Oswald pursued his journey through the Marches of Ancona, and the Ecclesiastical States, without any thing attracting his observation, or exciting his interest:  this was occasioned as well by the melancholy habit of his soul, as by a certain natural indolence, from which he was only to be aroused by strong passions.  His taste for the arts had not yet unfolded itself; he had never dwelt but in France, where society is all in all, and in London, where political interests absorb almost every other:  his imagination, concentrated in his sufferings, had not yet learnt to take pleasure in the wonders of nature and the masterpieces of art.

The Count d’Erfeuil traversed every town with the “Traveller’s Guide” in his hand, and had at once the double pleasure of losing his time in seeing every thing, and of declaring, that he had seen nothing which could excite admiration in any person acquainted with France.  The ennui of Count d’Erfeuil discouraged Oswald; he, besides, entertained prejudices against the Italians and against Italy:  he did not yet penetrate the mystery of this nation or of this country;—­a mystery which must be comprehended by the imagination, rather than by that faculty of judgment which is particularly developed by an English education.

The Italians are much more remarkable for what they have been, and for what they might be than for what they actually are.  The deserts which surround the city of Rome, that land which, fatigued with glory, seems to hold in contempt the praise of being productive, presents but an uncultivated and neglected country to him who considers it with regard to utility.  Oswald, accustomed from his infancy to the love of order and public prosperity, received, at first, unfavourable impressions in traversing those deserted plains which announce the approach to that city formerly the queen of the world:  he blamed the indolence of the inhabitants and that of their rulers.  Lord Nelville judged of Italy as an enlightened administrator, the Count d’Erfeuil as a man of the world:  thus the one from reason, and the other from levity, were not sensible of that effect which the country about Rome produces upon the imagination, when it is impressed with the recollections, the sympathies, the natural beauties and the illustrious misfortunes which spread over these regions an undefinable charm.

The Count made ludicrous lamentations on the environs of Rome.  “What,” said he, “no country house, no carriage, nothing that announces the vicinity of a great city?  Heavens! what a melancholy prospect!” In approaching Rome, the postillions cried, with transport, “See!  See, there is the dome of St Peter’s!” It is thus that the Neapolitans shew mount Vesuvius, and the sea excites the same emotions of pride in the inhabitants of the coast.  “One would have thought they had seen the dome of Les Invalides;” cried the Count d’Erfeuil.  This comparison, more patriotic than just, destroyed the impression