were filled with various other saints, among whom St. Sebastian might be distinguished, bound to a pillar. All the saints were living men, who performed their parts with great propriety, except that, as the situation of St. John himself was a little precarious, they substituted a wooden figure for the boy who represented him on former occasions. This tower was followed by the Barbary horses, which raced in the afternoon, etc., etc.

In the afternoon we witnessed the race of the Barbary coursers; it took place in the Corso, a large and fine street, but which in many places is neither wide nor straight enough. We attended in the suite of our minister, Sir Horace Mann, at six o'clock in the evening. The Corso was already filled with many hundred carriages, which proceeded slowly, in order to add to the pomp of the grandest gala of Florence. It must be admitted that the equipages and dresses were magnificent and tasteful, and that altogether they formed the finest coup d'œil that can be imagined. In half an hour the carriages disappeared, and every one repaired to his window, his balcony, or his scaffold. We followed our minister to the lodge of the government, which was filled with all who were of the most distinction in Florence. We were received with the utmost politeness. By this change of scene the spectacle became less brilliant, but more singular, by the innumerable crowd of every rank who lined the two sides of a grand street, while the street itself was perfectly clear. It must be observed that everything took place without confusion, and that a handful of grenadiers sufficed to retain this vast assemblage in perfect order. The horses then passed along in procession to the lists; they

especially in the Tribune, I first acknowledged, at the feet of the Venus of Medicis, that the chisel may dispute the pre-eminence with the pencil; a truth in the fine arts which cannot on this side of the Alps be felt or understood.* At home I had taken some

amounted to fifteen, decorated with ribbons of different colors, and were conducted by grooms in the liveries of their owners. They appeared in general very fine, but, although denominated Barbs, they might be of any country: there was in particular an old English horse, twenty-three years old, which, however, usually bore away the prize. It was easy to discover, by the acclamations of the people, which were the favorites. When they arrived at the starting-post, they were ranged as equally as possible, with a cord drawn before them, which being suddenly dropped, they started. I saw them pass with a swiftness which the impetuosity natural to the horse, animated by the goad or spur (a sort of spiked ball, which strikes their sides as they ruu), sufficiently explained to me. I was, however, quite astonished at the composure with which they proceeded to the goal, as well as if mounted by the most able horsemen. We soon lost sight of them, and all the spectators fixed their eyes on the clock of the cathedral, in order to read the name of the conqueror in the illuminated signal which would be repeated there, and answer to the number of the victor horse. As if to dally the longer with public impatience, it happened that the numbers passed by until they reached thirteen, when the Prince Neri announced to the people (whose curiosity held them completely silent) that the colt of the Chevalier Alessandria had won the prize. In an instant this silence gave way to loud acclamations from thirty thousand spectators. Before the prize was delivered to the conqueror, it received a benediction with much ceremony in the Church of St. John. As well as I am able to judge, the horses finished their career of two miles in five minutes. The Great Devil (the English horse) arrived the second, and almost at the same moment as the first.

Considering only the swiftness of the horses, our races exceedingly excel these. On the other hand, the antiquity of the institution, the ardor of an entire population, who assist at them, the intervention of the prince, and even of religion, give a much more majestic air to the latter. It is perceptible that the Florentines cherish this spectacle as the sole vestige of their ancient liberty; it is a momentary animation which carries away all minds; and, since the games of the ancients, it is probably the only spectacle of a public nature in which the whole state unites to receive amusement by the care and under the sanction of its magistracy.

* July 16. — We have made our eighth visit to the gallery, etc., etc., etc. I am about to speak only of the valuable statues and antique busts, placed alternately in such a manner that a statue is always accompanied

lessons of Italian; on the spot I read, with a learned native, the classics of the Tuscan idiom; but the

