All shapes of thought, all hues of heart, O'er the dark path, by mortals trod, As crawls at midnight o'er the sod; From coloring up such scenes of love And dream, and think through heav'n they rove, They, who can thus describe and move, The very workers of these charms, Nor seek, nor know a joy, above Some Maman's or Theresa's arms! How all, in short, that makes the boast Sounding their timbrels, to set free Like stunted brushwood, in his shade Out on the craft!-I'd rather be One of those hinds, that round me tread, With just enough of sense to see The noonday sun that's o'er his head, Than thus, with high-built genius cursed, That hath no heart for its foundation, Be all, at once, that's brightest, worst, Sublimest, meanest in creation! NOTES. (1) Pleraque sua carmina equitans composuit.-PARAVICIN. Singular. (2) "Mes pensées dorment, si je les assis."-MONTAIGNE. Animus eorum qui în aperto aere ambulant, attollitur. PLINY. sion of Signor Camuccini, the brother of the celebrated painter at Rome. (16) Under the Doge Michaeli, în 1171. (17) "La famille entière des Justiniani, l'une des plus illustres de Venise, voulut marcher toute entière dans cette expédition; elle fournit cent combattans; c'était renouveler l'exemple d'une illustre famille de Rome; le même malheur les attendait." -Histoire de Venise, par DARU. (18) The celebrated Fra Paolo. The collection of Maxims which this bold monk drew up at the request of the Venetian Government, for the guidance of the Secret Inquisition of State, are so atrocious as to seem rather an over-charged satire upon despotism, than a system of policy, seriously inculcated, and but too readily and constantly pursued. The spirit, in which these maxims of Father Paul are conceived, may be judged from the instructions which he gives for the management of the Venetian colonies and provinces. Of the former he says:-"Il faut les traiter comme des animaux féroces, les roguer les dents, et les griffes, les humilier souvent, surtout leur ôter les occasions de s'aguerrir. Du pain et le bâton, voilà ce qu'il leur faut; gardons l'humanité pour une meilleure occasion." For the treatment of the provinces he advises thus: "Tendre à dépouiller les villes de leurs privilèges, faire que les habitans s'appauvrissent, et que leurs biens soient achetés par les Vénitiens. Ceux qui, dans les conseils municipaux, se montreront ou plus audacieux ou plus dévoués aux intérêts de la population, il faut les perdre ou les gagner à quelque prix que ce soit; enfin, s'il se trouve dans les provinces quelques chefs de parti, il faut les exterminer sous un prétexte quelconque, mais en évitant de recourir à la justice ordinaire. Que le poison fasse l'office de bourreau, cela est moins odieux et beaucoup plus profitable." (19) Conduct of Venice towards her allies and dependencies, particularly to unfortunate Padua.-Fate of Francesco Carrara, for which see Daru, vol. ii. p. 141. (20) "A l'exception des trente citadins admis au grand conseil pendant la guerre di Chiozzi, il n'est pas arrivé une seule fois que les talens ou les services aient paru à cette noblesse orgueilleuse des titres suffisans pour s'asseoir avec elle."-DARU. (21) Among those admitted to the honor of being inscribed in the Libro d'oro were some families of Brescia, Treviso, and other places, whose only claim to that distinction was the zeal with which they prostrated themselves and their country at the feet of the republic. (22) By the infamous statutes of the State Inquisition, not only was assassination recognised as a regular mode of punishment, but this secret power over life was delegated to their minions at a distance, with nearly as much facility as a license is given under the game laws of England. The only restriction seems to have been the necessity of applying for a new certificate, after every individual exercise of the power. M. Daru has given an abstract of the above Statutes, fro.n a manuscript in the Bibliothêque du Roi, and it is hardly credible that such a system of treachery and cruelty should ever have been established by any government, or submitted to, for an instant, by any people. Among various