mankind, that has thus distinguished itself in every branch of human attainment, and excelled all other people, not in one, but in every intellectual accomplishment; that such a nation must be endowed with the greatest talents, and with the greatest virtues that have ever ennobled any human society. It may perhaps be asked, why, with the same talents and with the same virtues, the Italians do not now make the same figure in the history of the world, as their ancestors? The answer appears to me obvious. To induce man to shake off his natural indolence, and exert all his energies, either urgent pressure, or glorious rewards are necessary. Now, the ancient Romans fought first for their safety and very existence, and afterwards, when imminent danger was removed from their city, they entered the lists of fame, and combated for the empire of the Universe. In both cases, all their powers and all their virtues were called into action, either to save their country or to crown it with immortal glory. The modern Italian has neither of these motives to arouse his natural magnanimity. His His person, his property, his city even is safe, whatever may be the issue of the contests of which his country is either the object or the theatre. Whether the French or Russians, the Germans or Spaniards gain the victory, the Italian is doomed still to bear the foreign yoke. His inactivity and indifference in the struggle are therefore excuseable, because prudent. Quid interest cui serviam, clitellas dum portem meas.* As for glory and empire, to them, Italy divided and subdivided as she is, and kept in a state of political palsy by the intrigues or the preponderating power of her trans alpine enemies, to them Italy can have no pretension. But, if some happy combination of events should deliver her from foreign influence and unite her many states once more under one head, or at least in one common cause, and that the cause of independence and of liberty, then Europe might confidently expect to see the spirit and the glory of Rome again revive, and the valour and perseverance which subdued the Gauls and routed the Cimbri and Teutones again displayed in chastizing the insolence of the French, and in checking the incursions of the Germans. She would even rise higher, and assuming the character, which her situation, her fertility, and her population naturally give her, of umpire of the south, she might unite with Great Britain, the rival and the enemy of France, in restoring and in supporting that equilibrium of power so essential to the freedom and to the happiness of Europe. But, whether Italy be destined to re-assume her honours, and to enjoy once more an age of glory and of empire ; or whether she has exhausted her portion of felicity, and is doomed to a state of hopeless bondage and dependence, it is not for man to discover. In the mean time, deprived of that sceptre of empire, which Heaven once entrusted to her hand to humble the pride of tyrants and to protect opprest nations, to portion out kingdoms and provinces, and to sway at pleasure the dominion of the Universe, she has assumed the milder but more useful sovereignty of the intellectual world, and reigns the acknowledged queen of poetry and of music, of painting and of architecture; the parent of all the sciences that enlighten, of all the arts that embellish human life*. * Vida, when speaking of this mental superiority, bursts into the following strains of poetry and patriotism truly Virgilian. Though we cannot, perhaps, partake the wish, yet we may enjoy the beauty of the verse and the purity of the language. Dii, Romæ indigetes! Troja tuque auctor Apollo, CONCLUSION. THE Author has now not only closed his Italian Tour, but terminated the reflections which it naturally suggests, and he flatters himself that in his progress through the country, he has fulfilled the engagement which he entered into in the preface, and taken the ancients for his guides. In fact, however he may have been smitten with the face of nature, or delighted with the works of art, he has seldom failed to inform the reader how the writers of antiquity have described the former, and what monuments remain or are recorded, that may enter into competition with the latter. From this double comparison, which pervades the whole work, and was indeed in the Author's mind one of its principal objects, he thinks he may draw the following inferences, all three very favourable to Modern Italy. In the first place, that the scenery and natural beauties of that country are nearly the same as they were in the times of the Romans. In the second place, that the language, manners, modes of living, and character of the modern, are nearly the same as those of the ancient Italians: and thirdly, that Italy was in general as prosperous during the years immediately preceeding the French revolution, as it has ever perhaps been at any period of its history subsequent to the reign of Augustus. The first inference presents no difficulty that has not been, at least implicitly, removed either in the course of the Tour itself, or in the reflections that follow it. The second, it is conceived, follows naturally from the observations made in the body of the work, and if they be accurate, is incontestable. The third may astonish many of my readers, and as it is very opposite to our early conceptions on the subject, requires further elucidation. Population and cultivation may be considered as the most prominent indications of prosperity, and these two objects must therefore be taken into consideration on both sides. The population of Italy under Augustus, for it continued to decline rapidly for several ages afterwards, cannot easily be ascertained; it has been stated by some writers to have amounted to six and thirty millions. I am inclined to suspect that this calculation is considerably exaggerated. We learn from Strabo, that at the period of which we are speaking, several ancient towns in Italy and particularly in Samnium, had either entirely disappeared, or had dwindled into villages*. In fact, the labours of agriculture were carried on principally by slaves, a mode which cannot be considered as favourable to population. To this we may add, that the civil and social wars * Lib. v. |