glow with native fire and in numbers not unworthy the fathers of Roman verse, pure, majestic, or pathetic, celebrate the grandeur, describe the beauties, or lament the misfortunes of their country. ITALIAN LANGUAGE. II. It is evident that he who wishes to become acquainted with the manners, or to enjoy the society of the inhabitants of any country, must previously learn their language; it is not therefore my intention, at present, merely to recommend, what indeed no traveller entirely neglects, the study of Italian, but to enforce the necessity of commencing it at a much earlier period, and of continuing it for a much longer space of time than is now customary. He who enters Italy with an intention of applying to its language particularly, must make a longer residence there than our countrymen usually do, or he will find too many external calls upon his attention and curiosity to allow him to devote his time to cabinet studies. Information there, is to be gathered, not from sedentary application, but from active research and observation. One day is devoted to the contemplation of churches or ruins, the next is passed in the examination of pictures, a third is dedicated to a groupe of ancient statues, and a fourth and a fifth are agreeably spent in the galleries or the gardens of a villa; then excursions are to be made to spots consecrated by history or by song, to Horace's Sabine farm or to Virgil's tomb, to Tibur or Tusculum, to Fesole, or Vallombrosa. In these delightful and instructive occupations, days, weeks, and months glide away with imperceptible rapidity, and the few leisure hours that may chance to occur at intervals are scarcely sufficient to give the diligent traveller time to collect his remarks and to embody his recollections. Let him, therefore, who 1 wishes to visit Italy with full satisfaction and advantage, acquire, if possible, such an acquaintance with its language, previous to his journey, that nothing may be wanting to complete his command of it but practice and conversation. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school and not to travel, says Bacon, ITALIAN HISTORY. III. The next object which claims attention is the History of the different Revolutions of Italy, not only before, but during the decline and after the fall of the Roman Empire. The republican part of Roman history is considered as purely classical, and as such is pre-supposed in the first paragraph. The lives or the reigns of the first Em perors are contained in Suetonius, Tacitus, and Herodian, whose curious and amusing volumes must of course be perused with attention, while the Scriptores Historia Augusta will not be neglected. The Abate Denina's History of the Revolutions of Italy, a work in great estimation, gives a very satisfactory view of the whole subject, including both ancient and modern times. The two Sister Histories of Lorenzo and of Leo, by Mr. Roscoe, contain a full and interesting account of one of the most important epochs that occur in the annals of Italy; they have long since attracted the attention of every candid and reflecting mind, and need not be recommended to persons who mean to visit the country which has been the theatre of the events, and the abode of the great men so eloquently recorded in them. MEDALS. IV. Though I do not mean to turn young travellers into profound antiquaries, yet I would have them at least skim over all the regions of ancient learning. No spot in this extensive territory is either dreary or unproductive. Medals are intimately connected with the history and the manners, with the arts and even the taste of the ancients. And faithful to their charge of fame Through climes and ages bear each form and name. Gods, emp'rors, heroes, sages, beauties, lie. They merit therefore considerable attention. Addison's Dialogues, written with the usual felicity of that graceful author, deserve to be recommended as a very proper introduction to this amusing branch of knowledge. These dialogues have also, |