arts revived, and the monarchs employed persons to overturn what still remained of these gorgeous palaces, for the purpose of obtaining some master-pieces of art. While these different thoughts succeeded each other, an inward voice mixed itself with them, and repeated to me what has been a hundred times written on the vanity of human affairs. There is indeed a double vanity in the remains of the Villa Adriana; for it is known that they were only imitations of other remains, scattered through the provinces of the Roman empire. The real temple of Serapis and Alexandria, and the real academy at Athens no longer exist; so that in the copies of Adrian you only see the ruins of rains.

I should now, my dear friend, describe to you the temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli, and the charming temple of Vesta, suspended over the cascade; but I cannot spare time for the purpose. I regret, too, that I am unable to depict this cascade, on which Horace has conferred celebrity. When there, I was in your domain, for you are the inheritor of the Grecian apex, or the" simplex munditiis," described by the author of the Ars Poetica; but I saw it in very gloomy

weather, and I myself was not in good spirits. I will further confess that I was in some degree annoyed by this roar of waters, though I have been so often charmed by it in the forests of America. I have still a recollection of the happiness which I experienced during a night passed amidst dreary deserts, when my wood fire was half extinguished, my guide asleep, and my horses grazing at a distance I have still a recollection, I say, of the happiness which I experienced when I heard the mingled melody of the winds and waters, as I reclined upon the earth, deep in the bosom of the forest. These murmurs, at one time feeble, at another more loud, increasing and decreasing every instant, made me occasionally start; and every tree was to me a sort of lyre, from which the winds extracted strains conveying ineffable delight.

At the present day I perceive that I am less sensible to these charms of nature, and I doubt whether the cataract of Niagara would cause the same degree of admiration in my mind, which it formerly inspired. When one is very young, Nature is eloquent in silence,

because there is a super-abundance in the heart of man. All his futurity is before him (if my Aristarchus will allow me to use this expression) he hopes to impart his sensations to the world, and feeds himself with a thousand chimeras but at a more advanced age, when the prospect, which we had before us, passes into the rear, and we are undeceived as to a host of illusions, then Nature, left to herself, becomes colder and less eloquent. Les jardins parlent peu."* To interest us at this period of life, it is necessary that we have the additional pleasure of society, for We are become less satisfied. with ourselves.

.

Absolute solitude oppresses us, and we feel a want of those conversations which are carried on, at night, in a low voice among friends.

I did not leave Tivoli without visiting the house of the poet, whom I have just quoted. It faced the Villa of Mecenas, and there he greeted

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'floribus et vino genium memorem brevis ævi."+

*La Fontaine.

† Horace.

There he greeted with flowers and wine the genius who reminds us of the brevity of life.

The hermitage could not have been large, for it is situated on the very ridge of the hill; but one may easily perceive that it must have been very retired, and that every thing was commodious, though on a small scale. From the orchard, which was in front of the house, the wanders over an immense extent of country. It conveys, in all respects, the idea of a true retreat for a poet, whom little suffices, and who enjoys so much that does not belong to him-" spatio brevi spem longam reseces.'

eye

After all, it is very easy to be such a philosopher as Horace was. He had a house at Rome, and two country villas, the one at Utica, the other at Tivoli. He quaffed, with his friends, the wine which had been made during the consulate of Tully. His sideboard was covered with plate; and he said to the prime minister of the sovereign, who guided the destinies of the world: "I do not feel the wants of poverty; and if I wish for any thing more, you, Mecenas,

* Closed in a narrow space of far extended hopes.

HORACE.

;

because there is a super-abundance in the heart of man. All his futurity is before him (if my Aristarchus will allow me to use this expression) he hopes to impart his sensations to the world, and feeds himself with a thousand chimeras but at a more advanced age, when the prospect, which we had before us, passes into the rear, and we are undeceived as to a host of illusions, then Nature, left to herself, becomes colder and less eloquent. "Les jardins parlent peu.' "* To interest us at this period of life, it is necessary that we have the additional pleasure of society, for We are become less satisfied with ourselves. Absolute solitude oppresses us, and we feel a want of those conversations which are carried on, at night, in a low voice among friends.†

I did not leave Tivoli without visiting the house of the poet, whom I have just quoted. It faced the Villa of Mecenas, and there he greeted

floribus et vino genium memorem brevis ævi."‡

*La Fontaine.

+ Horace.

There he greeted with flowers and wine the genius who reminds us of the brevity of life.