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frankincense. And now the pealing organ and the hymning voices waft melody around those holy walls, where Tasso lies, and silvery bells, chiming at intervals from turrets grey, requiem his parting spirit. See! he clasps the symbol of his faith! his dying lips essay to kiss the cross: he speaks-but faint the music of his voice-" In manus tuas Domine."+

So died this Christian poet: and so let all poets die, by living as Tasso lived. Let the scholar imitate his humility; let the wit practice his forbearance; let the lover of society carry into social life his holy virtues; and let the recluse visit his cell at Ferrara, and there learn how to keep green his human sympathies.

In short, let the youthful reader not merely consider Tasso as the poet of Italy, or the lover of Leonora, but as the Christian philosopher, and the practical moralist, whose life was a model which all men may study to advantage. To that model let the vain author, go and compare himself with the humble, self-abased Tasso; who thought nothing of his own works, when all the world applauded them. To that model let the rich man also go, and learn of Tasso to value wealth, only for the good it yields to others. And last, let him who pines in the shade of poverty, learn of Tasso, who was contented when he wanted for every thing; nor blush to leave behind him as poor a catalogue of his worldly effects, as did that "prince of song," whose sole wealth was in abeyance, in the mines of eternity.

The monastery of St. Onuphrius.

Tasso's last words.

$ " Amongst the MSS. in the Duke of Modena's library is an accurate inventory of Tasso's books and wardrobe, made by the poet himself, when confined in the hospital of St. Anna. It is in every respect a curiosity, and has never yet met the public eye. Tasso's library appears to have consisted of seventy-two volumes only, of all kinds. Amongst them were a New Testament, copies of most of the Greek poets and prose writers, Cicero's rhetoric, isolated volumes of Boccacio, Suissine, Rembo, Capoali, and Salviato, and in his own handwriting a volume of his own rhymes, an additional volume to the same, a volume of his letters, letters to the Duke of Urbino, a dialogue On avoiding the Multitude,' fifty Stanzas to the Pope, two other volumes of his own works, and some minor MSS., including '3 add. vols.' viz. the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd parts of my works.' Alas! what penury does the wardrobe of this heir to immortality exhibit! Four good shirts, and 5unfit for wear;' item, 3 good shirts in a box by themselves; 2 pair of linnen stockings, and one pair for wearing under boots;' 2 handkerchiefs, and 4 others in a box just named ; 4 towels not worn out;' a dozen silk garters; 2 bonnets, the one new, and the other old.'"-Morning Herald, Nov. 1, 1833.

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JOURNEY FROM GIRGENTI TO PALERMO.

CHAPTER I.

Alicata-Palma-Girgenti─Saint Albert and the Jews-Our party poisoned-Warm Baths of Sciacca-The Mysterious Castle-Curious Adventure-The Prisoners and the Castellano-Calatabellotta -Castel Veterano-Selenuntium-Marsala.

who,

AT Alicata, I received a letter from my friend, Count Awith his lady and only son, a boy of about twelve years of age, were proceeding, as well as ourselves, to Palermo. We were to have left Catania together, but some unexpected occurrence having detained them, our journey in company had been given up. I was now agreeably surprised to find they would join us at Girgenti, with an English friend, Captain L- provided we could manage to wait three or four days in that town, which had before been my intention, as it is impossible to examine the interesting antiquities in the neighbourhood in less. The company of a female friend, too, was an agreeable prospect for Mrs. B- , and the conclusion of our trip pro

mised to be still more pleasant than the commencement.

The country between Alicata and Palma is highly beautiful, interspersed with corn fields, orange groves, vineyards, and orchards. The almond tree is here of great size; the hedges, for miles, often consist almost entirely of them, or occasionally varied with the carubba, the aloe, the fig, the palm, and the olive. Sicily was still beautiful as ever, but the life and energy of its inhabitants seemed fled. The peasantry were no longer cheerful and communicative, but discontented and reserved: they were worse clothed, and appeared worse fed, than what I recollected of them only nine years before. With such frightful celerity does a bad government plunge a people into an abyss of misery and ruin. The higher classes also participated in the general deterioration, although there was more ostentation, the women in particular dressing in a more expensive style; the superb silks of Italy, France, Palermo, and Catania, having succeeded to the humbler productions of the British loom, in which I remember to have seen ladies of rank appear at the parties in Messina. The Sicilians have also learnt from the English to attend more to female education; there are no longer instances of girls of respectable families unable to read or write. These are the only cases of amelioration I observed during my second visit, which form but a poor set off against the desolation and misery which pervade every angle of the country, oppressed by the presence of a foreign army, and groaning under the exactions of the Neapolitan minister of finance. Everywhere are to be seen families perishing for want, lands untilled, manufactories abandoned, empty ports, and crowded prisons. In the superb harbour of Messina, in which I have often numbered one hundred sail