precautions against the intrigues of their own Nobles, we find the following:"Pour persuader aux étrangers qu'il était difficile et dangereux d'entretenir quelque intrigue secrète avec les nobles Vénitiens, on imagina de faire avertir mystérieusement le Nonce du Pape (afin que les autres ministres en fussent informés) que l'Inquisition avait autoris es patriciens à poignarder quiconque essaierait de tenter sur fidélité. Mais craignant que les ambassadeurs ne prêtassent foi difficilement à une délibération, qui en effet n'existait pas, l'Inquisition voulait prouver qu'elle en était capable. Elle ordonna des recherches pour découvrir s'il n'y avait pas dans Venise quelque exilé au-dessus du commun, qui eût rompu son ban; ensuite undes patriciens qui étaient aux gages du tribunal, reçut la mission d'assassiner ce malheureux, et l'ordre de s'en venter, en disant qu'il s'était porté à cet acte, parce que ce banni était l'agent d'un ministre étranger, et avait cherché à le corrompre."-"Remarquons," adds M. Daru, " que ceci n'est pas une simple anecdote; c'est une mission projetée, délibérée, écrite d'avance; une règle de conduite tracée par des hommes graves à leurs successeurs, et consignée dans des statuts." The cases, in which assassination is ordered by these Statutes, are as follow: "Un ouvrier de l'arsenal, un chef de ce qu'on appelle parmi les marins le menstrance, passait-il au service d'une puissance étrangère: il fallait le faire assassiner, surtout si c'était un homme réputé brave et habile dans sa profession." (Art. 3, des Statuts.) pro "Avait-il commis quelque action qu'on ne jugeait pas à pos de punir juridiquement, on devait le faire empoisonner." (Art. 14.) "Un artisan passait-il à l'étranger en y exportant quelque procédé de l'industrie nationale: c'était encore un crime capital, que la loi inconnue ordonnait de punir par un assasBinat." (Art. 26.) The facility with which they got rid of their Duke of Bedfords, Lord Fitzwilliams, &c., was admirable: it was thus: "Le patricien qui se permettait le moindre propos contre le gouvernement, était admonété deux fois, et à la troisième noyé comme incorrigible." (Art. 39.) Sola tuos vultus referens Raphaelis imago (38) Bergamo-the birthplace, it is said, of Harlequin. (40) Edward Tuite Dalton, the first husband of Sir John Stevenson's daughter, the late Marchioness of Headfort. (41) Such as those of Domenichino in the Palazzo Borghese, at the Capitol, &c. (42) Sir John Stevenson. (43) The "Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi," oy the Jesuit Du Cerceau, is chiefly taken from the much more authentic work of Fortifiocca on the same subject. Rienzi was the son of a laundress. (44) It is not easy to discover what church is meant by Du Cerceau here:-"Il fit crier dans les rues de Rome, à son de trompe, que chacun eût à se trouver, sans armes, la nuit du lendemain, dix-neuvième, dans l'église du château de SaintAnge, au son de la cloche, afin de pourvoir au Bon Etat.” (45) "Les gentilshommes conjurés portaient devant lui trois étendarts. Nicolas Guallato, surnommé le bon diseur, portais le premier, qui était de couleur rouge, et plus grand que les autres. On y voyait des caractères d'or avec une femme assise sur deux lions, tenant d'une main le globe du monde, et de l'autre une Palme pour représenter la ville de Rome. C'était le Gonfalon de la Liberté. Le second, à fonds blanc, avec un St. Paul tenant de la droite une Epée nue et de la gauche a couronne de Justice, était porté par Etienne Magnacuccia, notaire (31) The fine picture in the Palazzo Borghese, called (it is not apostolique. Dans le troisième, St. Pierre avait en main les clefs de la Concorde et de la Paix. Tout cela insinuait le dessein de Rienzi, qui était de rétablir la liberté, la justice, et la paix."-DU CERCEAU, liv. ii. (46) Rienzi. (47) The fine Canzone of Petrarch, beginning "Spirto gentil," is supposed, by Voltaire and others, to have been addressed to Rienzi; but there is much more evidence of its having been written, as Ginguené asserts, to the young Stephen Colonna, on his being created a Senator of Rome. That Petrarch, however, was filled with high and patriotic hopes by the first measures of this extraordinary man, appears from one of his letters, quoted by Du Cerceau, where he says.