those principles were something peculiar, and by no means acknowledged by Frenchmen in general. I see again, a state of property which does appear to me an incalculable blessing. I see a fusion of ranks, which may be an equal blessing.-I do not know whether it is. Well-dressed men appear talking familiarly with persons of what we should call decidedly the lower classes.' Now, if this shows that the poorer man is raised in mind to the level of the richer, it is a blessing of the highest order; if it shows that the richer man has fallen to the level of the poorer, then I am not so sure that it is a blessing. But I have no right to say that it is so, because I do not know it; only we see few here whose looks and manners are what we should call those of a thorough gentle

man.

IX. TOUR TO ROME AND NAPLES THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY, 1840.

[The passages marked as quotations have been inserted from the memoranda of conversations kept by a former pupil, who accompanied him and his wife on the greater part of this tour. Most of these being, like the Journal, connected more or less with the localities of the journey, would not, it was thought, be out of place here. It may be as well to add, that the extracts in No. 6 form one continuous portion, which was selected to give a better notion of the Journals in their original state than could be collected from mere fragments.]

Orleans, June 22, 1840.

1. Here we are at last in a place which I have so long wanted to see. It stands quite in a flat on the north or right bank of the Loire. One great street under two names, divided by the Square or Place of Martray, from north to south,-from the barrier on the Paris road to the river. We have now been out to see the town, or at least the cathedral, and the bridge over the Loire. The former is by far the finest Gothic building of the seventeenth century which I ever saw; the end of the choir is truly magnificent, and so is the exterior, and its size is great. We then drove to the bridge, a vast fabric over this wide river,-the river disfigured by sandbanks, as at Cosne, but still always fine, and many vessels lying under the quays for the river navigation.

The siege of Orleans is one of the turning points in the history of nations. Had the English dominion in France been established, no man can tell what might have been the consequence to England, which would probably have become an appendage to France. So little does the prosperity of a people depend upon success in war, that two of the greatest defeats we ever had have been two of our greatest blessings, Orleans and Bannockburn. It is curious, too, that in Edward II.'s reign, the victory over the Irish proved our curse, as our defeat by the Scots turned out a blessing. Had the Irish remained independent, they might afterwards

1) "If there is any one truth after the highest for which I would die at the stake," was one of his short emphatic sayings, "it would be Democracy without Jacobinism." Believing that the natural progress of society was towards greater equality, he had also great confidence in the natural instincts implanted in man-reverence for authority, and resistance to change-as checks on what he considered a Jacobinical disregard of existing ties or ancient institutions. " What an instructive work," he said, might be written on God's safeguards against Democracy, as distinguished fiom man's safeguards against it.”

have been united to us, as Scotland was; and had Scotland been reduced to subjection, it would have been another curse to us like Ireland.'

2.

June 24, 1840.

Now for Bourges a little more. In the crypt is a Calvary, and figures as large as life representing the burying of our Lord. The woman who showed us the crypt had her little girl with her; and she lifted up the child, about three years old, to kiss the feet of our Lord. Is this idolatry? Nay, verily, it may be so, but it need not be, and assuredly is in itself right and natural. I confess I rather envied the child. It is idolatry to talk about Holy Church and Holy Fathers-bowing down to fallible and sinful men; not to bend knee, lip and heart, to every thought and every image of Him our manifested God.

June 25.

3. It is absurd to extol one age at the expense of another, since each has its good and its bad. There was greater genius in ancient times, but art and science come late. But in one respect it is to be feared we have degenerated-what Tacitus so beautifully expresses, after telling a story of a man who, in the civil war in Vespasian's time, had killed his own brother, and received a reward for it; and then relates that the same thing happened before in the civil war of Sylla and Marius, and the man when he found it out killed himself from remorse: and then he adds, "tanto major apud antiquos ut virtutibus gloria, ita flagitiis pœnitentia erat." The deep remorse for crime is less in advanced civilization. There is more of sympathy with suffering of all kinds, but less abhorrence of what is admitted to be crime.

Genoa, July 4, 1840.

4. We are now farther from England than at any time in our former tour, dearest but our faces are still set onwards, and I believe that the more I dislike Italy, or rather the Italians, so the more eagerly do I desire to see those parts of it which remind me only of past times, and allow me to forget the present. Certainly I do greatly prefer France to Italy, Frenchmen to Italians; for a lying people, which these emphatically are, stink in one's moral nose all the day long. Good and sensible men, no doubt, there are here in abundance; but no nation presents so bad a side to a traveller as this. For,-whilst we do not see its domestic life and its

1) "Bannockburn," he used to say, "ought to be celebrated by Englishmen as a national festival, and Athunree lamented as a national judgment."

2) See this more fully developed in Essay on Interpretation of Scripture, Sermons, vol. ii., and note to Sermon II. in vol. iii.

