THE. ANALECTIC MAGAZINE. JULY, 1818. ART. I. Rambles in Italy, in the Years 1816-17; by an American. Baltimore 1818. Remarks on Antiquities, Arts and Letters, during an Excursion in Italy, in the years 1802-3; by Joseph Forsyth, Esq. from the second London edition.-Boston, 1818. Rome, Naples, and Florence, in 1817; by the Count de Stendhall. London 1818. THE historical works of Roscoe have been reprinted and much read in these States;-Shakspeare, whose muse alights so of ten and fondly beyond the Alps, has, perhaps, more devotees here, than at home;-the Latin Classics are by no means confined to the colleges of the atlantic coast, but form a considerable part of the business of all the great schools with which even the basin of the Mississippi now abounds;-and yet it may be asserted with confidence, that there is no portion of Europe in which Americans in general take less interest than in Italy. The fine arts, of which she continues to enjoy the palm, have hitherto touched them but feebly;-in looking abroad, they have been, as was natural, engrossed by the countries with which their relations of politics and trade were most important; and, in truth, ancient literature and history, though constituents of their education, are rarely so taught and studied with them, as to create a spirit of philosophical investigation, or perpetuate a liberal curiosity. We have many reasons for wishing the attention of the present generation of our countrymen to be attracted to modern Italy. It would incessantly carry them back to the Roman philosophy and character, the strength, solidity, and elevation of which are so congenial with our institutions;-it would produce a taste and zeal for that branch of the fine arts, architecture-which seems to belong especially, by inheritance and affinity, to a republican people: If it should, according to its natural tendency, the more speedily bring all those arts into favour and activity, we need not say how much would be gained on the score of refinement and reputation. The Italy of the middle ages,-when liberty had no other temple, and gave her four centuries of sway and glory,—is a most in teresting field of instruction for an American citizen. Her republics of that period furnish unique examples of the character and part which the merchant and tradesman may sustain in free governments; of the exalted ends to which their pursuits may be rendered subservient. In her lapse into servitude, in her present abjection, she may be still contemplated with profit, and be instrumental in checking that treacherous security to which a nation, so happily situated as the American, must be ever prone. Altogether, the Italian Peninsula has more magnificent annals, various trophies, and choice gifts, than any other portion of the earth remarkable as the theatre of moral greatness. The destinies of Greece were, indeed, splendid; her achievements prodigious; the creations of her fancy unrivalled: But her history has not the sweep, majesty, variety, and instructiveness of the Roman; it begins, properly, with the establishment of the laws of Lycurgus, and ends with the death of Alexander:-She had no resurrection. Italy fills in some sort all ages, since the formation of the Roman power; she re-appears dispensing light and Christianity, after she had ceased to dispense laws, to the universe; she takes the lead among the nations of the west, and reclaims Europe from barbarism; she establishes a new and mighty influence over mankind, and, in restoring the literature of the ancients, produces one of her own, not unworthy of them, or of being compared with the best of the modern. In her present reprobate state of morals and politics, hers is still the empire of the arts; she cultivates the exact sciences with brilliant success; possesses a vast body of erudition; is strong in numbers and not deficient in wealth; retains her physical advantages, and receives from nature the same rich endowments of mind: She draws to her from every quarter the enlightened and the curious, as much on account of what she is as what she was, and inspires not a few of them with hopes of her regaining the energies which would soon replace her in the first rank of independent nations. After what has been said, we scarcely need suggest that it gave us infinite pleasure to see the travels of Eustace and Forsyth republished and circulated in this country. Eustace envelopes his * We do not know any more useful addition that could be made to our stock of books, than a good translation or judicious abridgment of Sismondi's history of those republics. It is to be regretted that none of our public libraries possesses a complete collection of the modern Latin poets of Italy, who, as Eustace remarks, restored the pure taste of antiquity. We should have access to the works of all the fine geniuses celebrated in the 16th and 17th chapters of the 3d volume of Roscoe's Leo 10th. † And even since, and now, fair Italy! Thou art the garden of the world, the home Canto IV. Childe Harold. readers, if we may so express ourselves, with classical learning, Roman history, and the beau ideal of the arts. They cannot escape from him without kindred impressions and emotions of a generous and purifying enthusiasm. If this author is verbose, somewhat oppressive in his descriptions, and too much of a panegyrist, he raises you with him to a lofty pitch of sentiment, and kindles a fruitful admiration of the nobler parts and