of different vessels, I found, on my arrival this time, but half a dozen of the country craft, one English brig, and two Genoese polaccas.

The state of Sicily is such that, though a succession of exuberant harvests and vintages has filled the granaries and magazines, and bread, wine, and meat are lower than at any time within these last thirty years, the great body of the peasantry is almost starving, and obliged to support itself on beans, lupines, and chesnuts, whilst the corn is rotting in the hands of the proprietors, several of whom have caused their stores to be opened to the public; for which act of humanity, it can scarcely be called generosity, they have incurred the ill will of their suspicious and vindictive court. The consequence has been, that half the country has this year remained unsown, and that the general misery is daily increasing. The towns are many of them nearly dispeopled, and several of the finest palaces are fast going to ruin. The following beautiful lines of Lucan, descriptive of the state of Italy after the civil wars, are strictly applicable to the present condition of Sicily.

At nunc semirutis pendant quod monia tectis,
Urbibus Italiæ, lapsisque ingentia muris
Saxa jacent, nulloque domus custode tenentur,
Rarus et antiquis habitator in urbibus errat:
Horrida quod dumis multosque inarata per annos
Hesperia est, desuntque manus poscentibus arvis.
PHARS. lib. i.

Palma is rather a neat town, abounding in good wine, bread, macaroni, and provisions of all sorts, at reasonable prices. It is of very modern origin, having been built towards the middle of the seventeenth century, by one of the family of Chiaramonte. The population is rated at eight thousand souls, perhaps a rather exaggerated calculation. There are some sulphur mines in the neighbourhood.

Leaving Palma, we did not continue to keep the road along the coast, but made a circuit inland, passing through the village of Camastro, and the towns of Naro and Comicati: the last is a fine and populous place, superbly posted on the side of a hill. Castro Filippe is situated near the river Naro, which some, and among them Cluverius, have mistaken for the Acgragas, the modern Drago. We found the Naro, which formerly bore the name of Hypsas, an insignificant and shallow rivulet, which, though it rained during the night, scarcely wetted the knees of our horses; but we forded it high up,-in the vicinity of Girgenti it is a somewhat more respectable stream. Favara, a town with six thousand inhabitants, lies prettily on the declivity of a hill, at the distance of about five miles from Girgenti. Our journey was this day long and fatiguing, and it was late before we arrived at the above city. We were received by Signore S, the British consul, a gentleman of much antiquarian research and information. He possesses a small cabinet very tastily arranged, most of the artiIcles of which have been procured from the ruins of Agrigentum, which are, without douht, the most important and interesting remains in Sicily.

Acgragas, corrupted by the Romans into Agrigentum, was founded

by a colony from Gela, B. c. 605, on Mount Acgragas, from which it was called. The lines of Virgil,—

Arduus inde Acgragas ostentat maxima longe

Mœnia, magnanimûm quondam generator equorum,

must be understood of the ancient city of Omphace, which occupied the site of the present Girgenti. It was built on the height, afterwards called Comicus, for Cocalus, king of the Sicani, by the celebrated Dædalus. It was the strongest fortification at the time in the island, and when it fell into the hands of the Greek colonists, became their citadel.

If Virgil can, in this instance, be vindicated from the charge of anachronism we must forgive him, and own that he sings by anticipation, when in the same passage he adds—

Megarosque sinus, Tapsumque jacentem.