3) He used frequently to dwell on this essentially mixed character of all human things; as, for example, in his principle of the application of prophecy to human events or persons: so, too, his characteristic dislike of Milton's representation of Satan. "By giving a human likeness, and representing him as a bad man, you necessarily get some images of what is good as well as of what is bad; for no living man is entirely evil. Even banditti have some generous qualities; whereas the representation of the Devil should be purely and entirely evil, without a tinge of good, as that of God should be purely and entirely good, without a tinge of evil; and you can no more get the one than the other from any thing buman. With the heathen it was different, their gods were themselves made up of good and of evil, and so might well be mixed up with human associations. The hoofs, and the horns, and the tail were all useful in this way, as giving you an image of something altogether disgusting. And so Mephistophiles, in Faust, and the other contemptible and hateful character of the Little Master in Sintram are far more true than the Paradise Lost.”

private piety and charity, the infinite vileness of its public officers, the pettiness of the Governments, the gross ignorance and the utter falsehood of those who must come in your way, are a continual annoyance. When you see a soldier here, you feel no confidence that he can fight; when you see a so-called man of letters, you are not sure that he has more knowledge than a baby; when you see a priest, he may be an idolater or an unbeliever; when you see a judge or a public functionary, justice and integrity may be utter strangers to his vocabulary. It is this which makes a nation vile, when profession, whether Godward or manward, is no security for performance. Now in England we know that every soldier will fight, and every public functionary will be honest. In France and in Prussia we know the same; and with us, though many of our clergy may be idolaters, yet we feel sure that none is an unbeliever.

Pisa, July 5, 1840.

5. . . . . But O the solemn and characteristic beauty of that cathedral, with its simple, semicircular arches of the twelfth century, its double aisles, and its splendour of marbles and of decoration of a later date, especially on the ceiling. Then we went to the Baptistery, and lastly to the Campo Santo, a most perfect cloister, the windows looking towards the buryingground within, being of the most delicate work. But that burying-grouud itself is the most striking thing of all; it is the earth of the Holy City; for when the Pisan Crusaders were in Palestine, they thought no spoil which they could bring home was so precious as so many feet in depth of the holy soil, as a burying place for them and their children. This was not like Anson watching the Pacific from Tinian to Acapulco, in order to catch the Spanish treasure ship.

Now, however, this noble burying-ground is disused, and only a few favoured persons are laid there by the especial permission of the Grand Duke. The wild vine grows freely out of the ground, and clothes it better, to my judgment, than four cypresses, two at each end, which have been lately planted. The Campo Santo is now desecrated by being made a museum. The famous Cenotaphium Pisanum is here, a noble monument, but Julia's sons and Augustus's grandsons have no business on the spot which the Pisans filled with the holy earth of Jerusalem. The town itself is very striking; the large, flat pavement filling up the whole street as at Florence, and the oróa on each side, or else good and clean houses, varied with some of illustrious antiquity. And after all we were not searched at the gate of Pisa: it seems it has been lately forbidden by the Government-a great humanity. And now, dearest —, good night, and God bless you and all your darlings, and wish us a prosperous journey of three days to the great city of cities; for Naples, I confess, does in comparison appear to me to be viler than vile, a city without one noble association in ancient days or modern.

July 6, 1840.

6. And now we are on the great road from Florence to Rome. ROME once again, but now how much dearer, and to me more interesting than when I saw it last, and in how much dearer company. Yet how sad will it be not to find Bunsen there, and to feel that Niebuhr is gone. I note here in every group of people whom I meet many with light, very light eyes. Is this the German blood of the middle age conquests and wars, or

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are the mass of the present Italians descended from the Roman slavesLigurians, Kelts, Germans, and from all other nations? However, of the fact of the many light eyes in Tuscany I am sure. tiful, and we are going up amidst oak woods chiefly. The hedges here The country is beau are brilliant; the Sweet William pinks of the deepest colour; the broom, the clematis, and the gum-cistus Salvianus, that beautiful flower which I have never seen wild since 1827. Here is the beginning of the mountain scenery of Central Italy, only a very faint specimen of it; but yet bearing its character-the narrow valley, the road in a terrace above it, the village of Staggia with its old walls and castle tower, the vines, figs and olives over all the country, and the luxuriant covering of all the cliffs and roadside banks, the wild fig, and wild vine. Arrived at Castiglioncello 1.45. Left it 1.53. Ascending gradually towards Sienna, which is at the top of the whole country, dividing the streams which feed the Armo from those that feed the Ombrone. The road here is a defile through oak woods, very beautiful; and after having got up through the wood, we are in a high plain, but with higher hills around us, and a great deal of wood. Here the country looks parched, for the soil is shallow.

