February 20th. The weather is beyond measure severe and trying;-with a hot sun, there is a winter wind of the most piercing bitterness. A pulmonary invalid had better avoid Naples at any time, but certainly during the winter, unless he wish to illustrate the proverb, 'Vedi Napoli e 'po mori.' It is not easy for such an invalid, if his case is notorious, to get lodgings, or at least he will on that account be asked a much higher price for them; for consumption is here considered to be contagious, and in case of death, the whole of the furniture in the occupation of the deceased is burnt, and his rooms are fumigated and white washed.

Drove to Capo di Monte, a palace of the king, in the environs of the town,-Palaces, however, are the most tiresome things in the world, for one is just like another;—all glitter and tinsel. Here are some of the best works of Cammuccini. -There was one that pleased me much, representing Pericles, Socrates, and Alcibiades, brought by Aspasia to admire the works of Phidias. This has all the fidelity of an historical picture, for the faces have been closely copied from the antique marbles.

21st. Again to the Museo.-The library is said to contain 150,000 volumes, and it seems to be well furnished with the literature of all nations. Permission is easily obtained here, as at the British museum, to enjoy the privilege of reading. Amongst the curious manuscripts, I was shown the Aminta of Tasso, in his own hand writing, which by the way was a vile scrawl.

In another quarter, is a large collection of Etruscan vases, in which the elegance of the form shames the badness of the painting. It is strange that a people, who seem to have had an intuitive tact for the elegant and the beautiful, in the form and shape of their vessels, should have had so little taste in the art of design.

In the collection of pictures there is much that is curious, and much that is beautiful. In the former class, are the

specimens of the first essays of the first founders of the art of painting in Italy. It is curious to trace its progress through the different stages of improvement, till it was at last brought to perfection, in the age of Raphael.

In the same class, is an original picture of Columbus, by Parmeggianino; and a portrait of Philip the second of Spain, which looks the narrow-minded, cold-blooded tyrant, that he was in reality.

And, lastly, here is the original sketch of the last judgment, by Michael Angelo, from which he afterwards painted his great picture. It has been coloured by a later hand. -It ought to be hung up in the Sistine chapel, as a key to make the fresco intelligible; for, much is here seen distinctly, that is quite faded in the large picture. For instance, time has done for Cardinal Biagio, what he in vain asked of the Pope; and it is only in this sketch, that the bitter resentment of the painter is recorded, which placed him amongst the damned, in the gripe of a malignant dæmon,— who is dragging him down to the bottomless pit, in a manner at once the most ferocious and degrading.

In the latter class, there are many that deserve enumeration. Two holy families by Raphael, are full of the almost heavenly graces with which he, above all other painters, has embellished this subject.

There are two landscapes;-and a wild witch, on a wilder heath, in the very wildest style of Salvator Rosa.

Titian's Danae is all that is lovely and luscious; and there are some charming pictures of Corregio;-but, I believe this collection altogether detained me less than it deserved; for after feasting the imagination, in the galleries of Florence, and Rome, in the contemplation of the very finest efforts of the pencil, it requires equal excellence to stimulate the languid attention, and satisfy the increasing fastidiousness of the taste. This is a cruel deduction from the pleasure which is expected to be derived from familiarity

with excellence, and improvement in knowledge; so that, after all, it may be doubted, whether we grow happier, as we grow wiser; and, perhaps, those who are the most pains to see the best that is to be seen-to read the best that is to be read-and to hear the best that is to be heardare only labouring to exhaust the sources of innocent gratification, and incapacitating themselves from future enjoyment, by approaching nearer to that state which has been so truly described as a state of

'Painful pre-eminence ourselves to view,

Above life's pleasures, and its comforts too!'

February 22d. Yesterday we had December's wind; today we have November's rain; and such is the climate of Naples.