Nor can it be said that

Adparet Camarina procul

alludes to the lake, which lays low, and can only be seen when very near. Acgragas soon became a vast city, containing, according to Diodorus, twenty thousand citizens, and one hundred and eighty thousand persons who did not enjoy that privilege. If this calculation did not, as usual, include the slaves, the computation of Diogenes Laertius, who gives eight hundred thousand souls, will not appear much too high; yet, although we admit that on an average six slaves may be allowed for each of the twenty thousand citizens, two will be sufficient per head for the remaining one hundred and eighty thousand, who can scarcely be supposed to have equalled the riches and luxuries of the citizens, and this will yield six hundred and forty thousand for the ancient population, a vast number, yet Agrigentum was inferior to Syracuse. It was built on five hills, the vestiges of which are still visible.

The Agrigentines seem to have possessed less love of liberty than other Greeks; their indolence and luxury rendered them effeminate, and more ready to submit to, than resist, a master. Phalaris usurped the supreme power little more than forty years after the foundation of the city. Alcamenes, Alcander, Theron, Thiutias, and others, follow in the disgraceful list. B. C. 406, Acgragas was taken by the Carthaginians under Hannibal and Himilco, the former of whom had, during the preceding year, razed to the ground the cities of Selmao and Himera. The disaster happening about the time of the winter solstice, Himilco spared most of the buildings to quarter his numerous army in them. The wretched inhabitants had previously, in one vast body, evacuated the ill-fated town, leaving only the infirm and aged behind, who were put to the sword by the infuriated conquerors. The fugitives were escorted to Gela by the Syracusans, who afterwards allotted them Leontini for a residence. Though it appears that the Agrigentines soon after returned to the city, it never recovered the blow. The Temple of Jupiter Olympius, the building of which was going on at the period of the siege, was never completed, the

finances of the state being, at no time in the sequel, adequate to the defraying of the enormous sums requisite to complete so magnificent a fabric.

Acgragas was thrice taken during the two prior Punic wars, twice by the Romans, and once by the Carthaginians. It fell, A. D. 825, into the hands of the Saracens, from whom it was recovered in 1086, by the heroic Count Roger.

I visited the ruins, in company with the intelligent Signore S

As they have been so often described by preceding travellers, and I have myself given a detailed account of them in another place, I shall here pass them without further notice.

The port, which is one of the chief caricatori for grain in Sicily, is four miles from the city; the road is tolerably good, and the country rich in olive groves and corn fields. The harbour, which is defended by a mole, is dangerously open to the sciroc, or south-east wind, which threatens before long to choke it up by the quantity of sand it drives in, when violent. Girgenti is prettily situated, but its streets are narrow, steep, and rugged. Few of the edifices merit the attention of the stranger: there are some passable paintings in the churches, and the cathedral boasts some fine specimens of basso relievo, representing the story of Hippolytus. The population is estimated at

about seven thousand.

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Our friends, the count and countess, with Captain L- kept their promise. As the town contains no suitable inn, the latter joined us at the consul's, the former took up their quarters with a friend. We now formed a very large party; the count's suite consisting of a cameriere and cameriera, a cook and footman, making, with L-and my own attendants, altogether seven domestics exclusive of the muleteers, who were four in number. It was arranged that we should take two lettigas, one for the countess and Mrs. Bthe other for the ladies' maid and the young count when he might get tired of riding; the rest of the company were to proceed on horseback.

We quitted Girgenti on the 19th, above five o'clock in the morning, in the following order; the count, his son, L- and myself in front, the two lettigas with their conductors formed the next division, the baggage and mules attending it followed, whilst the servants brought up the rear, in all seventeen persons. We did not think it necessary to take campieri, esteeming ourselves a match for any force likely to attack us, although the women had been much alarmed at Girgenti by many marvellous accounts of the number and audacity of the banditti, owing to the disturbed state of the country.

Our cavalcade first halted a little after eight o'clock at Aragona, a small town situated on the declivity of a beautiful hill in the midst of a very romantic country; but the roads are, as usual, execrable, over ragged and chalky rocks. We breakfasted at this place, and reposed during the heat of the day at St. Angelo, eight miles farther on. Our path lay through a hilly but well planted district, abounding in refreshing rivulets, and, at intervals, with patches of the most verdant vegetation. The oleander, the St. John's bread, the almond, and the deep scarlet of the pomegranate, with other trees and shrubs, most of them in bloom, had a delightful and enchanting effect, perfuming

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