exploits of the human mind. You cannot follow him long, without being disposed, if you have never visited the scenes which he paints, to exclaim and vow as does the poet Delille after dwelling on the beauties of the Eneid and Georgics, Hélas! je n'ai point vu ce séjour enchanté Ces beaux lieux où Virgile a tant de fois chanté; J'irai, plein de son nom, plein de ses vers sacrés We could wish not only that our fleets should ride proudly in the Meditteranean, recollecting what Duillius and Lutatius accomplished, but that our youth should frequent in every part, the vast museum of monuments of genius and public virtue, which it washes. It is there* that they would most deeply imbibe the spirit, and the tastes by which the whole region is doubly immortalized, and through which they might give a like immortality to their own land. Setting out at an age when the principles and habits appertaining to a sound American education should have taken root, and being committed to faithful mentors, they would be inaccessible to the contagion of those degenerate morals and manners which we shall presently notice. We could wish, too, that on their return home, they would report to the world what they had seen and felt. The ambition of authorship would occasion a better preparation, and inspire greater eagerness, for observing; and the instruction conveyed in native productions might be expected to work more efficaciously upon the public mind. We should be glad if the course here suggested were pursued by those whom the American government employs to represent it abroad; and this could be easily done so as to consult at the same time the reserve becoming their station, and the * Naturane nobis datum dicam, an errore quodam, ut cum ea loca videamus, in quibus memoriâ dignos viros acceperimus multum esse versatos, magis moveamur, quam si quando eorum ipsorum aut facta audiamus, aut scriptum aliquod legamus?-Cicero. The preliminary discourse of Eustace contains some excellent advice on this head. We would recommend particularly to our youthful countrymen who may be disposed to visit Italy, Wilcock's Roman Conversations, a work which is at the same time an excellent moral, classical, and topographical guide. Lalande's 'Voyage d'un François en Italie' in 1765-66, was altogether the best book of travels in that country, before the appearance of The Classical Tour' of Eustace. The travels of Millin, Mallet, and Châteauvieux, recently published in Paris, may be consulted with advantage. · advancement of the literary intelligence and repute of their coun try. An American liberally educated, and happily gifted, is, perhaps, the only person competent to produce a book on Italy, or any of the primary nations of Europe, which would have, in fact, the merit of novelty in the composition and seasoning. We would not wish him to write ambitiously; or to play the virtuoso in elaborate delineations of scenery and monuments on which a host of cognoscenti and artists have already exhausted their sagacity and vocabularies: we would ask him merely to digest from his tablets the impressions, in their original vivacity, which he had received abroad; to state his own peculiar views of institutions, morals, manners, characters and events. If he connected with such an exposition those personal anecdotes of dramatic effect which can never be wanting to an active tourist; statistical details throwing light on the principles of political economy in general, or of useful application to that of his own country, and the embellishments of unaffected, pertinent scholarship, he would, besides furnishing to his countrymen points of view, veins of sentiment, judgments of criticism, and even forms of expression, at once novel, just, and captivating, fix ere long the attention of the readers of Europe, and do more towards establishing a literary reputation for us there, than could be done at present by any effort of the American pen in another department. The volume of Rambles' of the gentleman of Baltimore, of which we shall now proceed to speak particularly, does not fulfil our wishes, nor could we reasonably expect so much from it, on weighing the circumstances ingenuously stated in his preface. He professes to give only a series of loose sketches, and occasional remarks on the political condition of Italy. He does not aspire to the praise of considerable novelty in his matter, or curious refinement in his manner. As we consider the precedent of mere publication as of no little value, we should, on this score alone, heartily thank his friends for having overcome his reluctance to appear, though we had found much more to condemn, and less to applaud in his work. While we bear at once emphatic testimony to the tone of lofty and amiable feeling which pervades it; to the elegant studies and tastes which it implies; to the classical complexion which it wears in almost every page; to the accuracy and acuteness of many of the political remarks; to the opulence and elevation of the style; we must be permitted to take some exceptions both to the plan and the execution. In restricting himself to so narrow a field of topics, the author has, we think, done injustice to his means of observation and the resources of his memory. He has incautiously suffered the greater part of his volume to be occupied by descriptions of the monuments of architecture, painting and sculpture, which Eustace and Forsyth, and indeed all their numerous predecessors, |