-" Pour tout dire, en un mot, j'atteste, non comme lecteur, mais comme témoin oculaire, qu'il nous a ramené la justice, la paix, la bonne foi, la sécurité, et tous les autres vestiges de l'âge d'or." (48) The image is borrowed from Hobbes, whose words are, as near as I can recollect:-" For what is the Papacy, but the Ghost of the old Roman Empire, sitting crowned on the grave thereof ?" (49) The paintings of those artists who were introduced into Venice and Florence from Greece. (50) Margaritone of Orezzo, who was a pupil and imitator of the Greeks, is said to have invented this art of gilding the ornaments of pictures, a practice which, though it gave way to a purer taste at the beginning of the 16th century, was still occasionally used by many of the great masters: as by Raphael in the ornaments of the Fornarina, and by Rubens not unfrequently in glories and flames. (51) Cimabue, Giotto, &c. (52) The works of Masaccio.-For the character of this powerful and original genius, see Sir Joshua Reynolds' twelfth discourse. His celebrated frescoes are in the church of St. Pietro del Carmine, at Florence. (53) All the great artists studied, and many of them borrowed from Masaccio. Several figures in the Cartoons of Raphael are taken, with but little alteration, from his frescoes. (54) “And a light shined in the prison. . . and his chains fell off from his hands."-Acts. (55) Leonardo da Vinci. (56) His treatise on Mechanics, Optics, &c., preserved in the Ambrosian library at Milan. (57) On dit que Léonard parut pour la première fois à la cour de Milan, dans un espèce de concours ouvert entre les meilleurs joueurs de lyre d'Italie. Il se présenta avec une lyre de sa façon, construit en argent.-Histoire de la Peinture en Italie. (58) He is said to have been four years employed upon the portrait of this fair Florentine, without being able, after all, to come up to his idea of her beauty. (59) Vanity and Modesty in the collection of Cardinal Fesch, at Rome. The composition of the four hands here is rather awkward, but the picture, altogether, is very delightful. There is a repetition of the subject in the possession of Lucien Bonaparte. (60) The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the Refectory of the Convent delle Grazie at Milan. See L'Histoire de la Peinture en Italie, liv. iii. chap. 45. The writer of that interesting work (to whom I take this opportunity of offering my acknowledgments, for the copy he sent me a year since from Rome) will see I have profited by some of his observations on this celebrated picture. (61) Leonardo appears to have used a mixture of oil and varnish for this picture, which alone, without the various other causes of its ruin, would have prevented any long duration of its beauties. It is now almost entirely effaced. (62) This statue is one of the last works of Canova, and was not yet in marble when I left Rome. The other, which seems to prove, in contradiction to very high authority, that expression, of the intensest kind, is fully within the sphere of sculpture, was executed many years ago, and is in the possession of the Count Somariva, at Paris. (63) Chantrey. (64) Canova always shows his fine statue, the Venere ViDcitrice, by the light of a small candle. POLITICAL AND SATIRICAL POEMS. THE INSURRECTION OF THE PAPERS. A DREAM. "It would be impossible for his Royal Highness to disengage his person from the accumulating pile of papers that encompassed it."-Lord CASTLEREAGH's Speech upon Colonel M'Mahon's Appointment, April 14, 1812. LAST night I toss'd and turn'd in bed, I slept as sound as sound could be. Lewis never wrote or borrow'd Methought the Prince, in whisker'd state, Before me at his breakfast sate; On one side lay unread Petitions, On t'other, Hints from five Physicians; Here tradesmen's bills,-official papers, Notes from my Lady, drams for vaporsThere plans of saddles, tea and toast, Death-warrants and the Morning Post. When lo! the Papers, one and all, As though they said, “Our sole design is |