THEIR AMIABLE QUALITIES.

199

object of her affection: womanhood or fame are nothing more to her, and if she meets with coldness and dereliction she is miserable beyond description. We may blame, but yet must pity her, and leave her failings to the mercy of that Being who can best read the secrets of the human heart.

If, however, an Italian female is so favoured by circumstances, as to meet with a worthy object, and a legitimate attachment, then she becomes the most amiable of creatures. There is such a fund of affection in her heart, her looks are so impassionate, her language is so soft, her manners so engaging, that she proves a treasure to the man who knows how to appreciate her. She can put up with any inconvenience and privation for his sake. The Italian women are in general good-natured, compassionate, and kind; they are naturally gay, more inclined to smile than to frown; endowed by nature with rich mental gifts, they have shone in the career of sciences, letters, and the fine arts, whenever education, or circumstances, have favoured them. When their understanding sare not cultivated they seem to want something to occupy their thoughts, but this void lasts only as long as their hearts are disengaged; the passion of love changes their character, and they become serious, thoughtful, and melancholy.

200

STATE OF MORALS.

The southern nations are more inclined to enthusiasm than those of the north. The contemplation of nature in all her beauty; that kind of listless weariness which is the effect of the climate; nights of calm and loveliness; the little want one feels for society in a country where an evening walk or a lounge on a terrace are often substituted for crowded assemblies and close parties; -- all these render solitude agreeable, and solitude produces pensiveness and enthusiasm. The mind uninterrupted by the trifling cares of vanity, and unfettered by the shackles of the world, has full leisure to nurse and cherish one single idea, one remembrance, which, by degrees, becomes an essential part of existence.

To those who are well acquainted with Italy, it is not unknown that Italian girls, notwithstanding the temptations to which they are exposed, come to the nuptial altar unspotted and unsullied. As for married women, the custom of having a patito or cavalier servente (the name of cicisbeo has been long out of fashion) must be understood to be confined to the inhabitants of cities, and, among these, chiefly to the upper classes. The bourgeois, and the lower people, even at Genoa, which is looked upon as the very land of cicisbeism, never adopted the custom; and husbands and wives of these classes live in as good domestic understanding as those of

STATE OF MORALS.

201

any other country. With regard to the inhabitants of the provinces, that is to say, two-thirds of the Italians, they still entertain much respect for marriage vows and marriage duties; and if instances occur of their breaking them, the infraction is attended with as much disgrace, and as many evil consequences, as in any transalpine country. The provincial husbands still retain some of the old proverbial jealousy of the Italians, and their wives show great submission and respect towards them. In this particular, the occupation of the country by foreign military has spread a certain degree of corruption; but in the remote and mountainous provinces, there is yet a great deal of patriarchal simplicity and virtue. In the Riviere of Genoa, in the valleys of the Alps and of the Apennines, and even in many districts of the Roman and Neapolitan states, the people are simple, virtuous, and religious; attached to their families, regular in their conduct, peaceful, satisfied, and happy.

Resuming all that I have stated, I am really persuaded that, with the exception of some great cities, as Venice and Naples, there is not more corruption in Italy than in other parts of the continent; and that it is chiefly owing to the free unreserved manners of the inhabitants, their mode of living as

202

STATE OF MORALS.

it were in public, and their constitutional joviality and familiarity, that strangers are apt to form hasty conclusions to the disadvantage of the Italian sex, of which a more intimate acquaintance would shew them the fallacy.

CHAPTER IX.

LOMBARDY.

I LEFT Florence in a vetturino coach, and proceeded across the Apennines to Bologna. The carriage was old fashioned and uncomfortable, as the generality of them are, holding six people inside, and drawn by four horses, which dragged us along at the rate of thirty miles a day, making a halt of two hours in the middle of the day, and stopping at night. The horses are never changed during the journey, and they generally keep on at an easy pace, which is seldom altered into a trot. This is the only means of conveyance for travellers over the greater part of Italy, unless they choose to ride post. This last way is, however, preferable, and not very expensive, if two or three people join together. There are good post-chaises to be bought in almost every town of Italy, which, after carrying you all over the country, may be sold again at very little loss. The vetturino is but a poor substitute for an English stage-coach, or even for a French diligence. These vetturini are to be