by two busts. The latter probably form the most precious contents of the gallery, since they supply a complete sequence of all the emperors, from Julius and Augustus Cæsar to Caracalla, without reckoning several of the successors of the latter, a great many empresses, with various busts which have been assigned to the philosophers and poets of Greece on the strength of certain vague and indefinite descriptions of their persons, which have been left us by the ancients. It affords a lively pleasure to follow the progress and decline of the arts, and to run through this course of original portraits of the masters of the world. Their features are more observable here than upon their medals, the field for which is too small. I allow that it is by the aid of medals that we recognize them in this state; I therefore wish that it was the practice to place a drawer full of these medals in the pedestal of every bust, which would enable the curious to derive much pleasure from the comparison. To all this accessory merit, many of these busts add that which is derived from the great skill of the artist. Without reviewing the whole of them like Cochin, I will observe upon those which by some singularity have attracted me. 1. Julius Cæsar. It is remarkable. All his features are contracted, and the air of the countenance bears the most striking character of old age and decay; and we can scarcely comprehend that it is the bust of a man who died in his fifty-sixth year. I have not discovered the baldness of his head, although his forehead appears a little bare of hair; neither have I observed the crown of laurel beneath which the hero concealed a defect at which he was weak enough to blush. It is true that most of the heads of the men in this series are without ornament. 2. Cicero. A long neck, a thin face with many wrinkles, a complexion a little yellow (which proceeds from the color of the marble), all announce the strength and the labor of the mind rather than that of the body. The sculptor has placed a pea upon the left cheek, which, as it is pleasingly done, is merely an agreeable mark that serves to point him out. But although the name was hereditary, the mark (cicer) was not. 3. Agrippa. This is quite a contrast to Cicero, although possibly as fine in its way. It is of a grand and bold character. A face ample and square, with marked and prominent features; large eyes, but seated deeply in the head; hair which covers half the forehead, all inspire the idea of force and vigor, and present a whole which is rather terrible than agreeable. He is placed among the emperors whom he assisted to seat upon the throne of the world. 4. Sappho. Sculpture was too imperfect, in the sixth century before Christ, to allow us to regard the head of this celebrated woman as an original: I am still less inclined to believe it, because Sappho, who shone more in mind than person, certainly possessed not this fine oval visage, although a little rounded by the plumpness which

shortness of my time, and the use of the French language, prevented my acquiring any facility of

the sculptor has here bestowed upon it. This piece possesses great beauty. 5. Caligula. This bust, which is of a free and bold execution, acquires additional value by the perfect and exact resemblance which it bears to the medals of this tyrant. For a man who died in his thirtieth year, his features are extremely mature. 6. Nero. There is much expression here, but of a nature which is somewhat confused. Ought I to say it, and to say it here? Nero has never shocked me so much as Tiberius, Caligula, and Domitian. He had many vices, but he was not without virtues. I perceive in his history but few traits of studied wickedness. He was cruel, but it was rather from fear than inclination. 7. Seneca. A most esteemed production, and worthy to be so. His fleshdeserted skin appears merely to cover bones and muscles, which are rendered with extraordinary truth, while his veins are conduits which seem destitute of blood. The whole character of this bust announces an aged man, and possibly an aged man expiring. 8. Galba. A very fine bust. 9. Otho. This bust possesses no other merit than that of rarity. I am surprised at its preservation. A thousand accidents may bury and preserve a piece of money, but how has it happened that any one would run a risk to preserve the odious bust of this shadow of an emperor? 10. Vitellius. The head of this stupid beast and glutton is overloaded with flesh. It is also remarkable that the statues of this emperor are not more uncommon. I suppose Vespasian despised him too much to destroy them. 11. Vespasian. If nature ought to be the model of sculptors, this head is of marvellous beauty. Nothing can be more natural than the contour, nothing more gracious than the air, at once animated, tranquil, and majestic. It is truly a human countenance; and, although rather ugly than handsome, it is good and interesting. I am persuaded that the resemblance was striking. 12. Berenice. The hair of this queen is curled very skilfully, yet disposed with a great appearance of negligence. If she was not more handsome than she is represented here, it is difficult to comprehend the passion of Titus. 13. Domitia. The manner in which her hair is collected on her forehead, in a number of little detached curls, gives them, according to Cochin, very much the appearance of a sponge. We paused at the termination of the Twelve Cæsars, a division which originated with Suetonius rather than with reason. The six Cæsars would have been more natural.

June 17. We have made our ninth visit to the gallery, and here follows the remainder of the busts which we have reviewed. 14. Trajan. An easy and natural bust. I have discovered in the physiognomy a satirical smile, which much surprises me. The head is turned a great deal on one side; but I cannot recollect a single bust of which the head is placed in a regular attitude. The sculptors have properly thought that a