Dined with an Italian family, to whom I brought letters of recommendation from Rome. This was the first occasion that I have had of seeing an Italian dress dinner;-but there was scarcely any thing strange to excite remark. The luxury of the rich is nearly the same throughout Europe. Some trifling particuliarities struck me, though I think the deviations from our own customs were all improvements, There was no formal top and bottom to the table, which was round, and the host could not be determined from his place. All the dishes were removed from the table as they were wanted, carved by a servant at the side-board, and handed round. Each person was provided with a bottle of wine, and a bottle of water, as with a plate, and knife and fork. There was no asking to drink wine, nor drinking of healths; no inviting people to eat, nor carving for them. All these duties devolved on the domestics; and the conversation, which, in England, as long as dinner lasts, is often confined to the business of eating, with all its important auxiliaries of sauces and seasonings, took its free course, unchecked by any interruptions arising out of the business in hand. This

is surely the perfection of comfort-to be able to eat and drink what you please without exciting attention or remark; -and I cannot but think, it would be a great improvement upon our troublesome fashion of passing the bottle, to substitute the Italian mode of placing a separate decanter to

each person.

Economy, in a country where wine is so dear as in England, can be the only objection; for, though I have heard some persons argue, that the pleasure of drinking is increased by a common participation in the very same bottle; such a notion can scarcely be founded in reason, unless it is allowed that this pleasure is still more exquisitely enjoyed in the tap-room, where each man partakes of the same mug, without even the intervention of glasses. For my part, I am for extending the privilege of Idomeneus's cup to every guest:

πλεῖον δέπας αἰεὶ

Εςκχ', ὥσπερ ἐμοὶ, πίεειν, ὅτε Θύμος ανώγοι.

ILIAD, 4. 262.

But, an invitation to dinner is a rare occurrence in Italy; for dinner is not here, generally speaking, the social feast of elaborate enjoyment, which we are accustomed to make it in England, occupying a considerable portion of the day, and constituting the principal object of meeting, but a slovenly meal, despatched in haste, and in dishabille;—and it is for this reason that an Englishman is rarely invited, except on extraordinary occasions, to partake of it.

In the evening, to a conversazione, at the archbishop of Tarento's;-one of the finest and most respectable-looking old men I ever saw. The intercourse of society is perhaps managed better abroad than in England. The system of being at home in the evening, to those persons with whom you are desirous of associating, without the formality of sending a special invitation, facilitates that pleasant and easy so

ciety, which enlivens, without at all destroying, the retirement of domestic life;-and it is carried on with no greater expense than a few additional cups of coffee, or glasses of lemonade. How much more rational is such a friendly intercourse, than the formal morning visits, or the heartless evening routs, of our own country.

February 23d. Again to the Museo.-Examined the ingenious machinery employed to unroll the manuscripts found at Herculaneum. These are reduced to a state of tinder, but the writing is still legible. From the specimen that I saw, it seemed necessary, however, to supply at least a fifth, by conjecture. Curiosity is kept alive till the last, for the name of the author is inscribed on the beginning of the manuscript, and this of course cannot appear till the whole roll is unravelled. The collection of statues is very extensive, but I must repeat, of the statues, what I have said of the pictures. After the Tribune,-the Capitol,-and the Vatican,-what remains to be seen in sculpture?-and yet the Venus callipyge is a most beautiful creature;-but how shall we excuse her attitude?

The famous Farnese Hercules may be calculated to please an anatomist, but certainly no one else. This is the work of Glycon, and is perhaps the allusion of Horace, in his first epistle, where he mentions the invicti membra Glyconis;'a passage that does not seem to be satisfactorily explained.

The Flora is generally admired; but a colossal statue is seldom a pleasing object, and never when it represents a woman. Gigantic proportions are absolutely inconsistent

with female loveliness.

February 24th to 28th. Confined to the house with a cough; the effect of the bitter wind that has been blowing upon us from the mountains.-The Lord deliver me from another winter at Naples!-Our episcopal landlord turns out a very caitiff. The last occupier of our lodgings-a young Englishman, who was confined to his bed