Arrived at the gates of Sienna 3.16. I hope that I shall not have much time to write; nor have I, for the carriage is at the door. Left Sienna 4.50. We did not stop long as is evident, but we dined, for two pauls each, about one franc, and we saw the cathedral, a thing very proper to do, and moreover the cathedral is fine and very rich, and has some pictures; amongst the rest, a set of pictures of the events of the life of my old friend Æneas Sylvius, designed, it is said, by Raphaelle in his early youth. There were also some fine illuminations of some ancient music books, and some very well executed Mosaics. Yet I should be a false man if I professed to feel much pleasure in such things. What I did rejoice in was the view which we had, far and wide, from the heights of Sienna, a boundless range of Apennines. And coming out of Sienna, we have just had a shower of Cicada drop from the trees upon the carriage, who hopped off when any thing threatened them behind, with an agility truly marvellous. And now we are descending from our height, amidst a vast extent of cornfields just cleared, and the view is not unlike that from Pain à Bouchain, only some of the Apennines before us are too fine for the hills about Roanne. Let me notice now several things to the credit of the Italians hereabouts. First of all, the excessive goodness of the Albergo del' Ussaro at Pisa, where the master, who speaks English, changed my French money into Tuscan and Roman, a convenience to avoid the endless disputes about the exact value of the foreign coinage. Next, at Castiglioncello, the stage before Sienna, there is Terzo Cavallo, and justly, seeing that the whole stage is up hill. I said to the ostler, "You have a right, I believe, here, to a third horse;" to which he said "Yes." But presently he added, "You are only two persons, and I will send you with two;" and this he did without any compromise of paying for two horses and a half; but we had two, and we paid only for two. And finally, the Sienna dinner, at four pauls, at the Aquila Nera, was worthy of all commendation.

As I have occasion to complain often of the Italians, it is pleasant to be able to make those exceptions. Sienna stands like Langres, and as we have been descending, two little streams have risen in the hill sides right and left, and now they meet and form a green valley, into which we are

just descended, and find again the hedgerows, the houses, and the vines. Arrived at Montaroni 5.57. Left it at 6.4. And still, I believe, we are going to have another stage of descent to Buon Convento. Alas! an adventure has sadly delayed us, for though the stage be mostly descent or level ground, yet there was one sharp little hill soon after we left Montaroni, in the middle of which our horses absolutely would not go on, wherefore the carriage would go back, and soon got fast in the ditch. Mgot out very safely, and we got the carriage out of the ditch, but it was turned round in the doing it, and the road was so narrow that we could not turn it right again for a long time. Meanwhile, a passing traveller kindly carried a message back to the post for a Terzo, and after a while Terzo and a boy came to our aid, and brought us up the hill valiantly; and Terzo is now trotting on, a bright example to his companions.

July 7. Left Buon Convento 5.16. Again a lovely morning, dearest and certainly if man does not glorify God in this country, yet, as we have just been reading,' the very stones do indeed cry out." The country is not easy to describe, for the framework of the Apennines here is very complicated, the ribs of the main chain being very twisted, and throwing out other smaller ribs which are no less so, so that the valleys are infinitely winding; but, generally, we were on the Ombrone at Buon Convento, and at Torrinieri shall be on one of his feeders, which runs so as to form a very acute angle with him at his confluence. Between the two the ground is thrown about in swells and falls indescribable. The country is generally open corn land, just cleared, but varied with patches of copse, of heath, and of vines and other trees in the valleys, and the farm-houses perched about in the summit of the hills with their odd little corn stacks, some scattered all over the fields, and others making a belt round the houses. Il Cavallo Inglese at Buon Convento was a decent place as to beds, but roguish, as the small places always are, in their charges. The Terzo did well, and brought us well to Buon Convento after all. At this moment, Monte Alcino, on a high mountain on the right, is looking splendidly under the morning sun, with its three churches, its castle, and the mass of trees beneath it. Arrived at Torrinieri, 6.15. Left it 6.21, with four horses, but only three are to be paid for, which is all quite right; the fourth is for their own pleasure. We have just crossed the Orcia, and these great ascents, which require the Terzo, are but shoulders dividing one feeder of the Ombrone from another, the Orcia from the Tressa. We have had one enormous ascent, and a descent by zig and zag to a little feeder, and now we are up again to go down to another. On this intermediate height, rising out of a forest of olives, with its old wall, its church with a fine Norman doorway, and its castle tower, stands S. Quirico, on no river, my M, but a place beginning with a Q., when we "play at Geographical." We are just under its walls, with a mass of ilex sloping down from the foot of the walls to the road; the machicolations of the walls are very striking. We are descending towards the Tressa, a vast view before us, bounded by the mountains of Radicofani. The hills which we are descending are thickly wooded on our right, with most picturesque towns on their summits, while the deep furrows of this blue marl, though rock would doubtless be finer, are yet very 1) i. e. in the daily lessons of Scripture, which they used to read every morning on starting.