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ADVERTISEMENT.

The Publisher thought, that he should gratify several of the Purchasers of this Edition of MR. EUSTACE'S CLASSICAL TOUR by uniting it with the additional Volume of SIR RICHARD COLT HOARE, so as to form one complete Work upon the present and past State of Italy. He cannot but regret, that Mr. Eustace did not live to finish the supplementary Volume which he had meditated, and for which he was engaged in collecting materials, when a premature death put an end to his valuable life. What, however, Mr. Eustace did not live to accomplish, Sir Richard Colt Hoare has executed, and in a manner it is hoped that Mr. Eustace himself would have approved. The Publisher trusts, therefore, that this additional Volume, while it is an honourable tribute to the revered memory of Mr. Eustace, will be gratifying to his numerous friends.

LUDGATE STREET,

January, 1819.

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BASILICA SANCTI CRUCIS IN JERUSALEM, CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS...

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BASILICA OF ST. PAUL.....

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BASILICA VATICANA, OR ST. PETER'S

341

PREFACE.

THE Author presents the following pages to the Public with diffidence. He is aware that the very title of "a Tour through Italy" is sufficient in itself to raise expectation, which, as he has learned from the fate of similar compositions, is more frequently disappointed than satisfied. To avoid as much as possible this inconvenience, he thinks it necessary to state precisely the nature and object of the present Work, that the reader may enter upon its perusal with some previous knowledge of its contents.

The Preliminary Discourse is intended chiefly for the information of young and inexperienced travellers, and points out the qualities and accomplishments requisite to enable them to derive from an Italian Tour its full advantages. The Reader then comes to the Tour itself.

The epithet Classical sufficiently points out its peculiar character, which is to trace the resemblance between Modern and Ancient Italy, and to take for guides and companions in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the writers that preceded or adorned the first. Conformably to that character, the Author may be allowed to dwell with complacency on the incidents of ancient history, to admit every poetical recollection, and to claim indul

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gence, if in describing objects so often alluded to by the Latin writers, he should frequently borrow their expressions;

Materiæ scripto conveniente suæ*.

Citations, in fact, which, notwithstanding the example of Cicero, and the precept of Quintilian†, some severe critics are disposed to proscribe, may here be introduced or even lavished, without censure; they rise spontaneously from the soil we tread, and constitute one of its distinguishing beauties.

In Modern History, he may perhaps be considered as sometimes too short; but it must be remembered that Modern History is not Classical, and can claim admission only as an illustration. As for the forms of government established in many provinces by the present French rulers, they are generally passed over in silence and contempt, as shifting scenes or rather mere figuranti in the political drama, destined to occupy the attention for a time, and to disappear when the principal character shews himself upon the stage.

Of the state of painting and sculpture, though these arts reflect so much lustre on Italy, little is said‡; an acknowledgment which may surprise and disappoint many readers. But, on the one hand, to give a long catalogue of pictures and statues, without explanatory observations, appeared absurd; and on the other, to

* Ovid, Trist. 1. v. 1. + Quintil. lib. i. cap. v. Edit. Rollin. Little is said of the arts, when the extent and importance of the subject are considered; but much is said in comparison of other Tours and similar compositions.

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